Commercial Architect - Pricing Lead

The Lead Commercial Architect (“LCA”) is a senior role within the Area Strategic Pricing team. The role is an ambassador of the firm’s pricing and commercial transformation, exempified through world-class, differentiated commercial advice on pursuits, architecture and activation of self-help tools, and development of thought leadership to accelerate a value-led pricing and commercial culture. The role engages in cross-service line pursuits spanning commercial frameworks, 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 enhanced client preference, increased win rates, accelerated revenue growth and expanded margins. 

Leveraging a robust, market leading set of sales, solution, price and commercial benchmarks, insights and analytics, the LCA swiftly builds trust-based influence with account, pursuit, solution, service line, sector and industry group leaders, securing agreement on the optimal pricing and positioning strategy and implementation approach including the monetization and commercialization of the in-scope services, solutions and/or products.  Iteratively and collaboratively, the LCA assesses the solution design for alignment with expected client value, the competitive frames of reference, and our margin expectations. The LCA is responsible for the commercial structuring (and deal shaping) strategy, advises on client procurement tactics, guides our response, and collaborates with the lead negotiator to negotiate price and commercial matters with the client in a fair, balanced, mutually beneficial exchange of value orientation. 

Throughout the pursuit lifecycle the LCA is consistently recognized for their ability to adeptly lead the complete, end-to-end price and commercial strategy and its execution, by simplifying the complex, crisply articulating the key considerations, bringing forward thoughtful recommendations that secure industry group, sector, service line and account leadership trust and support. Through deeply influential and trusted relationships across the EY Global Network, the LCA is consistently called upon to engage in client conversations, on pricing and commercial matters, fostering with our clients a collaborative growth environment. The LCA is recognized for their ability to navigate challenging, difficult discussions with empathy, clarity of purpose and an unrelenting focus on achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. The resulting client interactions enhance our differentiated EY brand positioning, building client and account team trust and set the foundation for profitable client account growth.

Beyond their significant account/pursuit impacts, the LCA consistently engages across the Global EY Network to improve overall firm performance with a direct, visible, high-impact role working with Senior Partners and leadership. This work may encompass (1) the ideation, development, activation and delivery of learning and performance initiatives including eLearnings, webinars, virtual instructor lead and in-person sessions that amplify and drive adoption of pricing and commercial behaviors, resulting in improved pricing, margin and win rate performance, (2) the ideation, development, activation and adoption of innovative technology and platforms that simplify and improve the outputs of the positioning, solutioning, costing and pricing process which directly enhances firm financial performance, upskills the practitioner, and unlocks additional time for higher value, client focused work, and/or (3) serving as a Global/Area Service Line Subject Matter Resource pulling thru as appropriate (1) and (2) while authoring and delivering innovative thought leadership content across the positioning, pricing and commercial spectrum to accelerate acheivement of the associated initiative(s).   

Consistently demonstrating a growth-mindset, the LCA actively creates immersive career experiences and professional growth opportunities for their colleagues and team members by amplifying curiousity, encouraging exploration, and advocating for continuous learning and performance which fuels intrinsic motivation and high levels of engagement. Fostering a culture of psychological safety and radical candor, the LCA appropriately stretches the challenge skills gap of those they work with, recognizing individual and team growth often comes from unexpected challenges that are met and navigated with care. Holding themselves, their colleagues and their team members to consistently high standards of performance, the LCA leads in making a positive, lasting, measureable, outsized impact on our market and financial performance.

Essential functions: 

Some or all of the below accountabilities will be applicable depending on the scope of the role:

• Provide leadership, oversight and accountability from qualification to close across all pricing, financial and commercial aspects of our 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
• 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 client 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 the pursuit’s win strategy by providing insightful, actionable, researched perspectives about competitor solution, price and commercial positioning to develop a compelling pricing strategy incorporating perceived differentiation and expected value, working across pursuit leaders and stakeholders to achieve target offering design and outcome
• Collaborate with solution architects and domain experts to align solution design to client response requirements, rigorously estimate the forecasted cost-to-serve of products, solutions, services and transactions, integrate firm costing guidance and risk mitigation standards, and document assumptions in a clear, concise format for analysis, iteration, and optimization 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
• Lead the Identification, communication and mitigation of competitive and commercial risks through proactive collaboration with Deal Lead/Manager, Lead Negotiator, Solution Architect, Legal, Risk Management, QRM and Independence, Account Team and Industry Group/Sector/Service Line leadership
• 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
• Lead negotiations on pricing and related commercial matters with client and their trusted advisors while collaborating closely with the Deal Lead, Lead Negotiator, Global Client Service Partner, and Engagement Partner, and others as appropriate, to achieve mutually beneficial, 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 profitable growth 
• Significantly contribute to performance improvement, knowledge capital and thought leadership projects such as SaaS-, Web-, SQL- and MS-Excel-based tools, recurring newsletters, immersive sites, articles, presentations and trainings to accelerate our commercial transformation to a value-led pricing culture
• Proactively engage Market, Industry Group, Sector, and Service Line leaders to improve market and financial performance by bringing forward unique, actionable insights, intelligence, projects and programs
   

