About Fortem & Mode
Fortem & Mode is a specialist staffing business supporting premium retail and beauty brands across the UK and Ireland.
We are now looking for a highly organised and commercially minded Commercial & Operations Executive to work closely with our Managing Director and senior team, to help turn ideas, opportunities and priorities into action.
This is a broad, high-ownership role spanning commercial marketing, new business development, research and business operations.
It would suit someone who loves variety, enjoys bringing structure to moving parts and takes genuine satisfaction from making things happen.
The role
You will support the commercial growth and day-to-day development of the business across four key areas.
1. Commercial marketing & lead generation
You will take day-to-day ownership of coordinating marketing activity, working with internal teams and external partners to ensure activity is focused, consistent and commercially relevant.
This will include:
- Coordinating our marketing calendar with internal teams and external partners
- Developing and delivering our email marketing activity
- Monitoring website traffic, enquiries and performance
- Managing the marketing budget and helping decide where spend is best allocated
- Identifying opportunities to strengthen lead generation and paid digital activity
This is not primarily a content creation or digital marketing role. Your focus will be on coordination, commercial effectiveness and keeping activity moving.
2. New business development
You will help us build on our structured and consistent approach to winning new business.
Responsibilities will include:
- Researching and identifying target brands, retailers and organisations
- Finding the right decision-makers and contacts
- Building and maintaining prospect lists and pipelines
- Carrying out initial outreach via various channels
- Managing follow-up activity
- Qualifying interest and arranging introductory meetings for the senior team
- Supporting proposals, pitch materials and other commercial collateral
This is a process-driven business development role rather than a traditional sales position. Organisation, research and persistence will be most important.
3. Commercial research & projects
You will support the Managing Director with the groundwork behind new commercial opportunities.
This may include:
- Researching new markets, sectors, services or locations
- Mapping organisations, suppliers and decision-makers
- Making enquiries and establishing appropriate contacts
- Following up to gather information and progress conversations
- Researching market activity
- Producing clear summaries and recommendations
- Supporting tenders, proposals and longer-term commercial projects
You will not be expected to set the overall strategy, but you will play an important role in making sure promising projects continue to move forward.
4. Business operations & supplier management
You will coordinate a range of practical business operations that sit across the wider company.
This may include:
- Managing relationships with IT, telecoms, mobile, software and other key suppliers
- Managing contracts, renewals and supplier reviews
- Monitoring subscriptions, licences and costs
- Maintaining our equipment and asset inventory
- Coordinating equipment purchases and replacements
- Researching new systems, suppliers and services
- Managing practical cross-business projects
The focus of this part of the role is on ownership, coordination and commercially sensible decision-making.
About you
You will be:
- Exceptionally organised and able to manage multiple workstreams at once
- Process-driven, with strong attention to detail
- Reliable when it comes to follow-up, deadlines and completing what you start
- Commercially minded and naturally curious
- Resourceful and comfortable finding answers when there is no obvious route to them
- Confident taking a broad or ambiguous brief and creating structure around it
- A strong written communicator
- Comfortable initiating conversations with prospective clients and external stakeholders
- Persistent and proactive
- Confident managing external suppliers
- Numerate and comfortable working with budgets, costs and performance data
- Digitally confident and comfortable learning new platforms and systems
- Able to work independently while knowing when input or escalation is needed
This is a hybrid role, but you will need to be based within a practical commuting distance of our Barry office and able to work on-site approximately two days per week, or as required, to spend time with the Managing Director and relevant team members.
Experience
We are open-minded about the exact career path that brings you to this role.
You may have experience in commercial operations, marketing operations, business development, project coordination, account management or a broad commercial role within a growing or entrepreneurial business.
More important than your exact job title is evidence that you can manage multiple projects, work independently, research and progress commercial opportunities and take ownership of delivering outcomes.
Experience of email marketing, CRM systems, digital marketing, supplier management or new business prospecting would be advantageous, but we do not expect you to be a specialist in every area.
If you are highly organised, commercially curious and the sort of person who naturally keeps things moving, we would love to hear from you.
Please note: due to the breadth of this role, we will only consider applications accompanied by a covering letter outlining why your experience and approach make you well suited to the position.
Pay: £34,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Barry CF62
