Commercial Director

About the Role

The Director – Commercial is responsible for leading and overseeing the Commercial function across URED's development portfolio, covering tendering, contract administration, cost control, and partner/JV commercial governance.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Function Management

• Develop and implement the Commercial function strategy in alignment with URED's overall corporate and development strategy.
• Prepare and manage annual business plans, manpower plans, and budgets for the Commercial Division.
• Establish and monitor measurable KPIs for tendering, cost control, and contract performance.
• Standardize tendering templates, cost-control tools, and contract-management processes across all projects.
• Lead multi-project commercial governance and performance reporting to Executive Management.

Tendering & Procurement

• Own the end-to-end tendering process for all packages across the portfolio — whether URED is sole developer or working with partners.
• Ensure tender documents, BOQs, and scope splits are accurate and complete before issuance to bidders.
• Lead technical/commercial bid evaluation and comparison, in line with the Procurement Instrument Policy and CTO DOA.
• Validate every package's tendered/award value against its allocated line in the project cost breakdown before recommending award — no package is recommended for award without this check.
• Maintain a live, portfolio-wide tender and award tracker showing status of every package.

Cost Control & Budget Breakdown

• Break down each project's total approved budget into cost lines per package (e.g. skeleton, MEP, internal finishing, external finishing, direct-procurement items) at project kickoff, and maintain this as the live cost baseline.
• Track committed and actual cost per package against its budget line on an ongoing basis, and consolidate into a single project-level cost report.
• Flag any package or project trending toward budget exceedance early enough for corrective action — before commitment, not after award.
• Own variation order (VO) evaluation, negotiation, and approval within DOA thresholds; prepare escalation packages for VOs above authority.
• Ensure cash-flow forecasts reflect actual contract payment terms, VO pipeline, and partner payment obligations.

Contract Administration & Partner Agreement Management

• Own contract administration for all contractor, consultant, and development-partner/JV agreements across the portfolio.
• Maintain a contract and partner-agreement register capturing key terms, payment plans/milestones, and project-specific clauses — since terms are not standardized and differ by project and partner.
• Monitor each agreement against its own terms (payment triggers, cost/profit-share mechanics, reporting and notice obligations) and determine the required action ahead of contractual deadlines, rather than reactively.
• Ensure claims, notices, and disputes are managed within contractual timeframes, escalating to Legal/Government Relations where enforcement or dispute action is needed.
• Ensure all payments to and from partners follow the applicable agreement's payment plan and are reconciled against project cash flow.

Risk Management & Reporting

• Identify commercial, cost, and contractual risk at project and portfolio level.
• Provide executive-level reporting on budget-vs-actual by package, contract/partner exposure, and tendering pipeline status.
• Ensure documentation is maintained through approved digital project platforms.

People Leadership & Performance Management

• Lead and develop the QS, Proposal & Pre-Contract Manager, and Contracts & Cost Controller.
• Conduct annual performance appraisals; identify talent gaps and succession needs.
• Promote a high-performance, accountability-driven culture within the Commercial team.

Post-Project Evaluation & Continuous Improvement

• Conduct commercial close-out reviews on completed projects (final account, VO history, contract performance).
• Identify cost-efficiency opportunities and standardize lessons learned into future tendering and cost-control templates.

Additional Responsibilities

• Execute any strategic task assigned by Executive Management related to Commercial and Technical Services.
• Support new development feasibility reviews from a cost and commercial-structuring perspective.

Qualification & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Quantity Surveying, Civil Engineering, or Commercial/Construction Management (Master's degree or MRICS preferred).
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in real estate/construction commercial management.
• At least 3 years experience managing tendering and cost control across multiple concurrent projects.
• Demonstrated experience structuring and monitoring development-partner/JV commercial agreements with varying payment terms.
• Strong background in contract administration (FIDIC or equivalent) and variation order management.
• Experience managing package-level cost breakdowns and portfolio-level budget consolidation.

Skills:

• Tendering and procurement management
• Cost control and budget engineering
• Contract negotiation and administration
• Partner/JV agreement management
• Risk management and mitigation