Senior Commercial Manager, Rail

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To find out more about our Rail business click on the following link and discover what awaits you at WSP: https://www.wsp.com/en-GB/hubs/transit  

Our Rail business is seeking a Senior Commercial Manager to work across our portfolio of projects and provide commercial leadership to our multi-disciplinary project teams delivering a huge range of complex infrastructure for clients including Network Rail, TfL, LUL, HS2 and Crossrail.

Your role will be to embed a strong project culture around commercial excellence, balanced with the need to satisfy client, staff and commercial expectations along with business operational performance.  You’ll be highly collaborative, a natural problem solver and well used to tackling the myriad challenges that complex infrastructure projects can present.

The behaviours we will see from this role will include a passion and enthusiasm for our work, a constructively challenging mindset and an open, honest and accountable approach.  You’ll be tenacious in solving issues, seeking improvement and demonstrating inclusive and respectful behaviours in all your interactions.

Whilst the role is commercially focussed, it requires an individual with proven skills and experience across aspects of business operations including understanding technical issues; people management; application of corporate systems; work winning; recruitment and staff development.

A typical week would include:

As an experienced commercial professional, you’ll be used to facing a wide range of commercial and project challenges across complex railway and infrastructure projects from initial feasibility through to delivery and operation.

You will be in a leadership role providing a key senior interface to our clients, demonstrating our commitment to deliver their requirements, building strong relationships and acting as a trusted advisor.

You’ll work with the Rail and wider WSP leadership teams to ensure that your projects are planned and equipped to deliver.  You’ll understand future resource demands for your projects and be supporting the recruitment of the skills we need for our digital future.  You’ll be as passionate about people development and you’ll ensure that we have excellent commercial leaders coming through the business.

Using your proven leadership and communication skills, you’ll be proficient at developing relationships internally and externally to the business and leveraging these to build trust, gather intelligence and, ultimately, secure future work.

You’ll be passionate, engaging, energetic and articulate when bringing diverse, multi-disciplinary teams together to address the range of commercial challenges our projects face.  Providing strategic commercial direction of the key elements of projects and their interrelationship to the teams.  You’ll also understand the importance of implementing robust systems and processes to ensure that projects deliver value for money in achieving client goals and requirements as well as and cost and programme targets.

In parallel with project work you’ll support major bids, liaise with clients on their upcoming projects and contribute to and potentially lead wider business initiatives.

• Relevant professional qualifications.


• A proven track record of providing commercial and project leadership across a wide range of rail and transport infrastructure projects for government and private sector clients through the entire design and construction cycle.


• Detailed experience of the commercial management of multi-disciplinary engineering projects and programmes in the UK and potentially overseas. This will include sound stakeholder management and related relationship and team management skills.


• An ability to establish, build, sustain and share strong, professional relationships with relevant groups both inside and outside the organisation. You’re naturally driven to exceed client expectations.


• An ability to reason logically and apply a systematic process to finding solutions, proactive in responding to problems, able to apply sound logic in situations of ambiguity and problem-solving methodologies across a range of circumstances.


• A deep understanding of what our major clients need, how we best tailor our services, and build trusting relationships.


• Excellent commercial and contract management skills.


• A sound understanding of H&S legislation, CDM requirements, Safe by Design principles and Railway safety and how they can affect our operations and approach.


• A desire to constantly improve, motivate and encourage others, potentially leading and implement change programmes within a project context, inspiring colleagues and driving an innovative and supportive culture.


• A forward-thinking mindset, capable of visualising and planning for the longer term. Designs, communicates, engages and drives the implementation of design and technical initiatives and strategies


• Actively champion sharing knowledge, ideas and intelligence. Strong presentation skills, able to lead and facilitate workshops, training sessions and one to one learning.  Influential and persuasive internally and externally, encourages open dialogue and feedback.


• A desire to develop and secure opportunities through active business development, KAM and work winning activities.


• A passion for developing the next generation of engineers and project leaders.


• A commitment to driving the sustainability of projects toward a target of net zero.