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

 
Some or all of the below responsibilities will be applicable depending on the scope of the role:

• Lead with curiosity and embrace a scientific-led, hypothesis-driven approach to understanding and synthesizing disparate and/or ambiguous data/intelligence/observations in establishing the recommended pricing and commercial strategy
• Ensure activation and adoption of best-practice methods, tools and assets while flexing engagement approach to meet the needs of a given pursuit or project team
• Embrace solving challenging problems in an innovative, unique manner that unlocks new ways of working to advance pursuit, project, team and firm pricing and commercial capabilities
• Showcase empathy while collaborating across a range of social styles to build trust-based influence and achieve target outcomes
• Provide exceptional client service (internal/external) across multiple pursuits/projects by consistently demonstrating the ability to prioritize critical activities to meet business needs under limited, often demanding, timelines
• Adept at navigating volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), weighing conflicting, incomplete information, to make clear, compelling recommendations and decisions

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:  

Some or all of the below knowledge and skills requirements will be applicable depending on the scope of the role:

• 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 commercial frameworks, transformational consulting, managed services, co-source, joint venture and alliance business models utilizing input-, output- and outcome-based commercial models
• Commanding knowledge, understanding and applicability of pricing strategies to professional services including cost-, client value-, client willingness-to-pay- and competition-driven and an ability to assess and improve the pricing power of an individual pursuit considering account and competitive dynamics
• Experience with productization and pricing strategies of software, hardware and services such as X-as-a-Service and emerging Services-as-a-Software
• Knowledge of economic value estimation modeling including inherent and relative value assessment
• Intimate 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
• Noted for ability to simplify the complex, establish credibility quickly and build trust-based influence with senior stakeholders while navigating the availability of limited/ambiguous information
• Authors compelling client proposal materials and rigorous contractual agreement terms and conditions documents consistent with market standards and firm quality, risk and independence requirements 
• Collaborates masterfully 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
   

Supervision Responsibilities: 

• Ability to execute performance standards with a high degree of independence and autonomy 
• Serves as a Industry Group Service Tower Pod Leader (typically 8-10 team members) and as a Counselor (typically 2-3 team members) fostering a supportive, psychologically safe, high engagement, high-performance culture
• Sought out as a mentor/coach to their peers and colleagues on any/all aspects of sales, price, cost, solution and commercial strategy (design, development, and execution) and inspire others through individual success in the market
• Craft with care, thought and precision, immersive career experiences for counselees, pod members, and pricing and commercial colleagues that continuously improves our technical, analytical, and modeling foundation with growth in functional areas of executive communication, storytelling, presentation and trust-based influence through oral and written communications
• Lead, as a Counselor, the firm’s performance management process with open, honest and constructive performance and developmental feedback
• Active in peer and after-action review processes, leveraging their subject-matter-resource (SMR) and leadership role to quickly identify, document, and mitigate noted risks and performance gaps across costing rigor, financial modeling, financial analysis, client communications, and workflow documentation
   

Other Requirements:

• Bringing a growth mindset, the role executes a consistent set of behaviors as we aspire to be a(n):
  • Trusted strategic advisor – who drives internal and external clients toward outcomes that deliver compelling and sustainable results for EY and our clients
  • Gold standard champion – who executes with discipline and rigor, improving the consistency and use of leading practices in our approach to winning
  • Value advocate – who moves beyond pricing execution, building trust-based influence through storytelling and experience-led perspectives to enhance our perceived differentiation 
  • Innovation driver – who inspires and challenges teams to differentiate EY through innovative strategies, experiences and deliverables at scale – developing our commercial DNA with far reaching impact
  • Inspirational change agent – who invests in developing world-class talent, methods, tools, and capabilities to deliver better results, create exceptional experiences, and develop transformative leaders and teams
• Limited to moderate to frequent travel will be required
   

Education:

• University/Bachelors’ degree or equivalent qualification required
• MBA or Master’s degree (or equivalent qualification) in Business or related field preferred

Experience:

• 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

Certification Requirements:

• Professional accounting or financial certification 

What we offer you

At EY, we’ll develop you with future-focused skills and equip you with world-class experiences. We’ll empower you in a flexible environment, and fuel you and your extraordinary talents in a diverse and inclusive culture of globally connected teams. Learn more.  

Are you ready to shape your future with confidence? Apply today.   

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