Commercial Lead
Job Introduction
Sodexo are currently recruiting for our Corporate Services segment. Sodexo is the 19th largest employer worldwide, operating in 80 countries and employing 427,000 employees worldwide, we are the leader in Quality of Life services. Sodexo is not only a growth company; it is also a people-oriented company that places quality of life of its 100 million consumers at the center of its mission. Join our teams and experience their passion and the unique Sodexo spirit!
Do you have experience in a Commercial role with financial exposure? Sodexo are recruiting for a Commercial Lead in our London HQ and are looking for someone can provide financial and commercial leadership on the pricing, negotiation and mobilisation of new business. As Commercial Lead, you will collaborate with the business development team to develop innovative and compelling commercial solutions for global strategic clients which also deliver sustainable growth for Sodexo. Complex modelling, the consolidation of financial data for client proposals and ownership of the commercial aspects of the client legal agreements will require you to have attention to detail, strong excel modelling skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines in a dynamic environment. We are looking for a proactive individual who isn’t afraid to get involved in the detail and thrives working at pace with a high performing team.
Reporting into the Global Commercial Director, the Commercial Lead will help create the commercial strategy for each bid with the business development teams including building financial models. This is a complex role and for the right individual will create an opportunity to develop and work with and support a global team. You need to have strong commercial modelling and financial understanding, be a quick thinker, confident in presenting and have the gravitas to deal with stakeholders from corporate executives through to site managers/service line leaders.
The successful candidate will need to be flexible to travel across Europe, and potentially further afield as the client requires. International exposure would be advantageous for this role or exposure to an array of diverse cultures.
If you would like more information to understand what it is like to work for Sodexo and a career in Corporate Services, please follow the link below;
Careers within Corporate Clients
Role Responsibility
- Contributing to the process of strategic account business development with the associated pricing, commercial and legal aspects of a response to a client’s RFP is dynamic, complex and delivered to strict tight client determined deadlines
- Strategic Accounts are within the Corporate Services segment manage the response to, and ongoing management of, complex portfolio based IFM deals at a Global level for Sodexo’s key clients.
- Working within the Business Development function the purpose of this role is to provide financial and commercial leadership and support on the pricing, negotiation and mobilisation of these complex deals.
- In particular working alongside Business Development lead to formulate pricing strategy and associated mark up of client legal documents in addition to coordinating solutions, financial approvals and validation from countries and securing executive approval within Sodexo.
- In addition, the role has significant client interaction through the bidding and ongoing negotiation processes requiring robust relationships to be built quickly based on transparency, honesty and knowledge; requiring strong influencing and coaching skills supported by advanced listening and communication skills.
- Finally you will assist in the due diligence and mobilisation phase for successful bids including transfer of knowledge to account management and operational teams with both Sodexo and the prospective client.
The Ideal Candidate
Person
- An appropriate level of experience in a senior commercial/finance role related to business development, deal validation for complex business development
- Experience working internationally would be advantageous
- Track record of delivering successful results, and finding pragmatic solutions, in complex sales processes or commercial situations
Competencies
- Agile and pragmatic and accustomed to delivering standardised outcomes in a highly dynamic environment
- Strong commercial acumen, including operational and financial planning as well as contractual/risk management discipline
- Process and progress driven, based on factual analytics, combined with very transparent skills (up, transversally and down) of simple financial reflexes
- Excellent organizational skills and ability to respect deadlines
- Excellent interpersonal skills with proven ability to deliver successful outcomes through dispersed teams
- Experience in change management
Skills:
- Strong interpersonal skills, cultural awareness, and demonstrated ability to influence decisions at the executive level
- Proven competence in interpreting and translating complex legal documents into operational delivery
- Excellent comprehension skills
- Proven ability to deliver innovative commercial solutions
- Strong Excel modelling skills
- Ability to communicate, both verbally and visually, complex commercial concepts to audiences with varying levels of commercial comprehension
- Excellent interpersonal agility
- Strong learning agility
- Focused on developing cognitive agility
- Fluent English speaker essential. Other language skills advantageous.
About the Company
In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 35,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, defence and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business.
We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process
