National Specification Lead

About AkzoNobel

Since 1792, we’ve been supplying the innovative paints and coatings that help to color people’s lives and protect what matters most. Our world class portfolio of brands – including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon – is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and use our expertise to sustain and enhance the fabric of everyday life. Because we believe every surface is an opportunity. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering and long-established paints company that’s dedicated to providing sustainable solutions and preserving the best of what we have today – while creating an even better tomorrow. Let’s paint the future together.

National Specification Lead
UK (Flexible within UK)

Full Time

We are looking for a commercially driven, strategic and inspirational leader to take ownership of our Specification & Commercial Sectors route to market across the UK. Reporting directly to the UK Sales Director, this is a high-impact senior leadership role with significant visibility and influence across the business.

Responsible for shaping and delivering the 3-year vision for the Specification of our brands, colours and products, you will drive growth plans across key sectors and ensure we maximise commercial performance. You and your team will play a pivotal role in strengthening strategic partnerships (to specification clients and merchant partners), unlocking incremental and sustainable growth opportunities, and ensuring we are positioned as the partner of choice across the specification landscape.

Working at the heart of our UK Sales Leadership Team, you will collaborate closely with National Accounts, Marketing, Innovation, Insight, Sustainability, R&D and Technical teams to deliver a fully aligned commercial strategy focused on long term growth utilising the brands, products, tools and propositions we have. You will also lead key external relationships across influencers within the commercial market space such as specifiers (including construction companies, architects, designers, etc), merchants and industry partners, ensuring we are driving both performance and influence across the market.

This is a highly visible leadership role with responsibility for a significant team and a substantial revenue stream, offering the opportunity to shape the future of specification within the UK market.

What you’ll do:

• Own and deliver the UK Specification & Sectors 3-year strategy, ensuring delivery of turnover and margin targets across commercial market channel (Specifiers and Contractors).
• Lead the development and execution of sector strategies and plans, ensuring alignment to wider UK commercial priorities and long-term growth plans.
• Drive a high-performing specification pipeline, ensuring robust opportunity management, conversion discipline and pipeline visibility.
• Lead, motivate and develop a team of direct and indirect reports, building capability, engagement and high-performance culture.
• Act as a key member of the UK Sales Leadership Team, contributing to overall commercial strategy and decision making.
• Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Category, Insight, Innovation, Sustainability, R&D and Technical teams to ensure best-in-class propositions.
• Take responsibility for driving specification and technical excellence across the sales community and wider business strengthening collaboration between commercial, technical and brand teams to meet changing regulations / building standards and support innovation and product development.
• Develop and manage strategic relationships with customers and industry bodies to develop sustainable growth for both parties

• Work closely with trade merchant partners to drive specification-led growth and utilise our propositions, experience and knowledge to maximise ecosystem opportunities.
• Champion digital evolution within specification, continuously improving tools, processes and ways of working to meet changing customer needs.
• Drive the sustainability agenda across all key specification partnerships, embedding it into sector strategies and customer engagement.

What you bring:

• A proven track record of developing and implementing channel strategies to drive sustainable growth for the business and its customers

• Experience leading, developing and motivating high performing teams including development of talent and succession planning

• Ability to manage complex stakeholder relationships across customers and internal functions with a collaborative and growth mindset

• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing targets, pipeline performance and P&L drivers.

• A great understanding of specification route to market (ideally within construction industry) and experience in a commercial market, specification or sector-led sales environment

• Ability to translate market insight and trends into actionable strategies and rolemodel these with team and business

• Strong track record of developing and delivering strategic customer and sector plans.
• Highly self-motivated with a proactive and resilient approach.
• Degree educated (or equivalent experience)
• Full UK driving licence.

Who you are:

• A strategic and commercially astute leader who thrives in complex, fast-moving environments.
• Confident operating at senior level and influencing across internal and external stakeholders.
• A natural relationship builder who develops long-term, trusted partnerships.
• Highly analytical and insight-driven, with a strong focus on performance and growth.
• A collaborative leader who inspires, develops and elevates others.
• Passionate about driving innovation, improving customer outcomes and delivering sustainable growth.

This is an exciting opportunity for a senior leader to shape the future of Specification & Commercial Market route to market in the UK, driving meaningful growth while leading a highly capable and engaged team within a dynamic and collaborative environment.

If you are looking for a role where you can truly influence strategy, build market-leading capability and deliver long-term commercial impact, we would love to hear from you.

For more information please visit www.akzonobel.com 

© 2024 Akzo Nobel N.V. All rights reserved.

At AkzoNobel we are highly committed to ensuring an inclusive and respectful workplace where all employees can be their best self. We strive to embrace diversity in a context of tolerance. Our talent acquisition process plays an integral part in this journey, as setting the foundations for a diverse environment. For this reason we train and educate on the implications of our Unconscious Bias in order for our TA and hiring managers to be mindful of them and take corrective actions when applicable. In our organization, all qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.

Requisition ID: 53936