Head of Commercial

Job Title: Head of Commercial

Location: Various UK Locations + Hybrid Working Arrangements

Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits

Role Type: Full time / Permanent

Role ID: SF77134

Shape Commercial Strategy. Drive Growth. Lead 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 Head of Commercial at any of our main UK locations. This is a unique opportunity to influence major defence and engineering programmes, lead commercial strategy across a complex portfolio, and help deliver solutions that support national security and critical infrastructure.

The role

As a Head of Commercial, you'll provide strategic commercial leadership across bids, contracts, negotiations and customer relationships within our Land sector. This is a highly visible leadership role where you'll shape commercial strategy, influence key business decisions, and work closely with senior stakeholders to deliver commercially successful outcomes.

You'll play a critical role in balancing customer needs with business objectives, identifying opportunities for growth, managing risk, and ensuring complex contracts are negotiated and delivered effectively throughout their lifecycle. This role offers the opportunity to make a genuine impact while developing your career at one of the UK's leading defence, aerospace and engineering organisations.

Day-to-day, you’ll be required to:

• Lead commercial strategy across complex bids, negotiations and live contracts to deliver successful outcomes for customers and the business.
• Manage pre-contract and post-contract activities, including tender responses, contract negotiations and commercial risk management.
• Provide commercial governance and leadership, ensuring compliance and supporting effective decision-making.
• Work collaboratively with customers, suppliers and project teams to develop commercially sound solutions and resolve complex issues.
• Drive business growth, continuous improvement and commercial performance across the portfolio.

This role is full time, 37 hours per week and provides hybrid working arrangements with 1 or 2 days onsite and 3 or 4 days working from home.

Essential experience of the Head of Commercial

• Significant experience leading commercial strategy and contract delivery across complex programmes, bids and negotiations.
• Strong expertise in contract management, commercial governance and risk management throughout the contract lifecycle.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders, customers, suppliers and multidisciplinary project teams.
• Proven ability to deliver commercially successful outcomes while balancing customer and business objectives.
• Demonstrable experience driving business growth and continuous improvement initiatives.

Qualifications for the Head of Commercial

• Ideally qualified to degree level or equivalent achieved through extensive and demonstrably successful experience.
• Industry Standard and/or Professional Body accreditations desirable [e.g. World CC]

Security Clearance

The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain 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 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 share scheme
• 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 the majority of employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement
• ‘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
• Flexible working – we give people more options to better integrate their work and personal life, whilst ensuring that business needs are met
• A dynamic working environment

Babcock

We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 29,000 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: 17/11/2026