Senior Commercial Architect - Associate Director

At EY, you’ll have the chance to build a career as unique as you are, with the global scale, support, inclusive culture and technology to become the best version of you. And we’re counting on your unique voice and perspective to help EY become even better, too. Join us and build an exceptional experience for yourself, and a better working world for all.

The Senior Commercial Architect plays a leadership role in all aspects of our firm’s commercial transformation through tailored pursuit support, activation and adoption of self-enabled tools and development of thought leadership to accelerate a value-focused pricing and commercial culture. The role engages in cross service line rate- and project-based pursuits spanning transformational consulting, managed service, co-source, joint venture and alliance business models, driving consistent pricing and commercial strategies aligned with the expected value of our services resulting in accelerated revenue growth and margin expansion.

The opportunity

Leveraging a robust set of sales, price, solution, and commercial benchmarks and analytics, the role quickly builds trust-based influence with account, pursuit, solution and service line leaders, gaining agreement on the strategy and execution of the monetization and commercialization of the inscope services, solutions and/or products. In the deal shaping phase, the role tests the solution design for alignment with expected value, the client’s willingness to pay, internal return on investment expectations and potential competitor tactics. The role co-creates the negotiations strategy, advises on tactics and response options and when warranted executes negotiations with a fair, balanced, and appropriate exchange of value orientation.

Your key responsibilities include

Provide leadership, oversight and accountability from qualification to close across all pricing, financial and commercial aspects of the largest, highest risk, most complex, strategic pursuits including the monetization approach and associated commercial terms and conditions across the full spectrum of potential business models and commercial arrangements

Build trust-based relationships and influence decision making across internal and client stakeholders contributing to positive sum outcomes that unlock client value and enhance EY revenue and margin

Shape opportunities by drawing together client and competitor intelligence (across the domains of sales, price, solution, and commercials), the value estimates (inherent and relative) of the proposed solution and innovative commercial structures to create a clear, compelling proposal that aligns with the client’s willingness to pay

Influence successful win strategy by providing researched perspectives about competitor solution, pricing and commercial positioning to derive a pricing strategy based on perceived differentiation, working across pursuit leaders and stakeholders to achieve target

Collaborate with solution architects and domain experts to align solution design to client response requirements, estimate the forecasted cost-to-serve of products, solutions, services and transactions, integrate costing guidance and standards, and document assumptions in a concise format for deal shaping analysis, optimization, and iteration in support of key pursuit milestones

Leverage advanced analytics, dashboards, web- and MS-Excel-based tools bringing together external observations, proposed pursuit solution design, modeled pursuit economics and historical internal peer group performance to rapidly develop, test and refine a pursuit’s pricing strategy, positioning and offer design

Articulate the pursuit’s forecasted economics based on accounting standards and internal policies/guidelines; the competitive, commercial and financial risks of the proposed win/pricing strategy; the integrated risk mitigation strategies; and the likely financial success and alignment of the pursuit with long term strategic plans, ensuring a compelling ROI for EY and our clients

Identify, communicate and manage competitive and commercial risks through proactive collaboration with Deal Leader/Manager, Lead Negotiator, Solution Architect, Legal, Risk Management, QRM and Independence

Design and execute compelling commercial propositions that support our win strategy, are aligned with the client value drivers, minimizes our risk exposure and delivers the targeted return

Author client facing documents including value estimation, value articulation and pricing proposal narrative; pricing and commercial assumptions; MS-Excel-based price/solution templates; and all pricing, financial and associated commercial terms and conditions including applicable sections of the Statement of Work (SOW) to position a holistic, risk-mitigated, compelling proposition

Participate and advise on negotiations with client and their trusted advisors in close collaboration with the Lead Negotiator to achieve positive sum outcomes

Document and transition financial and commercial knowledge of pursuit to account and delivery teams in support of contract management execution aligned with approved/sold financials minimizing value leakage during delivery

Curate market and competitive intelligence across primary, secondary and third-party research channels into an integrated ecosystem of sales, price, solution and commercial benchmarks positioning supported and self-enabled pursuits to price with conviction, confident in our differentiated value, resulting in increased win odds and profitable growth

