Senior Contracts Manager - Aerospace / Defense Sector

A renowned Aerospace and Defense organisation requires a Senior Contracts Manager to join their Commercial department in the Uxbridge, Middlesex (West London) office for a hybrid role.

The Senior Contracts Manager has complete ownership of the Far East market sector, including a number of key customer accounts across Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand - responsible for end-to-end commercial activities in the region. This will include bidding, negotiating and winning strategically important business, managing existing contracts through the business, managing Offset obligations, ensuring delivery, invoicing and cash collection associated with deliveries of products and services.

The Senior Contracts Manager leads the decision-making process on all commercial matters associated with customer transactions (new and ongoing), regularly briefing the Senior Leadership team and Board members during Account Reviews and Bid Reviews.

Key responsibilities

• Customer Relationships - Build and maintain strong, professional, and mutually beneficial relationships with customers (OEMs and End User communities) and is the focal point for all customer interactions, supported by colleagues from the Programmes, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain and Sustainment teams.
• Agent Management - Manage the performance of, reporting from and payments to our Agents across the region of responsibility. Makes recommendations to recruit/release agents based upon the needs of the end user and of the business.
• Deal Making / New Business Deals - Structure and negotiate new business deals, including leading complex major bids, managing straightforward bids / tenders, providing detailed commentary on customer terms and conditions.
• Contract Management - Monitor and ensure the successful delivery of business in accordance with the contractual terms. Activities include leading Contract Baseline Reviews (CBR) and providing advice and guidance relating to the delivery of products and services per the contractual terms.
• Contract Amendment - Negotiate changes to contracts, including contractual terms, up to delegated authority levels and in accordance with the terms agreed during the bid approval process.
• Contract Interpretation / Dispute Resolution - Guide the business in the understanding of contractual commitments and whether current activities and schedules remain compliant. Advise the business on the approach to and leads dialogue in discussions where the customer believes that we are not fulfilling our obligations.
• Policy - Recommend approaches for the business to maintain compliance with, and through personal example and leadership ensures others operate within, MBA’s commercial and behavioural standards and policies.
• Leadership - Manage direct report(s), including recruitment, development, objective setting and performance management. Provides guidance, assistance, coaching and mentoring to junior members of staff.
• Accountability - Responsible for meeting the business targets for allocated accounts. These targets include Order Intake, Sales, Arrears management, Debt management etc.
• Offering Infrastructure - Construct appropriate descriptions of Services and lead the definition of trading terms with customers and subcontractors to meet business needs.
• Risk Management - Judge the acceptability of overall risks associated with deals, generate options to mitigate identified risks and assist the business in deriving sensible steps to address those risks through appropriate contract terms or contract management.

Skills and experience

• Strong account management and stakeholder management abilities.
• Significant previous experience in a Commercial role (IACCM Accreditation is beneficial).
• Experience of working with Deal Structures, Contract Structures (T&Cs), Schedules, SoW's etc.
• Strong understanding of pricing methodologies and comfortable with pricing models, including through-life support models.
• Experience building, negotiating and/or delivering Offset contracts is beneficial.
• Able to translate the impact of negotiated terms to P&L, risk to delivery, etc.
• People management skills (e.g. supervisory/Line Management experience).
• Experience using Financial Instruments (LoC, iLoC, Performance Guarantees etc).
• Good legal awareness of contractual obligations.
• Experience of manipulating and interrogating MRP systems is desirable.
• Willing to undertake business travel in the UK and internationally, as required.

This is an exceptional opportunity to develop and progress your Contracts Management career in a high-profile position for a renowned Aerospace organisation.

For further information and to register your interest, please do apply with your full CV details for immediate review.