Senior Contracts Manager or contracts manager Location: Bedfordshire (UK) Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent Package: Highly competitive salary bonus benefits package Reporting to: Commercial Director / Board About the company Our client delivers engineering excellence from concept to completion, partnering with the UK’s leading housebuilders to deliver complex residential groundworks, infrastructure, and enabling works. Recognised for quality delivery, innovative approaches, and a people-first culture, they offer a self-delivery civil engineering model supported by its own fleet of plant and specialist equipment. You’ll be joining a forward-thinking team that thrives on collaboration, blurs the line between challenge and opportunity, and consistently achieves exceptional groundworks and civils results in the residential sector. Role Overview As Senior Contracts Manager, you will be pivotal in shaping how the company successfully delivers major residential groundworks and civil engineering contracts while driving commercial performance, risk management, and client satisfaction. You’ll lead and mentor a team of contract professionals, empower field teams to deliver outstanding results, and ensure commercial excellence across all projects. This is a hands-on leadership role that blends strategic oversight with day-to-day delivery support and decision-making Key Responsibilities Commercial Leadership & Contract Delivery Lead contractual negotiation, administration, and performance on major groundworks and infrastructure projects. Shape commercial strategy, including pricing, risk mitigation, change control, and dispute avoidance. Ensure consistency of approach across contracts while maintaining compliance with company standards and HSEQT expectations.Project Oversight & Performance Provide oversight and challenge to Project Managers and Site teams to drive performance, efficiency, and programme targets. Champion proactive cost control and forecasting to maximise profitability. Ensure high standards of contract execution, documentation and reporting.Stakeholder & Client Engagement Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with clients, consultants, supply chain partners and internal teams. Attend commercial meetings and represent the company on contractual, commercial and governance matters. Deliver exceptional client experiences that foster long-term repeat business.Team Leadership & Development Coach, develop and inspire junior commercial and contracts staff. Promote best practice across estimating, planning, commercial reporting and risk management. Essential Skills & Experience Significant experience (typically 5–10 years) in contracts management within civil engineering and residential groundworks delivery. Proven track record of managing multi-million pound contracts from tender through to completion. Strong commercial acumen and risk management skills. Excellent negotiation and stakeholder management capabilities. Proficient in contract forms used in UK civils and housebuilding markets (e.g. JCT, NEC3/4 or similar). Strong leadership skills with experience managing and developing teams. A pragmatic, solutions-orientated mindset with an eye for detail. Benefits & Competitive Package Attractive base salary (market leading for the sector). Performance-linked bonus scheme. Comprehensive pension and benefits (Car, Fuel card, healthcare). Support for professional development and career progression. A collaborative culture that values innovation, safety and wellbeing