Galway City Council is appointing a Head of Commercial Services to provide a strategic and operational management resource to commercial aspects of our local authority services and activities.

Commercial focus:
Galway City Council, and our subsidiary and associate companies, currently operate a range of local authority services, tourism visitor attractions /sites, heritage, arts, culture, museum and leisure products. These services, sites, products and subsidiary companies each have their own commercial and revenue strategies. This aims to support service delivery and improvement, as well as, preparation for imminent capital investment.

This role aims to financially support the delivery of high-quality local authority services and ongoing capital investment. This investment will draw on internally generated funds and external capital and revenue grant funding.

The successful candidate will have commercial and financial responsibility for supporting the generation of commercial revenues across the Council’s services, sites, products and subsidiary companies. This will involve working in collaboration across Council Directorates /departments and with subsidiary and associate companies owned and operated by Galway City Council. It will also involve working with National Government Departments, state agencies and the community sector.

The Head of Commercial Services will report to the Director of Finance and form part of the senior team within the Corporate Development Directorate. The post will be supported by the Directorate staff team. Some engagement of external expertise may be required based on commercial needs.
 

The duties and responsibilities of the post involve but are not limited to the following:

• Improve commercial growth and sustainable development within the Galway City Council utilising a collaborative approach with Council management and staff, boards /staff of subsidiary and associate companies.
• Develop a commercial focus in the Council’s services, products, visitor attractions /sites and leisure /amenity facilities.
• Lead project management, change management and development of the commercial services across all Directorates.
• Support the management of capital projects through the provision of commercial and financial expertise.
• Maintain a strong revenue generating approach, specifically in relation to all services and in a particular way tourism, culture, heritage and leisure /recreation services.
• Analyse, monitor and forecast trends in services, customer use, tourism visitor management and property.
• Assist in the development of a sustainable commercial sales and marketing plans for Galway City Council to the benefit of the wider Galway City economy.
• Review existing elements of Galway City Council operations, providing operational and strategic commercial support for specific business units.
• Negotiate contracts and agreements on behalf of Galway City Council to maximise value for the Local Authority
• In cooperation with the Finance, ICT and Digital services of Galway City Council, support the alignment of commercial, financial and other systems in the commercial services area of the Council and subsidiary and associate companies.
• Ensure the implementation of the various commercial report recommendations to support the consistent delivery of exceptional customer service and a unique customer experience.
• Engage with various internal departments of Galway City Council, state agencies /government departments and multiple external stakeholders.
• Manage external contractors in the commercial services area.
• Management/liaison with external consultants engaged to assist with commercial development and capital investment.
• Provide periodic reports to the Director of Finance and Senior Management Team on commercial development. Also, periodic reports to be provided to the Board of Directors of subsidiary and associate companies. If required, this may include a specific delegated role within a company board.
• Represent the organisation on official engagements and events as required.
• Deliver on specific projects that may be assigned from time to time.
• On occasion, be available for a number of outreach projects that may be supported and guided under the auspices of Galway City Council.

• This is a key management position and requires a dynamic person who can lead the development of a commercial focus in the services of Galway City Council.
• The post holder will have proven leadership skills and effective inter-personal /communication skills.
• The person will have strong commercial and financial acumen, as well as, a proficiency in project management.
• Experience of tourism operations is desirable.
• Will have successfully driven and delivered innovation and significant change management in another role.
• Must demonstrate an ability to think strategically and make data-driven decisions.
• Have relevant knowledge and a key insight into the macro socio-economic and political environment of local government.
• The post-holder will be required to work with a diverse team of staff, Elected Members and a wide public audience. 
• The person should be aware of the importance of commercial development in a public sector context in Galway City Council, the wider region and nationally and the benefits that can be derived for the local and wider economy.