Commercial Planning Lead

Job Description

We need everyones positive energy and innovative thinking to lead the energy transition to net zero. Thats why we welcome applications from all backgrounds and experiences and have a range of flexible working options to suit everyone! Were looking fora Commercial Planning Lead for a 12 Month fixed term contract based at our Nottingham OfficeHeres what youll be doingCES Heat Networks plays a key part in E.ON UKs strategy of leading the energy transition and providing Smart, Sustainable, Personalised Energy.CES is established as a leader in the district heating market in the UK and the Commercial Planning Lead plays an active role in driving this vision in the CES In-Life/Operations and Maintenance Division (O&M) by:

• Ensuring CES O&M is in a position to scale at pace,
• Identify and Deliver commercial values through process and system changes by influence cross functional stakeholders who often has conflict priority.
• Pro- actively establishing the requirements of CESs internal and external customer needs from a reporting, benchmarking and contract delivery perspective.

The role will support the Commercial Planning Manager with planning, performance reporting and manage teams of people on an ad-hoc and project by project basic in order to deliver financial and contractual obligations. It includes detailed financial andcommercial analysis for Gross Margin at a site level and commercial opportunities through revenue capture or cost control across the CES portfolio. This will involve gaining a full understanding of the CES business model and asset performance and translatingit to financial results, identifying cost reduction opportunities and close working with senior stakeholders.Value Capture Opportunities:

• Responsible to capture value throughout the Operations, identifying and driving change across 70 existing operational sites
• Solving complex commercial problem utilising financial and commercial skills.
• Drive change in operational processes and systems throughout the operational lifecycle, including customer registration, incomplete or inaccurate billing, insource vs outsource decisions, stock management, cost control
• Take ownership of spend review across portfolio (c £10m), promote cost control, assess cost saving opportunities and working with stakeholders to deliver target savings
• Assess opportunities using discounted cashflow techniques
• Present results to senior stakeholders (CES Executive and CES Leadership) that are understandable, succinct, and structured to facilitate decision making

Reporting, Planning and Analysis:

• Ownership of the design and production of monthly Operations performance reporting
• Provide insightful analysis on operational data and highlight financial consequences. Work with cross function stakeholders to improve financial/ non-financial performance, deliver and manage expected outcomes.
• Operational lead on MTP and Forecast activities, produce site level Gross Margin, conduct root cause analysis and review outputs with CES leadership team
• Challenge commercial and technical assumptions and highlight areas that would improve E.ON’s risk and return profile through sensitivity risk analysis, dynamic modelling on what-if’ scenarios
• Maintain excellent audit trails, follow best practice principles when modelling and ensure data, assumptions and logic are capable of standing up to rigorous scrutiny from internal stakeholders. Accounting assumptions for 70 sites are in line with theirESCO agreements.
• Support post investment reviews and asset financial impairment investigations

Way of working and process improvement:

• Project manage cross functional teams of people (from CES, wider EIS business and other supports functions who often have different priority) on a project basic including establishing and leading the team, managing the timeline and delivery of recommendations/outputs and ensuring relevant and appropriate stakeholder reporting
• Design and implementing operational reporting which steer business decision making using digitalised tools and data.
• Develop or modify the existing financial models to handle new assets/new technology/new approaches which will involve a sound knowledge of accounting principles and some knowledge of engineering concepts
• Develop and manage relationships with stakeholders internal and external to CES

What we need from youEssential

• Strong commercial acumen and understanding of risks
• Excellent financial spreadsheet modelling skills
• A qualified accountant or engineer or someone who has experience of financial and engineering concepts as applicable to O&M of infrastructure assets
• Ability to convey technical (financial or engineering) info in a clear and concise manner to junior and senior stakeholders
• Developed critical and numerical reasoning skills
• Demonstrable people management skills and the ability to project manage
• The ability to multitask, maintain focus under pressure and ensure accuracy and attention to detail at all times
• Innovative/entrepreneurial spirit - curious about new technologies, practices and thinking and actively seeking opportunities to harness this for competitive advantage.
• Collaborative - evidence of ability to work across functions, sectors and regions, building lasting relationships based on mutual benefit.
• Influencing - proven ability to influence across all stakeholder levels and peer groups.
• Communication - Strong communication skills with the ability to make complex topics simple and engaging for non-technical experts.
• Highly driven with desire to progress further within the organisation.

Desirable

• Educated to degree level or equivalent (or otherwise suitably experienced) in a finance/business/mathematical/engineering subject
• A working knowledge of long-term contract accounting
• Ability to extract risks and financial consequences from reading a contract document
• An understanding of District heat network, commodity product strategy, commodity hedging.