Job Title: Senior Commercial Manager
Location: Ashton Vale, Bristol + Hybrid Working Arrangements
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF72976
Lead commercial success across complex defence programmes
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 within our Mission Systems business, supporting critical defence capabilities across the Sense and Connect portfolio.
The role
As a Senior Commercial Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in driving commercial outcomes across a portfolio of complex contracts. You will provide expert commercial leadership, supporting contract delivery, negotiations, pricing activity and risk management, while also contributing to organic growth and new business opportunities.
Working closely with senior stakeholders, customers and delivery teams, you will help shape pragmatic, innovative commercial strategies that support customer missions and long‑term business success.
Day-to-day, you will be:
- Providing commercial leadership and governance across a range of complex support contracts.
- Leading commercial negotiations, pricing activity and contract amendments to achieve balanced, value‑driven outcomes.
- Identifying and managing commercial risk and opportunity across the full contract lifecycle.
- Supporting tender activity and organic growth opportunities through the development of robust commercial proposals.
- Acting as a trusted commercial adviser to senior internal and external stakeholders, influencing decisions at all levels.
This is a permanent, full‑time role, offering a flexible hybrid working model, with options to be based in Bristol, Plymouth or Leicester, and typically two days per week on site.
Essential experience of the Senior Commercial Manager:
- Proven experience leading contract management activities across the full lifecycle within a complex, matrix organisation.
- Strong commercial capability across a range of contract types, with experience in negotiation and risk management.
- Experience supporting bids, proposals and growth activity, either organically or for new opportunities.
- Ability to operate confidently at senior stakeholder level, building trusted customer relationships.
- Strong business and commercial awareness, with the ability to challenge, influence and deliver under pressure.
Qualifications for the Senior Commercial Manager:
- Degree‑level qualification in a relevant discipline such as business, law or accountancy (or equivalent experience).
- Professional commercial or procurement qualifications, or willingness to work towards them, are desirable.
We value difference and don’t have a fixed idea when it comes to background or education, provided you can show the required level of experience and/or willingness to learn then we would like to hear from you.
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Standard (BPSS) / Security Check (SC) / Developed Vetting (DV) 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 United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
What we offer
- Generous holiday allowance
- Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
- Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
- Employee shopping savings portal
- Payment of Professional Fees
- Reservists in the armed forces receive 10-days special paid leave
- Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. This Window opens February through to March annually.
- ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day's paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity.
Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 26,000 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. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email careers@babcockinternational.com with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.
Closing date: 11/05/2026
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