Commercial Director

About the Role

Unified Real Estate Development Company is seeking a Commercial Director to lead and oversee the Commercial function across its development portfolio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves managing tendering, contract administration, cost control, and partner/JV commercial governance. The position requires over 10 years of relevant experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the Commercial function strategy in alignment with URED’s corporate and development strategy.
• Prepare and manage annual business plans, manpower plans, and budgets for the Commercial Division.
• Establish and monitor measurable KPIs for tendering, cost control, and contract performance.
• Standardize tendering templates, cost-control tools, and contract-management processes across all projects.
• Lead multi-project commercial governance and performance reporting to Executive Management.

Tendering and Cost Management

• Manage the end-to-end tendering process for all packages, ensuring accuracy of documents and scope.
• Lead technical/commercial bid evaluation and comparison, adhering to procurement policies.
• Validate tendered/award values against project cost breakdowns before recommending awards.
• Break down approved project budgets into cost lines per package at kickoff and maintain as the live cost baseline.
• Track committed and actual costs against budget lines, consolidating into project-level cost reports.
• Flag potential budget exceedances early for corrective action and manage variation order evaluations and approvals.

Contract Administration and Risk Management

• Oversee contract administration for all contractor, consultant, and development-partner/JV agreements.
• Maintain a comprehensive contract and partner-agreement register, capturing key terms and payment plans.
• Monitor agreements against their terms, ensuring proactive management of payment triggers and obligations.
• Ensure claims, notices, and disputes are managed within contractual timeframes, escalating as needed.
• Identify commercial, cost, and contractual risks at both project and portfolio levels.
• Provide executive-level reporting on budget-vs-actual, contract/partner exposure, and tendering pipeline status.

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead and develop the QS, Proposal & Pre-Contract Manager, and Contracts & Cost Controller roles.
• Conduct annual performance appraisals and identify talent gaps and succession needs.
• Promote a high-performance, accountability-driven culture within the Commercial team.

Continuous Improvement and Strategic Support

• Conduct commercial close-out reviews on completed projects to identify cost-efficiency opportunities.
• Standardize lessons learned into future tendering and cost-control templates.
• Execute strategic tasks assigned by Executive Management related to Commercial and Technical Services.
• Support new development feasibility reviews from a cost and commercial-structuring perspective.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in a relevant commercial leadership role.
• Demonstrated expertise in tendering, contract administration, and cost control within real estate development.
• Strong leadership and team management capabilities.
• Ability to develop and implement strategic commercial functions.