Head of Commercial Operations

As Head of Commercial Operations, you will define and lead the end-to-end commercial strategy for water2business, driving sustainable revenue growth, margin performance, and long-term value creation. You will shape how we win, retain and grow customers in a competitive market, ensuring our commercial and operational model is high performing, analytically strong, future ready and commercially ambitious. 

What you'll do 

In this role you will: 

• set and own the commercial strategy, aligning it to corporate goals and market opportunities while ensuring long-term commercial success 
• lead high stakes commercial negotiations, including pricing strategy, contractual constructs, and major customer agreements – personally steering the most critical deals 
• own the business development strategy, balancing growth, profitability, and cost to serve across a diverse customer base 
• provide executive level margin and portfolio oversight, using supply point level insights, customer lifetime value, and portfolio analytics to inform commercial decisions. You will partner closely with finance and MI teams to translate analytics into clear commercial actions. 
• transform and modernise the commercial operating model, ensuring it is scalable, digitally enabled, efficient and fully aligned to regulatory expectations. You will leverage data, systems, and operational processes to build a scalable, insight‑driven commercial model for the future. 
• drive cross functional commercial transformation across business development, collections, customer processes, and cash management—unlocking step change improvements in efficiency, profitability, and cash performance 
• influence enterprise-wide decisions as a senior leader, bringing a confident commercial viewpoint to strategic discussions. 

What you'll need 

• A strong track record of successfully leading complex, high value commercial negotiations with substantial financial impact. 
• Proven experience designing and optimising commercial operating models within low margin, regulated, or service-based environments. 
• Significant leadership experience drawn from commercial operations, commercial finance, FP&A, insights, sales, business development, or collections background. 
• Demonstrable ability to build and execute commercial strategies that accelerate revenue, improve margins, and enhance operational performance. 
• Background in collections strategy, debt management, or broader cashflow optimisation and working capital performance. 
• Deep experience in margin analytics, cost to serve modelling and data led commercial decision-making. 
• Proven capability in commercial governance, bid management and long-term customer value optimisation. 
• Experience leading process, technology, and digital transformation within commercial functions. 
• Strong stakeholder management, with the confidence and credibility to influence at senior levels. 
• Knowledge of regulatory frameworks and compliance expectations relevant to the sector. 

We welcome applicants from a wide range of commercial disciplines. Whether your background is in operations, commercial finance, FP&A, insights, collections, customer strategy, or sales, what matters most is your ability to drive commercial performance, influence at senior levels and lead transformational change. 

What you'll receive 

We offer a wealth of both financial and non-financial benefits, including: 

• 25 days' holiday rising to 28 with length of service 
• Up to 20% combined pension contribution 
• Opportunity to buy or sell holiday 
• Pay increments yearly rewarding your first 3 years of service 
• Performance related bonus of up to 10% 
• Health Plan supporting you with your healthcare costs 
• £1000 'Refer a friend/family' scheme 
• Life assurance of up to four times your salary 
• Sustainable benefits including electric vehicle and cycle2work schemes 
• A range of family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and paternity leave 
• Paid community day 
• Cashback and discounts from over 3,000 retailers 

Who we are 

water2business, rated 4.8 stars on Trustpilot, is one of the highest performing water retailers in the UK. We provide billing, account management, and customer service to business customers across England and Scotland. Based in Nailsea, we support over 85,000 customers and deliver leading levels of service through our fantastic customer teams. We're proud that both our customers and our people are at the heart of everything we do. 

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and engaging place to work. Our annual People Promises are based directly on feedback from our team members. Our committees and working groups including Health and Wellbeing, Mental Health First Aiders, Meet4menopause, LGBTQ+ alliance, Carers Network and our Working Parents group are all populated by our own people. 

In this role you will benefit from our coaching and mentoring framework and numerous learning and development initiatives from our award-winning team. We take your career, happiness, and general wellbeing seriously. 

We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and are a Disability Confident committed employer – please let us know if you need any additional support or help to assist you in your application. 

All our roles are subject to disclosure and barring screening (DBS) checks, and successful candidates will be asked to disclose details of any unspent cautions or convictions. We recognise the contribution that people with criminal records can make, and any information given will be confidential and considered on an individual basis. 

All candidates are required to provide us with right to work in the UK documentation and, regretfully, we are not able to offer sponsorship at this time. 

We are popular and we may close our advert sooner than it says. We recommend you apply straight away so you don't miss the opportunity to join us!