The usual route runs from Quantity Surveyor through Commercial Manager to Senior Commercial Manager or Head of Commercial, and the step to Commercial Director is won on a record of running a whole commercial position of comparable scale: the final accounts, the cash, the risk and a team.
How do I move from Quantity Surveyor to Commercial Director?
The route to the seat, and what gets you through the door.
Last updated 1 November 2026. By Scott Lechley, founder of Lechley Associates. Quantity Surveyor from 1990 to 2002, construction executive search since 2002.
The numbers
- The seat most Commercial Directors step up from: Senior Commercial Manager, £100,000 to £120,000 base on a major London scheme in 2026.
- The seat itself: a regional Commercial Director at a Tier 1 or large Tier 2 contractor, £130,000 to £175,000 base in 2026, plus car, bonus and pension.
- The step before it: Head of Commercial, in most businesses.
- What a shortlist is tested on: five things. The record on final accounts and disputes, the discipline on cash and commercial reporting, the judgement on risk taken and declined, the team built and kept, and a worked example of a commercial decision that went wrong.
In more detail
Every Commercial Director on a shortlist I present has run a commercial position of comparable scale under the contract forms the hiring business works to, and I take a reference from a Managing Director who has depended on the person's numbers.
The most useful thing a QS can do before going for the director job is the one most people skip: run a subcontract package, the drainage or the groundworks, from procurement to final certificate. A subcontract has none of the cushions of a main contract, and owning one end to end teaches you to read risk from the other side of the table, which is the judgement a Commercial Director uses most. I was a Quantity Surveyor from 1990 to 2002, and the packages that taught me the most were the ordinary ones nobody else wanted to own.
Read more
- Skip the subbie packages, stall as a director: the essay on the step most QSs skip.
- Commercial Director recruitment: the brief, the assessment and the band.
- What does a Commercial Director earn?: the 2026 band and the package.
- Learning pathways on the community: free, from first role to director level.
Common questions
What is the step before Commercial Director?
Usually Head of Commercial, or a Senior Commercial Manager on a major scheme, which is the seat most Commercial Directors step up from. On a major London scheme that seat pays £100,000 to £120,000 base in 2026.
What does a Commercial Director actually own?
The commercial position of a region, a division or a major programme: the final accounts, the risk and opportunity register, cash, the commercial team and the relationship with the client's commercial lead.
Is there a free way to build the skills first?
Yes. The Lechley Community runs twelve free pathways from first role to director level, one per discipline, commercial among them, with real lessons, exams and a certificate at the end.
Talk to me
If you are a Commercial Manager or Head of Commercial weighing the step, I will tell you honestly how a shortlist would read you today. No hard sell, no obligation.
