This role gives you end-to-end commercial ownership. You'll price the tenders, structure the contracts, manage the risk, and monitor performance through to close-out. That means you'll see how your commercial decisions actually land, not hand off and hope for the best.
You'll report directly to the Finance Director. The commercial calls you make reach someone with the authority and the appetite to act on them. You'll be working with a leader who understands commercial rigour and values it.
PBE Rutherford Mining is a specialist industrial services business based in the Hunter region, operating across mining equipment, asset hire, and workshop services. The core role is here, but you'll also provide commercial support across related PBE businesses, which means the breadth of what you're exposed to goes further than the title alone suggests.
And because this is a doing role with no direct reports, your time goes on commercial work. Not on managing people who do it.
What you'll be responsible for
You'll be the commercial nerve centre connecting Business Development, Operations, and Finance. Your name is on the margin assumptions when tenders go out, and you're at the table when contracts get complex or contested.
The contract portfolio spans customer agreements, asset hire, workshop services, and variations. Broad enough that no two weeks look the same, and commercially weighted enough to matter.
* Validating costs, analysing margin, identifying and pricing contractual risk across all quotations and tenders.
* Commercial review, negotiation, and ongoing management of customer contracts, asset hire agreements, workshop service agreements, and variations.
* Maintaining a central register of contracts, key commercial terms, risks, and obligations.
* Monitoring commercial performance across contracts and product lines – identifying margin erosion, cost overruns, and recommending corrective action.
* Supporting commercial operations across the broader PBE Group, including Projects, Cables, Coupler Co, and PBE Electronics.
* Preparing regular commercial reports for management covering contract status, margin performance, risk profile, and claims.
What you'll bring
You'll be commercially credible in rooms full of operations people and still maintain productive working relationships with them. This role sits at the intersection of financial rigour and operational pragmatism, and you'll bring both.
A background in mining, energy, or heavy industrial services isn't just preferred; it's the context that will make your commercial judgement relevant from day one.
* Demonstrated experience in a senior commercial, contracts, or commercial management role within an industrial, mining, energy, or heavy services environment.
* Proven capability supporting business development and client engagement from a commercial and contractual perspective.
* Strong commercial acumen: the ability to balance risk, profitability, and operational delivery without defaulting to either extreme.
* Effective communication and interpersonal skills, with the confidence to engage customers, operational teams, and senior leaders.
* Strong organisational capability, with the ability to manage multiple contracts, priorities, and stakeholders concurrently.
What's on offer
PBE Rutherford Mining is commercially serious enough to have created a dedicated role for this function, which tells you something about how the business values it. The Finance Director and executive team are accessible and commercially literate. You'll be working with people who understand what good looks like, not explaining it from scratch.
For a commercial professional who wants genuine accountability, this is a better environment than most.
* End-to-end commercial ownership across a growing tender pipeline and live contract portfolio.
* Visibility across multiple PBE business lines – exposure that goes well beyond a single P&L.
* A stable, growing industrial business with a diversified client base and long-standing operational presence in the mining and resources sector.
Additional details
Based at Tomago, NSW – well-positioned for the Hunter region and accessible from Newcastle and the broader Hunter Valley.
Some cross-site travel expected in support of PBE Group businesses.
If you're a commercially minded professional who wants to own the numbers, and you have the industrial background to back it up, this role will give you both the responsibility and the access to make a real difference to the business's bottom line.
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