We are seeking a highly experienced
Senior Contracts Manager to lead and oversee contract management activities across multiple construction projects and Contract Managers. This role is responsible for driving consistency, rigor, and excellence in contract lifecycle management, change management practices, and risk mitigation across the portfolio.
Unlike project-based roles, this position operates at a
regional/organizational level, providing leadership, strategic direction, and technical expertise in contract interpretation and commercial strategy. The Senior Contracts Manager will mentor and develop Contract Managers, establish best practices, and ensure alignment with company standards while partnering with executive leadership, project teams, and legal.
This role requires deep expertise in complex construction contracts, including significant experience on
large-scale projects ($100M+), and the ability to influence outcomes across multiple teams and stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:Leadership & Team Management
- Lead, mentor, and manage a team of Contract Managers supporting multiple projects.
- Establish performance expectations, provide coaching, and drive professional development and training initiatives.
- Create standardized processes, templates, and tools for contract and change management across the organization.
- Conduct regular reviews of team output to ensure consistency, quality, and contractual compliance.
- Build organizational capability in contract administration, documentation discipline, and claims prevention.
Contract Strategy & Interpretation
- Serve as the subject matter expert in contract interpretation, providing guidance on complex commercial and contractual issues.
- Review and interpret prime contracts, subcontracts, and key amendments to identify risks, obligations, and strategic opportunities.
- Advise project and executive leadership on contractual rights, exposures, and entitlement strategies.
- Provide oversight on dispute avoidance and resolution strategies, including support for claims development and defense.
Process & Organizational Excellence
- Establish and enforce best practices in document control, contract administration, and documentation defensibility to promote consistency,completeness, effective and efficient organization, version control, auditability, and accessibility.
- Ensure project teams consistently meet contractual notice provisions and compliance requirements, including identification, documentation, and execution of changes.
- In conjunction with project teams and Change Management team, guide development of change order narratives, delay analyses, and claim documentation.
- Drive consistency in reporting, dashboards, and tracking of contractual risks and obligations.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance contract management processes and tools.
- Ensure alignment of contract management practices with corporate standards and legal requirements.
Risk Management & Commercial Support
- Proactively identify contractual and commercial risks across the project portfolio and recommend mitigation strategies.
- Partner with Project Controls, Legal, and Risk teams to align contract strategy with cost, schedule, and legal considerations.
- Support executive decision-making with insights derived from documentation trends, claims exposure, and compliance gaps.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Serve as a key liaison between operations, project management, legal, Change Management team, and executive leadership.
- Facilitate portfolio-level contract reviews, risk assessments, and lessons learned sessions.
- Provide training to project teams on contract awareness, documentation standards, and risk mitigation strategies.
Why you?- You are a strategic thinker with the ability to operate at both detailed and organizational levels.
- You have a strong leadership presence with the ability to influence without direct authority across project teams.
- You are highly skilled communicator with executive-level written and verbal communication abilities.
- You are proactive and solution-oriented, with strong judgment in managing risk and ambiguity.
- You have a deep understanding of the commercial and legal implications of contract execution.
- You are passionate about developing people, building teams, and improving organizational capability.
- You are disciplined, detail-oriented, and committed to documentation excellence.
What it takes?- Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Civil Engineering, Business, or related discipline.
- 15+ years of experience in construction contract management, project management, or commercial leadership roles, including a proven track record of leading and developing teams.
- Demonstrated experience supporting large-scale projects ($100M+).
- Expert-level knowledge of construction contracts, change management processes, and claims practices.
- Strong ability to interpret complex contracts and translate requirements into actionable guidance.
- Experience working closely with executive leadership and cross-functional teams.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, contract/document management systems, and scheduling software (e.g., Microsoft Project, P6).
- Experience with dashboards, reporting tools, or Power BI preferred.
- Willingness to travel approximately 25%.
