National AI Awards 2025Discover AI's trailblazers! Join us to celebrate innovation and nominate industry leaders.

Nominate & Attend

Commercial Manager - Defence

Bristol
2 weeks ago
Create job alert

The Commercial Manager will be responsible to provide commercial advice and support across the Business Unit on allocated projects, programmes and bids whilst ensuring appropriate commercial governance and compliance with company policies and procedures.

Role - Commercial Manager (DEFENCE)

Location - Bristol (hybrid working C.1 day onsite per week)

Type - Permanent

Salary - Competitive (DOE) + benefits

Key responsibilities of the Commercial Manager role and not be limited to:

Serve as a trusted advisor on all commercial aspects of assigned projects, programmes, and bids, ensuring robust commercial governance is maintained throughout day-to-day operations.
Review, draft, and negotiate a range of commercial agreements - including Terms and Conditions, Framework Agreements, and Subcontracts ensuring alignment with applicable standards, deadlines, and customer requirements, while actively managing commercial risk.
Lead the re-negotiation of contractual changes within your designated portfolio, ensuring that commercial risks and obligations are identified, addressed, and effectively controlled.
Support the bid process by providing expert commercial guidance, ensuring adherence to internal governance procedures.
Collaborate with key stakeholders to ensure a unified and consistent approach to commercial positions across the organisation.
Deliver commercial input and guidance to support continuous improvement initiatives, promote best practices, and reinforce commercial governance across the business unit.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of UK MoD contracting policies, procurement regulations, and tendering processes to ensure compliance and informed decision-making.
Provide strategic commercial insight on matters such as pricing models and cost structures, taking ownership of cost modelling and contributing to competitive, profitable business solutions.

Key skills and experience required Commercial Manager role and not limited to:

Proven expertise in commercial management, including contract structuring, negotiation, and a deep understanding of Defence contracting frameworks.
Extensive knowledge of commercial and contractual best practices within the aerospace and defence industry, with a strong record of enhancing commercial performance.
Strong interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective customer relationships.
Skilled communicator with the ability to deliver clear, confident presentations and engage effectively across all organisational levels.
Eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

To apply for this Commercial Manager / Commercial Contracts Manager / Contracts Manager / Commercial Manager - Defence / Contracts Manager - Defence / Commercial Contracts Manager - Defence, candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Commercial Manager

Commercial Manager

Commercial Manager - Defence

Senior Commercial Manager

Senior Commercial Manager (Bids)

Senior Commercial Manager (DEFENCE)

National AI Awards 2025

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

How to Find Hidden Space Jobs in the UK Using Professional Bodies like the RAeS, UKSpace & More

The UK space sector is enjoying rapid growth—driven by satellite constellations, launch services, Earth observation, space science, and defence applications. But while demand for engineers, scientists, mission designers, and space analysts is high, many of the most compelling roles are never advertised publicly. Instead, these opportunities are often filled through professional networks, working groups, innovation clusters, and academic-industry partnerships. This guide will show you how to access hidden UK space jobs by engaging with bodies like the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), UKSpace, British Interplanetary Society (BIS), and regional space clusters. By leveraging membership directories, special-interest groups (SIGs), CPD events, and funded projects, you can position yourself to be first in line—even before roles are posted.

How to Get a Better Space Sector Job After a Lay-Off or Redundancy

Being made redundant from a role in the UK space sector can be disheartening. Whether your work was tied to satellite design, launch services, ground systems, mission operations, or Earth observation analytics, the experience and specialist knowledge you've gained is still highly valuable. The UK government’s Space Strategy, increased commercial investment, and new launch initiatives across Cornwall, Scotland, and Wales continue to drive opportunities in upstream and downstream space technologies. This guide will help you relaunch your career in the UK space sector after redundancy.

UK Space Jobs Salary Calculator 2025: Work Out Your Market Value in Seconds

Why last year’s pay survey already misfires for UK space talent Ask a Satellite Systems Engineer wrestling with RF budgets, a Mission Operations Analyst shepherding cubesats at 04:00 UTC, or a Launch Vehicle Propulsion Engineer machining ablative liners in Cornwall: “Am I earning what I deserve?” The honest answer drifts faster than orbital debris. Since early 2024 the UK Space Agency released £1.6 billion of National Space Strategy funding, SaxaVord’s spaceport edged toward its first vertical launch licence, and Harwell Campus welcomed three VC‑fuelled in‑orbit‑servicing start‑ups. Each headline ratcheted hiring demand—and salaries. A salary guide printed in 2024 is already as dated as a Block II GPS ephemeris: no mention of the Scottish micro‑launcher premium, the AI‑earth‑observation bubble, or the sudden scarcity of flight‑dynamics controllers who can wrangle multi‑constellation mega‑swarms. To replace guesswork with data, UKSpaceJobs.co.uk distilled a clear, three‑factor formula. Feed in your discipline, UK region & seniority; you’ll get a realistic 2025 baseline—no stale averages, no vague “competitive” claims. This article unpacks the formula, explores the forces inflating space salaries, and sets out concrete steps to boost your value within ninety days.