Job Title: Senior Commercial Manager
Location: UK, Hybrid
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF
Shape mission‑critical outcomes in defence, aerospace and engineering
At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Senior Commercial Manager at Ashton House, near Bristol, or alternatively from our Devonport site in Plymouth or our Whetstone facility in Leicester, depending on your preferred base location.
The role
As a Senior Commercial Manager, you’ll lead high‑impact commercial activity within our Mission Systems business, helping to deliver programmes that protect people and national infrastructure. It’s a role with real purpose where your decisions influence outcomes for our customers and create tangible value for society, while accelerating your own development through varied, complex work and senior stakeholder exposure.
Day-to-day, you’ll manage contracts across the lifecycle, drive negotiations and pricing, and shape pragmatic, customer‑focused commercial solutions that enable our engineering and delivery teams to succeed.
1. Provide contract management and governance, ensuring robust commercial control and compliance across a range of agreements.
2. Lead negotiations and pricing activities to support organic growth and new opportunities.
3. Identify and implement pragmatic commercial solutions that balance risk and reward for Babcock and our customers.
4. Execute commercial strategies in partnership with programme and functional leaders.
5. Act as the senior commercial point of contact, building strong relationships and providing timely advice to internal teams and external customers
This role is full time, 37 hours per week and provides hybrid working arrangements with days onsite and days working from home. You would need to travel to Bristol for customer meetings.
Essential experience of the Senior Commercial Manager
6. Proven leadership of end‑to‑end contract management in complex, matrix organisations (defence experience desirable but not essential).
7. Strong commercial acumen with the ability to spot opportunities for innovation and value creation.
8. Experience creating proposals for both organic growth and new bids.
9. Resilience under pressure with the ability to meet mission‑critical deadlines.
10. Excellent relationship‑building and stakeholder management at senior levels.
Qualifications for the Senior Commercial Manager
Essential:
11. Ideally degree‑qualified (or equivalent) in a relevant field such as Business, Law, Engineering or Accountancy (or equivalent experience).
Preferred:
12. Professional development towards (or membership of) bodies such as World Commerce & Contracting (WCC), Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS/MCIPS), or a Postgraduate Certificate in Commercial Management.
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Standard (BPSS) / Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.
Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at Generous holiday allowance
13. Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
14. Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
15. Employee share scheme
16. Employee shopping savings portal
17. Payment of Professional Fees
18. Reservists in the armed forces receive 10‑days special paid leave
19. Holiday Trading – buy additional leave or sell up to one working week
20. ‘Be Kind Day’ – one paid day each year to volunteer for a charity of your choice
21. Flexible working – options to better integrate work and life, subject to business needs
22. A dynamic working environment with strong career development opportunities
Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE organisation with over 26, people working together to make a difference.
Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.
We call that lifetime engineering.
Join us and see how far we can go, together.
We are a disability confident committed employer.