Commercial Manager - MRO Services
Reporting to the Director, Operational Services, the Commercial Manager is responsible for commercial leadership across Maintenance, Turnarounds, and Sustaining Capital operations.
The role leads contract stewardship, proposal development, commercial governance, change management, claims management, contract negotiations, rate reviews, and protection of Bird's contractual interests.
The Commercial Manager works closely with Operations leadership to ensure commercial risk is managed, contractual entitlement is captured, and client agreements remain aligned with market conditions and business objectives.
What You Will Be Working OnCommercial Management- Lead commercial and contract stewardship across assigned MRO portfolios.
- Own change management processes including identification, quantification, pricing, entitlement development, negotiation, recognition, and recovery.
- Lead claims management activities including preparation of contractual entitlement narratives, supporting documentation, cost and schedule impact quantification, justification packages, negotiation, and resolution.
- Develop and maintain commercial risk and opportunity registers.
- Provide commercial leadership and guidance to Operations, Project Controls, Estimating, and project teams.
Contract Management- Lead administration and stewardship of Master Service Agreements (MSAs), alliance agreements, work orders, purchase orders.
- Partner with Operations and clients to maintain commercial alignment throughout the contract lifecycle.
- Lead annual and periodic commercial reviews including labour escalations, market adjustments, productivity impacts, and risk allocation reviews.
- Develop and negotiate rate updates resulting from collective bargaining agreements, labour market pressures, legislative changes, productivity impacts, and changing market conditions.
- Ensure contractual mechanisms for escalation, reimbursement, indexation, and rate adjustments are effectively administered and recovered.
- Lead contract renewals, extensions, rebids, amendments, and strategic client negotiations.
- Ensure compliance with company governance requirements and delegated authority limits.
Bid & Proposal Leadership- Lead proposal development and commercial strategy for maintenance, turnaround, sustaining capital, and project opportunities.
- Serve as the commercial lead and coordinator for cross-functional proposal teams.
- Steward all proposals through the company governance framework, toll-gate reviews, risk assessments, approvals, and executive sign-offs.
- Develop commercial qualifications, assumptions, labour strategies, and risk assessments for bid submissions and RFP responses.
- Coordinate Operations, Estimating, Project Controls, HSSE, Commercial, and Executive stakeholders through the proposal lifecycle.
- Support client presentations, clarification meetings, negotiations, and contract award activities.
Audit Management- Coordinate audit schedules, resources, and stakeholder participation across project teams
- Serve as the primary commercial point of contact during client audits.
- Lead interactions with client audit teams, project management, operations, procurement, payroll, and finance personnel.
- Identify commercial, contractual, and compliance risks revealed through audit activities.
- Prepare audit summaries, findings reports, and executive briefings for leadership teams.
- Track audit observations, corrective actions, and closure status.
- Leverage audit outcomes to improve commercial processes, contract management practices, and project controls.
- Develop corrective action plans and monitor resolution of audit findings.
- Implement process improvements to strengthen controls and reduce future audit exposure.
Leadership & Capability Development- Coach operational teams on contracts, change management, commercial practices, and governance expectations.
- Develop commercial standards, procedures, templates, and best practices.
- Mentor project personnel in contract administration, claims avoidance, and entitlement management.
Qualifications- 10+ years of industrial construction, maintenance, turnaround, or sustaining capital experience.
- Proven commercial leadership experience supporting major industrial operations.
- Ideal candidates will have previous experience as a Project Manager, Construction Manager, Business Manager, Operations Manager, or Senior Contracts/Commercial Manager.
- Demonstrated experience leading contract negotiations, rate reviews, proposals, commercial claims, and client relationship management.
- Strong negotiation, communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills.
Bottom LineThe Commercial Manager is the commercial leader for the MRO business, responsible for contract stewardship, proposal development, change and claims management, commercial governance, contract renewals, rate negotiations, and protection of Bird's contractual and commercial interests throughout the lifecycle of maintenance, turnaround, and sustaining capital agreements.
