Commercial & Partnerships Director

About Watsmen

Watsmen is building an engineering-led industrial group. We connect technical capability, disciplined execution and practical commercial judgement to deliver valuable industrial solutions.

Role Purpose

Turn Watsmen's demonstrated engineering and industrial capability into well-scoped customer mandates, durable partnerships and commercially sound delivery. Build a disciplined commercial function that understands customer problems, qualifies opportunities honestly and makes commitments the delivery organisation can fulfil.

Key Accountabilities

• Build and maintain a qualified opportunity portfolio with a named owner, customer problem, decision process, evidence, next action and recorded pursuit or no-pursuit decision.
• Lead customer discovery and partnership development; translate requirements into an agreed opportunity brief and secure technical input before representing capability or proposing delivery.
• Own the commercial proposal process, including value proposition, scope, price rationale, assumptions, exclusions and handover criteria; obtain Finance, Legal and technical concurrence before commitment.
• Develop original equipment manufacturer (OEM), industrial and delivery partnerships through evidenced capability assessment, clear responsibilities, conflict checks and documented relationship plans.
• Coordinate trade, contracts and regional commercial interfaces so that one customer record, accountable owner and agreed delivery plan replace competing approaches or privately held relationships.
• Run an evidence-based commercial review covering conversion, margin quality, collections, delivery feedback and control exceptions; coach contributors and preserve reusable proposal and partnership knowledge.
• Own the complete customer revenue cycle with Marketing, from qualification and conversion to account expansion and retention; align delivery capacity and funding at handover and track contribution and cash with Finance.

First 90 Days

• By day 30: Validate the available capability and active pipeline with technical, finance and regional owners; produce a prioritised account/opportunity register and identify misleading or unsupported claims.
• By day 60: Put qualification, bid review and handover templates into use on live or representative opportunities; agree owners, review gates and pricing inputs with control functions.
• By day 90: Present a decision-ready set of qualified pursuits and partnership options, with traceable customer evidence and a tested handover process. Record no-pursuit decisions where economics, capability or integrity do not support progression. Demonstrate a shared customer opportunity and handover record, with qualification, conversion or verified procurement evidence and an account-development plan.

Essential Requirements

• Evidence of winning and shaping complex industrial, engineering or technical-service work with a credible understanding of delivery risk.
• Ability to assess customer needs, develop commercial models and negotiate scope without concealing assumptions or transferring unmanaged risk.
• Experience coordinating technical, financial, legal and operational contributors across functions or jurisdictions.
• Clear written proposals and executive communication, disciplined customer relationship management (CRM) use and practical team leadership.
• Professional judgment to decline unsupported claims, inappropriate counterparties or commercially attractive work that cannot be delivered responsibly.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in industrial products, energy, infrastructure, resources or manufacturing markets relevant to Watsmen's active work.
• Evidence of building transferable OEM or delivery partnerships and improving bid-to-delivery performance.

Authority And Decision Boundaries

• Own commercial preparation, prioritisation recommendations and relationship coordination within approved mandates.
• Pricing exceptions, contractual commitments, spending, technical acceptance and regulated representations require the designated approvals; the role cannot override independent control or technical decisions.

Key Interfaces

Group Technical Authority & Engineering Director; Group Chief Financial Officer; Group General Counsel & Governance Director; Group Trade Manager and Contracts & Commercial Manager; Platform and Anchor leaders.

Reports to the COO. Head of Marketing & Growth on demand and offers; People on capability; Finance and delivery owners on capacity, contribution and cash.

How Success Is Evidenced

• Quality and progression of qualified opportunities, supported by customer evidence rather than nominal pipeline value.
• Approved contribution, cash collection and customer outcomes attributable to accepted work.
• Accurate commitments, complete handovers and reusable institutional customer/partner records.
• Qualified conversion, retention and account expansion, supported by accepted customer outcomes, contribution and collection evidence.

Activation And Delivery Readiness

Assigned work requires confirmed resources, competent delivery capacity and the applicable approvals. The role operates within its documented delegation; appointment alone does not confer contracting, spending, technical-approval or system-access authority.

Location And Travel

Istanbul, Türkiye. Customer, partner and delivery-site travel is expected where it serves an approved mandate; frequency, destinations and support arrangements are agreed before appointment.

Employment And Working Arrangements

Full-time employment, with annual performance reviews. Twelve-month renewable contracts where legally appropriate, with probation and renewal terms determined under local law.

Roles are on-site by default. Hybrid or remote working requires prior approval. No relocation assistance or visa support is provided.

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