PLEASE NOTE - WE ARE SEEKING REAL ESTATE COMMERCIAL LEADS WITH CLIENT-SIDE / DEVELOPER-SIDE EXPERIENCE THROUGH ALL PHASES OF CONSTRUCTION. WE HAVE ONE POSITION TO BE LOCATED IN UK, AND ONE POSITION TO BE LOCATED IN FRANCE. AS SUCH, WE ARE INVITING APPLICATIONS FROM PEOPLE WITH THIS EXPERIENCE CURRENTLY LOCATED IN EITHER OF THESE TWO COUNTRIES ONLY.
About Colt Data Centre Services
Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) has over 20 years’ experience in designing, building and operating energy-efficient, reliable data centres – hosting significant financial, media, corporate and cloud wholesale providers across the world.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We endeavour to take a customer-led approach across our operations, striving to serve our customers with a seamless experience no matter what facility or region they are in.
Finding the right solutions for our customers starts with finding the right people for Colt DCS. We believe in creating a healthy, learning environment for our employees to flourish.
Our vision: to be the most customer-centric data centre provider.
Job Summary
As the Real Estate Commercial Lead for UK or for France, you will act as the commercial partner to the Real Estate Country Manager, assuming full accountability for shaping, driving, and perhaps most importantly, executing the commercial strategy across the company’s data centre development portfolio in the relevant country.
Reporting into the Head of Commercials, you will provide leadership across all commercial, cost, and procurement activities, ensuring each project is delivered with financial rigour, discipline, and alignment to long‑term business objectives. You will play a pivotal role in safeguarding investment value, optimising regional CAPEX, and driving the commercial performance of a rapidly growing development pipeline.
This is a high‑impact role requiring strong commercial acumen, the ability to influence strategic decision‑making, and the leadership confidence to manage and execute multiple complex projects concurrently. You will collaborate closely with internal development, design, delivery, finance, asset management, and procurement teams, as well as external consultants and contractors, to drive consistent commercial excellence across the region.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Strategy & Leadership
- Own and drive the full commercial strategy for the UK region, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives, investment expectations, and long‑term portfolio value.
- Provide senior leadership into business cases, feasibility studies, bid strategies, cost benchmarking, and investment committee submissions.
- Oversee the governance framework, ensuring robust controls, accuracy, transparency, and consistency across all projects.
- Act as the regional commercial authority, challenging assumptions, validating cost positions, and ensuring strategic commercial integrity across the lifecycle.
Cost Management & Financial Control
- Provide executive oversight of cost planning, forecasting, value engineering, and financial performance across all live and pipeline projects.
- Ensure rigorous cost validation, driving commercial efficiency through design optimisation, procurement strategy, and supply chain performance.
- Lead monthly commercial reporting cycles, delivering senior‑level insights on risk, opportunity, exposure, and budget performance.
- Steward regional CAPEX governance, ensuring investments remain within approved parameters and deliver expected returns.
- Partner with Finance to ensure robust cashflow forecasting, accrual accuracy, and disciplined financial close‑out processes
Procurement & Contract Management
- Shape and govern the regional procurement strategy, ensuring alignment to commercial outcomes, supply chain resilience, and project delivery needs.
- Lead high‑value contract negotiations, ensuring commercial terms appropriately balance risk, performance incentives, and delivery certainty.
- Drive standardisation of contract forms, commercial templates, procurement processes, and cost databases across the region.
- Build and maintain strategic supplier relationships, championing performance management and long‑term value creation across the supply chain.
Risk & Change Management
- Provide senior oversight of the commercial risk register, ensuring proactive risk identification, quantification, mitigation, and communication.
- Govern regional change control processes, ensuring all variations are properly evaluated, negotiated, and approved in accordance with governance standards.
- Deliver clear and timely commercial impact assessments to support strategic decision‑making and portfolio reporting.
Leadership & Collaboration
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high‑performing team of commercial and cost managers, promoting a culture of accountability, excellence, and commercial ownership.
- Act as the senior commercial interface with internal partners — Procurement, Asset Management, Development, Design, Delivery, Operations, Finance, and Legal — ensuring alignment of commercial priorities.
- Represent the commercial function in Project Steering Groups, Investment Committees, and regional leadership forums.
- Drive continuous improvement across commercial processes, systems, reporting, and governance to support scalable growth across European markets.
Qualifications & Experience
- Degree in Quantity Surveying, Commercial Management, Construction Economics, or equivalent.
- Significant commercial management experience, ideally within data centre (ESSENTIAL FOR UK), industrial, real estate development, or mission‑critical infrastructure environments.
- Demonstrated success in client‑side or developer‑side roles managing commercial outcomes across multi‑project, multi‑market portfolios.
- Strong knowledge of European procurement processes, contract forms (NEC, FIDIC, or local equivalents), and key cost drivers.
- Proven experience building and leading high‑performing teams.
- Advanced skills in commercial analysis, negotiation, reporting, and executive communication.
Key Attributes
- Strategically minded, commercially astute, and financially disciplined, with a strong execution mindset.
- Confident operating at senior leadership level, influencing stakeholder groups across functions.
- Capable of balancing strategic oversight with hands‑on commercial problem‑solving when required.
- Collaborative, proactive, and solution‑oriented, with a focus on value creation and commercial performance.
What we offer:
Colt DCS is a growing business that is investing in its people.
We offer skill development, learning pathways and accreditation to help our people perform at their best, regardless of role and location.
In addition to offering competitive salaries and incentive plans, a range of benefits and local rewards packages are offered to staff.
Colt DCS recognises and is committed to the importance of a work-life balance.
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