Commercial Director

The Company

Our client is a progressive global plastic recycling business with three distinct divisions: (1) Plastic Recycling; (2) Recycled Supply Chain Management; and (3) Recycled & Waste Plastic Feedstock. Their expert global team combine impressive technical knowledge and capability with a passion for recycling and the circular economy. Our client is passionate about transforming waste into a valuable commodity, buying, selling and recycling scrap plastic.

Since our client started on their journey in 2005, they have developed a worldwide presence, serving hundreds of customers in over 50 countries. They have grown a strong, talented team who are highly trained, dedicated and loyal. They are headquartered in Hong Kong with operations and representation in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Turkey, Spain, Netherlands & UK. They operate a factory based in the UK specialising in the collection and recycling of plastic waste generated from industry and manufacturing.

Job Summary

Your role is to build and lead the purchasing and sales team covering the Asia market that will enable us to fulfil our client's mission to become the world’s largest recycled plastics commodities company.

The mission of this role is to deliver profitable, strategic and repeatable growth by moving the region from reactive spot trading towards larger scale accounts that generate contracted business via solution-led commercial execution.

The Commercial Director will own the commercial direction and performance of Asia. This includes developing the regional commercial plan, prioritising strategic verticals, building supplier and buyer relationships, creating account plans, coaching the team, improving deal quality and ensuring the region is aligned with our client’s wider strategy.

This is not a desk-only leadership role. The successful candidate must be able to operate at senior level while staying close to the market, deals, customers, suppliers and team activity. They will be expected to create leverage by making the existing commercial team more focused, more capable and more valuable, rather than simply adding more headcount. This role is expected to actively develop strategic level accounts directly and transform them into long term value generating clients.

A strong career history as a successful salesperson and sales manager, you are a proven leader who has experience building high-performance sales teams in a commodity business.

Role Snapshot

• Core purpose: Lead Asia commercial growth and raise the value created by the existing commercial team. 
• Key focus: Strategic accounts, contracted business, vertical focus, team performance, market development and First Choice execution.
• Must avoid: Becoming only a senior salesperson or only a people manager. This role must create scalable commercial leverage. 
• Success looks like: Asia has clearer strategic priorities, stronger key accounts, higher-quality pipeline, better deal discipline and more repeatable GP.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Strategy & Regional Commercial Leadership:
• Develop and own the Asia commercial plan in line with our client’s global strategy.
• Translate group strategy into clear priorities for Asia: which verticals, customers, suppliers, countries and materials matter most.
• Focus leadership time and team activity on higher-value opportunities rather than low-return, high-friction trading.
• Set clear expectations for team activity, account development, contracted business and pipeline quality.
• Determine the countries and regions where purchasing and/or sales representation is required on the ground
• Identify capability gaps and work with Talent to hire only where there is a clear leverage case.
• Use data, commercial intelligence and market feedback to make decisions quickly and change direction when required.
• Lead the team to constantly enhance sales skills, material knowledge and industry knowledge through formal training, coaching and creating a culture of continuous improvement.
• Lead Asia’s contribution to becoming First Choice for strategic customers and suppliers.
• Work with operations, logistics, finance, technical and compliance teams to understand what customers value beyond price.
• Develop solution-led value propositions for priority verticals and accounts.
• Engage in constant and active risk management, ensuring systems are in place to support
• Strategic Accounts & Contracted Business:
• Identify and develop priority strategic buyers and suppliers.
• Create account plans for key relationships, including current value, growth potential, risks and contract opportunities.
• Drive the move from spot trading towards contracted, repeatable business.
• Build executive-level relationships with important buyers and suppliers, not only trader-to-trader relationships.
• Increase share of wallet, shipment frequency and multi-material or multi-country penetration across strategic accounts.
• What Success Looks Like:
• Asia has a clear commercial plan focused on strategic accounts, priority verticals and profitable growth.
• The team is producing higher-quality opportunities, stronger pipeline and better follow-through.
• Strategic customers and suppliers are being developed through account plans, executive relationships and better service.
• A growing share of GP comes from repeatable, contracted or strategic relationships.
• The current commercial team becomes more effective without simply adding more people.
• Commercial activity is better aligned with operations, logistics, finance, compliance and technical capability.

Requirements

• Knowledge (Education & Related Experience):

• 10+ years of commercial, trading, business development, sales leadership or commodity-market experience.
• Proven experience leading or strongly influencing commercial teams across countries, cultures or time zones.
• Experience in commodities, recycling, plastics, chemicals, logistics, manufacturing, packaging, freight forwarding or international trade is strongly preferred.
• Track record of developing strategic accounts, negotiating complex deals and improving commercial performance.
• Experience moving businesses from reactive sales activity towards structured pipeline, account planning and repeatable growth.
• Experience with CRM, commercial reporting and performance management.

• Skills & Abilities:

• Able to create commercial clarity in a fast-moving and ambiguous market.
• Able to lead independently without waiting for step-by-step direction.
• Able to coach people while holding high standards on performance and follow-through.
• Able to build credibility with senior customers, suppliers and internal leaders.
• Able to use data and market intelligence to make practical commercial decisions.
• Able to challenge people constructively when standards, risk or deal quality are not good enough.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with the confidence to work across global teams.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen, including margin, cash, risk and working capital awareness.

• General Attributes:

• Non-Negotiables: Being Resilient, Collaborative, Customer Focused, Inquisitive, Reflective, Resourcefulness, Taking Initiative.
• Strategic Mindset – thinks ahead and builds a realistic plan to help our client's win in Asia.
• Business Insight & Data Literacy – reads market, financial and performance data to shape better decisions.
• Drives Results – owns the numbers and pushes for profitable growth.
• Develops Talent – raises the level of the team, hires well and builds future capability.
• Persuades & Influences – gets people aligned through clear commercial judgement and practical reasoning.
• Decisiveness – makes clear calls even when the full picture is not available.
• Willing to take complete ownership of the role and drive success.
• Grit and determination.