Contribute to performance improvement, knowledge capital and thought leadership projects such as SaaS-, Web and MS-Excel-based tools, recurring newsletters, immersive sites, articles, presentations and trainings to accelerate our commercial transformation to a value-based pricing culture

Act as an SMR to leadership, proactively assisting the FOPs to explore and understand opportunities to grow commercial returns from new and existing solutions and services and developing progressive pricing strategies for new products and services

Skills and attributes for success

Understanding of macro and micro economic environment and trends that affect current and potential EY client industries and businesses – and how these impact opportunities

Proven track record designing, modelling, shaping and structuring transformational consulting, managed services, co-source, joint venture and alliance business models utilizing input-, output- and outcome-based commercial models

Experience with a broad spectrum of pricing strategies applicable to professional services including cost-, client value-, client willingness-to-pay- and competition-driven and an assessment of pricing power in context of an individual pursuit incorporating competitive forces

Knowledge of economic value estimation modeling including inherent and relative value assessment Understanding of the client decision making process and how value journeys and value tables can provide insight into a client’s willingness to pay and influence the outcome

Familiar with key behavioral economic insights such as prospect theory, loss aversion, anchoring and adjustment and choice architecture (options)

Adept at synthesizing large quantities of data and observations from internal and external (primary, secondary and third party) sources into actionable intelligence for a broad range of stakeholders Able to simplify the complex, establish credibility quickly and build trust-based influence with senior stakeholders while navigating the availability of limited/ambiguous information

Collaborate effectively across a matrix organization showcasing pursuit and relationship management skills to deliver a high-quality work product while navigating conflicting interests

Possess natural coaching skills, comfortable facilitating pursuit team discussions, speaking in large group settings, handling difficult conversations, influencing without authority and writing persuasively

Ideally, you’ll also have

Advanced degree (Masters in Business or equivalent) with 12+ years of experience in professional services, strategy consulting, investment banking, financial planning & analysis, corporate development, SaaS/cloud commercialization or pricing

Expert proficiency in financial modelling, accounting, budgeting and associated metrics

What we look for

Trusted Strategic Advisor – Build Trust and credibility by proactively providing forward-thinking insights and guidance

Gold Standard Champion – Execute EY’s “gold standard” pursuit process with discipline and expertise to improve consistency and use of leading practices in EY’s approach to winning

Win-Win Advocate – Drive internal and external clients towards compelling and sustainable results for both the client and EY

Creativity and innovation Driver – Inspire and challenge teams to differentiate EY through innovative strategies and deliverables that compel our clients to choose EY

Inspirational Change Agent – Invest in developing world-class talent, methods, tools, and capabilities to deliver better results, create exceptional experiences, and develop transformative leaders and teams

What we offer

As part of this role, you'll work in a highly integrated, global team with the opportunity and tools to grow, develop and drive your career forward. Here, you can combine global opportunity with flexible working. The EY benefits package goes above and beyond too, focusing on your physical, emotional, financial and social well-being. Your recruiter can talk to you about the benefits available in your country. Here’s a snapshot of what we offer:

Continuous learning: You’ll develop the mindset and skills to navigate whatever comes next.

Success as defined by you: We’ll provide the tools and flexibility, so you can make a meaningful impact, your way.

Transformative leadership: We’ll give you the insights, coaching and confidence to be the leader the world needs.

Diverse and inclusive culture: You’ll be embraced for who you are and empowered to use your voice to help others find theirs.

Acknowledgement of Country

EY acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which EY offices are located around Australia. We pay our respects to their cultures, and to their Elders — past, present, and emerging. Find out more about our vision for reconciliation at

Apply now… we’re over 9,000 perspectives in Australia and we’re ready to welcome yours.

At EY we take inclusivity seriously, and we’re committed to removing barriers and improving the employment prospects of people with disability or long-term health conditions. We encourage you to share any support and adjustments you need to be your best and participate equitably in our recruitment process. We understand sharing your needs with us can be daunting, so if you have questions before or during your application, we welcome you to get in touch at or +61 3 8650 7788 (option 2). Anything you tell us will be kept completely confidential.

The exceptional EY experience. It’s yours to build.

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