When a Tier-1 main contractor’s Commercial Director needed a senior COINS Commercial Consultant in time for a Q2 cost-value reconciliation cycle, the brief came to us with a four-week deadline and a shortlist of zero. The previous incumbent had left at short notice and the CVR run was non-negotiable — every week of slippage carried real reporting risk to the board.
This is the kind of search where generic agencies struggle. The pool of senior COINS Commercial specialists in the UK is finite, well-networked, and almost entirely passive. You can’t post a job and wait. You have to know who is open to a conversation, where they are in their current engagement, and what would genuinely move them.
01 Client
Tier-1 UK main contractor (anonymised)
02 Challenge, solution & results
Step 01
A senior COINS Commercial Consultant on the project departed two weeks before the quarterly CVR run was due to be locked. The role required deep knowledge of COINS Commercial (CVR/VAP), comfort working alongside a Project Director, and the ability to step in with no induction. The internal HR team had been searching for six weeks without a viable shortlist.
Step 02
We drew on relationships with three senior COINS Commercial specialists we knew were within a fortnight of contract end. Within 48 hours we had two candidates in initial conversation with the Commercial Director, both with verifiable Tier-1 main contractor backgrounds and direct CVR cycle experience. We managed expectations on day rate, IR35 status, and notice periods on both sides, and chaired a same-week second-stage interview.
Step 03
The successful candidate started on day 14 from the original brief — three days before the CVR run kicked off. The placement converted to a six-month rolling contract and was extended twice. The Commercial Director has since used Rainford Berry on three further COINS hires across Procurement and Application Specialist roles.
03 Outcomes
“Rainford Berry filled a role in two weeks that our in-house team had been searching for six. They knew exactly who to call, set realistic expectations on both sides, and we have used them on every COINS hire since.”