Assistant Commercial Manager

London

6 Month Contract

Rates per day – £200-300

In scope of IR35

About the role:

Network Rail are looking for an Assistant Commercial Manager who can provide commercial support to the team, including the provision of reporting and system based transactional activities for the whole portfolio, whilst actively being involved in the day to day commercial administration of lower value / lower risk contracts.

The ideal candidate for this role will have experience working within a Commercial Environment and hold or be working towards their qualification with The Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

The wider team will look to you to advise and solve any process issues with the use of the system.

What you will do:

• Provide commercial, financial and administrative assistance to the Infrastructure Projects Commercial Function.
• Maintain Oracle Projects (or other relevant project control system) to support governance processes in respect of project financial authorities, budgets, purchase orders, change controls, billings, and inter-project/function transfers.
• Assist the project with the provision of information for audits.
• Support the assessment & valuation of contractor’s applications and processing of payment certification in accordance with contractual terms & conditions, commensurate with contractual entitlement.
• Provide associated advice and information to Project Managers on change including proposed scope changes, recommending appropriate action and producing required documentation for approval in accordance with levels of delegated authority.
• Measure from drawings or on site to establish quantities.
• Assist in preparation of estimates for works. Input cost and quantity information into estimating systems and produce reports, using cost modelling tools as required.
• Assist in preparation of tender, pricing and contract documentation. Carry out cost analysis of accepted tenders.
• Assist the Commercial Manager with the production of applications for payment/invoices to outside clients in accordance with relevant funding agreements, producing supporting documentation as appropriate. Undertake final account settlements and internal reconciliations to facilitate project close out as per the project authority and project plan within agreed timescales.
• Monitor and report on commercial aspects of projects, flagging issues at the earliest opportunity to responsible management and carry out allocated duties in accordance with corporate governance escalating any matters which might lead to corporate governance being breached and taking action to resolve them in a timely manner.
• Support finance reporting within the Network Rail reporting framework including Cost Forecasting, Anticipated Final Cost, Cost of Work Done, Gross Billing and Current Contract Value; and provide robust Cost Analysis Feedback.
• Assist the Commercial Manager with reviewing contractor delivery, including where appropriate, attending valuation and progress meetings. For multi-year framework agreements, support the agreement and produce reconciled annual accounts within 6 months of each year-end.
• Support the compilation of supplier performance reports as per Network Rail process, and as defined within certain contracts. Keep commercial records up to date in properly maintained files and subsequently archive (and adequately record) the documents, following commercial close out.

Your experience will include:

Essential

• 2 to 3 year’s experience of working in a commercial environment
• Be a qualified member of the Institute Chartered Surveyors (or working towards this qualification)
• General experience in numerical data manipulation
• MS Office i.e. at least intermediate Excel and Word skills
• An accounting, finance or book keeping background

Desirable

• Knowledge of basic estimating, valuation and cost reporting, financial modelling
• Negotiation skills
• MS Project & PowerPoint

About our client

Our client is the largest rail infrastructure business in the country and is at the operational centre of the railway and playing a key role in a rapidly evolving industry. They are responsible for rebuilding Britain’s railway infrastructure and are managing some of the biggest and most complex engineering programmes in Europe. Over the next five years they will be spending around £23 billion to maintain and upgrade every aspect of an infrastructure that comprises 21,000 miles of track, 2,500 stations, 9,000 level crossings, 40,000 bridges and tunnels, and signalling and power for the movement of 25,000 trains every day.