Great ideas come from different minds. That’s why we bring together engineers, scientists, analysts, and creatives from every background — and give them the trust, tools, and freedom to make a difference. What connects us is the mission: solving meaningful problems and building capability that protects what matters most.
And as the challenges evolve, so do we — working on the technologies that will shape tomorrow, not just today.
Roke is a UK technology company with a long heritage of helping customers address complex national security, defence and public safety challenges. Roke brings together mission insight, engineering expertise, data science, cyber, AI, communications and specialist technology to anticipate, build and protect against evolving threats.
An opportunity exists for a Commercial Manager – Defence (Languard) within the Roke Commercial team at an important stage in Roke’s evolution in the Reignite Roke era, as the business strengthens customer focus, creates clearer routes to growth and aligns commercial support more closely with Revenue & Growth, Technology & Innovation, Global Services and Products.
The Commercial Manager – Defence (Languard) will support delivery of commercial services to the Defence business function, working closely with the Head of Commercial – Defence and the wider Revenue & Growth Defence team. The role will provide commercial support from early opportunity shaping, customer engagement and bid activity through contract negotiation, acceptance, delivery and in-service contract management.
Summary of the Role
The Commercial Manager – Defence (Languard) will provide robust, proactive and pragmatic commercial management for opportunities, contracts, campaigns, products, services and customer engagements within the Defence business function.
The role will support Roke’s Reignite Roke growth strategy by helping the business convert opportunities into well-structured, compliant and commercially sound contracts, while maintaining an appropriate balance between customer focus, business growth, risk management, governance and contractual discipline.
The successful candidate will operate with clarity, pace and attention to detail, building positive working relationships with internal bid, delivery, finance, technology, account and programme teams, as well as external customers, partners and suppliers.
The role will also contribute to commercial continuous improvement, knowledge sharing and the practical adoption of approved IT tools and AI-enabled ways of working to improve the quality, consistency and speed of commercial support.
Job Purpose and Key Responsibilities
- Provide commercial management support to the Languard area within Revenue & Growth Defence, including customer engagement, opportunity qualification, bidding, contract negotiation, contract acceptance and in-service contract management.
- Support Roke’s Reignite Roke growth strategy by delivering commercially sound support to Defence account growth, sales campaigns, products, services and IP exploitation opportunities.
- Draft, review, negotiate and implement contracts and other commercial agreements, including confidentiality agreements, teaming agreements, subcontracting arrangements, licence agreements and similar documents.
- Support bids, quotations and applications to UK local and national Government bodies, Ministry of Defence and Crown Commercial Service frameworks or other relevant contracting mechanisms.
- Provide commercial support to international opportunities where required, including overseas product or managed services sales, IP exploitation, collaboration arrangements and associated commercial structures, with due consideration to trade compliance obligations.
- Undertake commercial, financial, contractual and business risk and opportunity management during opportunity shaping, bidding, contract negotiation, contract delivery and in-service contract management.
- Work closely with Revenue & Growth Defence, delivery, finance and technical teams to convert quotations and bids into orders, maintaining customer focus through diligent and accurate contract administration.
- Support the establishment and management of relationships with business sales partners, working with Roke Trade Compliance Team, including review, approval, support and monitoring of adherence to Company and Chemring Group policies and business governance requirements.
- Ensure compliance with Roke and Chemring policies, procedures and governance requirements, including appropriate process tailoring and escalation where required.
- Proactively identify opportunities to improve commercial processes, templates, ways of working and knowledge sharing, supporting the objective of making Roke easier to do business with while maintaining appropriate governance, compliance and risk management.
- Promote and use approved IT tools and AI-enabled ways of working to improve commercial productivity, consistency, quality of output and responsiveness.
- Provide guidance, coaching and commercial support to colleagues in the Commercial team and other functions in the course of the role.
- Support other Defence or non-Defence business areas as reasonably required, consistent with the job holder’s experience, capability and business need.
- Undertake such other reasonable duties, commensurate with the job holder’s experience and qualifications, as may be required for the smooth operation of the business.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
- Educated in a Business or Legal based discipline, preferably to degree level, or able to demonstrate equivalent relevant industry experience.
- Existing knowledge of UK Government contracting frameworks and mechanisms would be an advantage.
- High level of computer literacy is essential, including confident use of Microsoft Office, Teams, collaborative working tools and approved business systems.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Demonstrable experience in a relevant commercial, contracts, procurement, business management or related role.
- Experience working with UK Ministry of Defence, UK Government customers or Defence-sector contracting environments.
- Knowledge and understanding of commercial and Defence terms and conditions, with the ability to review, negotiate and implement a variety of contract types.
- Experience of UK HMG, Crown Commercial Service frameworks, Dynamic Purchasing Systems or similar public sector procurement routes would be an advantage.
- Proven ability to support or lead contract negotiations with government and non-government customers, partners and suppliers.
- Ability to draft, negotiate and implement contracts, change requests and commercial agreements with excellent attention to detail.
- Competence in contractual costing, contingencies, provisions, milestone planning, payment planning, contractual risk management and contract negotiation.
- Experience supporting bid submissions, commercial risk reviews, pricing submissions, cashflow planning and payment plan development in collaboration with finance teams.
- Experience of international business, overseas product or service sales, IP exploitation, performance bonds, guarantees or letters of credit would be advantageous, particularly in a Defence context.
- Highly organised, with the ability to maintain focus, manage priorities and deliver quality outputs under pressure.
- Able to work to deadlines and act as a positive influence in achieving team and business goals.
- Confident communicator with strong written and verbal communication skills, able to interact effectively with colleagues, customers, partners and suppliers at all levels.
- Ability to use, promote and improve IT tooling and approved AI-enabled ways of working to support commercial productivity, process improvement, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
- Willingness to travel on business where required, including occasional overseas travel if necessary.
Why You Should Join Us
We offer a competitive salary and access to a number of additional flexible benefits, which will cover Health and Wellbeing, Savings and Protection & Life, Leisure and Entertainment.
Roke has a great community of groups with shared interests. These enable people to share ideas and be passionate about tools, technologies & techniques, which interest them.
We are committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our working environment is friendly, creative and inclusive and support a diverse work-force and those with additional needs.
Security
Due to the nature of this position, the successful candidate will be submitted for and will need to pass UK SC security clearance, if not held already. As a result, the candidate should have resided in the UK for the last five years for SC clearance purposes.
The Next Step
Click apply, submitting an up-to-date CV. We look forward to hearing from you.
Take a look around the company https://www.roke.co.uk/
