Commercial Manager

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO8 £59,511-£62,766

Contract Type: Full-time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 27/07/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 2181

About Us:

We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship.

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

This is your opportunity to contribute to a sustainable high performing housing repairs and maintenance service.

Reporting to the Head of Planned Works, you will play a key role as part of the Housing Assets team to deliver Procurement, Commercial Management and Risk Management for the planned works and responsive repairs service.

We're looking for an experienced and qualified Commercial Manager to act as the commercial lead across a portfolio of approximately 13,000 homes, overseeing all commercial and contractual activities to deliver the councils housing repairs and maintenance service. Experience of working in the social housing sector on reactive maintenance and planned works contracts is desirable.

You'll be responsible for ensuring value for money, effective risk management, and full compliance with the Procurement Act, while aligning with the council’s commercial governance and procurement procedures.

This is a hands-on role requiring dealing with consultants and contractors whilst providing strong commercial leadership, robust cost control, and contract administration. You'll work closely with Project Managers and Surveyors in the planned works and repairs teams, to deliver a high-quality repairs and maintenance service on time, on budget, and in accordance with our commercial and service objectives.

The Commercial Manager will be responsible for delivering all commercial operations on a repairs and maintenance contract. Managing the planned works team, you will prepare and present weekly/monthly reports on financial and delivery performance, and risk management.

Key skills and attributes required for the role include:

• Proven experience in a commercial or contract management role within a facilities management, repairs, maintenance, or social housing environment.
• Track record of managing budget and contract performance, achieving budget and performance targets.
• Experience of assisting budget holders to understand and manage their budgets and prepare robust forecasts of outturn expenditure.
• Strong understanding of contractual governance and compliance.
• Experience of analysing service and financial performance data to identify opportunities for service improvement and efficiencies.
• Experience of analysing financial and service performance data to assess commercial and service risk, and identify risk mitigation measures.
• Experience of managing complex projects/financial issues.
• Ability to deliver effective budgetary control and to assist in the identification of corrective strategies to contain expenditure within Budget.
• Ability to contribute to financialstrategies that are based on thorough analysis of needs and risks.
• Ability to convey complex financial and regulatory information in styles that meet the needs of internal and external recipients.
• IT skills, including Microsoft Office suite, and skilled in the use of a computerised general ledger system, including experience of developing systems to achieve desired business outcomes.
• Experience using Oracle.
• Able to work in an inclusive manner with staff and residents.
• Flexible, adaptable and resilient
• Self-motivated

Please review the full role profile before applying.

This is a hybrid role with a base location at our head office in Walthamstow, London. Candidates will be expected to work from the office at least 2 days per week.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Understand and report on contractual procedures and governance frameworks.
• Setting, monitoring, and managing budgets for repairs and maintenance expenditure, including processing invoices, variations, and purchase orders, and conducting monthly forecasting
• Monitor spend across assets and ensure alignment with budgetary requirements.
• Monitor and report on contractor productivity and performance against KPIs for both revenue and capital spend.
• Prepare and present monthly performance, financial and risk management reports to stakeholders.
  Work closely with the Commercial Lead Finance Manager to ensure financial integrity and compliance.
• Support procurement processes and contract administration as required.
• Ensure robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms are in place for all contractual obligations.
• Assist in service reviews and research projects to ensure that inefficiencies, irregularities and budget variances are investigated and reported, whilst identifying and implementing opportunities to improve service delivery and performance.
• Ensure partnership working across the Housing service, with other directorates within the Council, and with third party contractors.
• Provide accurate financial information, both through regular reporting and in response to ad hoc requests and research.
• Complete relevant statutory accounts.
• Provide advice, support and financial training to service managers on systems and procedures, including operating Oracle, to improve service delivery and standards of financial management.
• Provide support to the Housing transformation agenda by identifying efficiencies, producing costings, assessing ways of working, systems and processes.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• Relevant professional qualification in contract management, finance, or related field
• Educated to degree standard or equivalent.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• Satisfactory DBS check;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Darren Gunn, Assistant Director of Housing Repairs and Maintenance at Darren.gunn@walthamforest.gov.uk.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.

Fraud Awareness Notice:

The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).

We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.

If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.

If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to:
fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk