Director of Commercial Management

Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC) is a leading energy solutions provider dedicated to helping customers reduce costs, enhance resilience, and decarbonize to net zero in the global energy transition. We are a trusted, full-service partner to public sector and government entities, K-12 schools, higher education, utilities, and healthcare customers across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe. 

At Ameresco, we show the way by developing, constructing and operating tailored smart energy efficiency solutions, distributed energy resources, and infrastructure upgrades that drive cost savings, resilience, decarbonization, and innovation. Our comprehensive portfolio is built to address the challenges of today and adapt the future, ensuring long-term sustainability and success for our customers.

Position Overview:

Ameresco UK is seeking a commercially exceptional and strategically minded Commercial Director to lead the commercial management backbone of the UK business and ensure that strategic opportunities are converted into disciplined, bankable, and executable contracts. The role will be central to protecting margin, strengthening cash and risk positions, improving bid quality, and ensuring that opportunities are structured on a robust and value-accretive basis from qualification through delivery.

The role will work in close partnership with the Commercial and Sales Director, supporting the delivery of the UK growth strategy by ensuring that opportunities are commercially sound, appropriately risked, properly approved, and ready for execution. Final accountability for market strategy, pipeline generation, and revenue targets sits with the Commercial and Sales Director, while the Commercial Director is accountable for commercial governance, contract structuring, pricing discipline, risk allocation, procurement alignment, and value protection across major bids and projects.

This is a senior leadership role for a proven commercial executive who can operate credibly with customers, partners, suppliers, advisers, and internal stakeholders, while also building the processes, controls, and governance required for consistent performance. The successful candidate will align commercial ambition with contractual rigour, procurement discipline, financial logic, and delivery capability.

The role will lead the commercial management function across bid management, contract management, commercial modelling, approvals, governance, and commercial support to procurement and delivery. It will act as the commercial gatekeeper for material opportunities, ensuring that no major pursuit or project progresses without appropriate validation of margin, risk, contractual position, delivery assumptions, and handover readiness.

The Commercial Director will also work closely with the Project Director and wider delivery leadership to reduce margin leakage after award, improve change control and claims discipline, strengthen back-to-back supplier and subcontractor positions, and support smoother mobilisation into execution.

The Commercial Director will play a pivotal role in helping Ameresco UK become an organisation that is operationally excellent, focused on growth and profitability, underpinned by a culture of commercial performance.

The role will focus on the following areas:

• Lead the commercial management backbone of the UK business across bid management, contract management, commercial modelling, approvals, and governance

• Provide commercial leadership from opportunity qualification through bid, negotiation, contract award, mobilisation, and change control

• Strengthen alignment between sales, technical, delivery, operations, finance, legal, and procurement so that opportunities are structured on a deliverable, profitable, and low-regret basis

• Own commercial governance, including pricing discipline, contractual risk allocation, bid support, approvals, and handover into delivery

• Improve bid quality, contract discipline, supplier and subcontractor commercial alignment, and post-award value protection across the UK portfolio

• Embed a culture of commercial performance with clear accountability, strong controls, and focus on margin, cash, and risk-adjusted profitability

Commercial Leadership and Strategy

• Define and lead the UK commercial framework in support of the agreed growth strategy and broader business plan

• Translate business priorities into clear commercial frameworks, approval gates, delegated authorities, and value protection mechanisms

• Support leadership in portfolio prioritisation, deal structuring, and investment case assessment

Sales Enablement and Commercial Support

• Support execution of the UK sales strategy by providing commercial input into planning, opportunity selection, and deal shaping

• Ensure material opportunities are progressed with appropriate commercial oversight before commitment

• Support prioritisation of major opportunities against commercial, delivery, cash, and margin criteria

Commercial Management

• Lead the commercial management function across modelling, bid management, contract management, governance, and commercial support to procurement and delivery

• Establish clear accountabilities, performance measures, and governance across the function

• Ensure effective handoffs between origination, bid, negotiation, contract award, delivery, and operations

• Drive consistency in commercial processes, templates, reporting, dashboards, and controls

Commercial Accountability

• Own commercial approval gates and ensure material opportunities do not progress without validation

• Enforce pricing discipline, margin thresholds, risk treatment, and approval requirements

• Act as commercial gatekeeper on major pursuits and contracts, with authority to challenge, reshape, defer, or recommend against opportunities that do not meet agreed criteria

• Protect cash through robust payment mechanisms, milestone structures, and contractual safeguards

• Reduce margin erosion between contract award and delivery through stronger contract discipline, supply chain alignment, and change control

• Support dispute avoidance, claims strategy, and commercial recovery on underperforming projects

Bids, Contracts, Risk, and Supply Chain

• Oversee commercial input into major pursuits, including pricing strategy, contractual positions, negotiation strategy, and internal approvals

• Lead review of customer contracts, frameworks, partner agreements, subcontract terms, and key supplier arrangements

• Ensure bids are robust, executable, and aligned with delivery capability, procurement strategy, and target margin

• Work with procurement and technical teams to improve supplier engagement, subcontract terms, and cost competitiveness

• Ensure commercial and contractual positions are appropriately back-to-backed through the supply chain

Cross-Functional Alignment and Leadership

• Partner closely with the Commercial and Sales Director so that origination and customer strategy are translated into executable commercial structures

• Work with technical, engineering, delivery, finance, legal, and procurement teams to ensure scope, assumptions, programme, and risk are fully understood

• Support the Managing Director and leadership team with commercial insight on major decisions, opportunities, and exposures

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing commercial team, building capability in modelling, contracting, bid governance, negotiation, and value protection

• Perform other duties as assigned

• Bachelor’s degree in business, law, engineering, quantity surveying, finance, or a related field, or equivalent commercial leadership experience

• Strong track record in senior commercial leadership within energy, infrastructure, renewables, utilities, or adjacent sectors

• Proven experience negotiating complex contracts and managing commercial risk in multi-stakeholder environments

• Demonstrable experience leading teams across bid, contract, procurement, or project commercial functions

• Full legal right to work in the UK

• Significant experience in a senior commercial leadership role

• Strong understanding of the UK energy transition market and the commercial models used across decarbonisation and infrastructure projects

• Experience in one or more of the following: solar, BESS, heat decarbonisation, energy efficiency, CHP, microgrids, city-scale infrastructure, or funded energy solutions

• Strong commercial acumen, including pricing, contracting, procurement, risk management, margin optimisation, and cash protection

• Experience implementing structured commercial governance, approval processes, and cross-functional controls

• Evidence of building and leading high-performing teams through growth and change

The successful candidate will be an energetic, credible, and commercially sharp leader with the ability to move between strategy and execution. They will be highly collaborative, disciplined, and confident operating at both executive and operational levels.

They should demonstrate:

• Strong leadership presence and personal accountability

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and influencing skills

• Pragmatic and disciplined approach to growth

• Confidence in challenging assumptions and driving clarity, resilience and pace in a dynamic commercial environment

• Strong bias for action, delivery, and measurable results

• Commitment to teamwork and cross-functional alignment.

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AMERESCO challenges the brightest, most talented, and creative individuals in the industry by providing an environment that fosters initiative and achievement. We are proud of our comprehensive and competitive employee benefits, including people-oriented insurance, investment, and incentive plans.

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Ameresco is an Equal Opportunity Employer.