The Opportunity
Salary: £59,991 to £63,411 Per annum
Working Pattern: Full time 37 per week
Location: County Hall, Chichester with Flexible and hybrid working opportunities
Interview date: week commencing 29th June 2026
We are looking for a talented, commercially astute Contract Manager with strong influencing and communication skills, driven by focus and the passion to deliver successful outcomes and improvements.
Working closely with the Category-led teams and key Council stakeholders, you will play a central role in achieving strategic goals and driving transformational change and service excellence.
You will possess experience of supplier relationship management, have worked in a complex contractual environment with large scale suppliers.
The role is responsible for managing the contractual and supplier relationship process providing assurance on compliance and audit controls. You will champion compliance towards internal governance and legislative requirements.
You will be responsible for monitoring and review to ensure outcomes are achieved and the right incentives are in place. You will demonstrate that the contractual services are met, and that contractual obligations and arrangements are adhered to.
With your excellent stakeholder and engagement skills, you will forge productive relationships and embed organisational contract management best practice.
This role has significant scope for someone with lots of ambition in maximising its potential. We take great pride in making a difference and delivering value for money in all aspects of contract management, for the people of West Sussex.
What are we looking for?
You will demonstrate the skills and experience of an effective and efficient Contract Manager, with proven competence in supplier management, contract mobilisation, influencing, risk, change, and stakeholder management both internally and externally across complex environments.
You will also show a proactive approach to working collaboratively with colleagues to achieve contractual outcomes.
In addition, you will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:
1. Good stakeholder management skills, demonstrating ability to engage with stakeholders at multiple levels.
2. Comprehensive market understanding of the latest trends within area of expertise.
3. Demonstrable influencing and negotiation skills to achieve contractual outcomes.
4. Skilled in being able to conduct analysis on complex data sets to provide concise insights.
5. Able to develop and apply processes to ensure appropriate resource is applied, adapting to organisation and supplier changes.
Qualifications and/or experience:
* MCIPS qualified or working towards MCIPS or comparable professional qualification
* Excellent contract management demonstrated by monitoring and/or managing complex contracts effectively to ensure they meet customers' requirements and business need.
* Strong experience delivering a high-level contract management service on behalf of clients.
* Confident knowledge and experience of working within contract management systems/practices and providing effective support.
* Experienced at managing contractual relationships and leading step changes in performance with a supplier. Demonstrating awareness of commercial motivations and expected behaviours of suppliers.
* Effective team management experience.
Working for us
As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, we recognise our employees are central to achieving this. We support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, with a range of benefits including:
* an excellent local government pension scheme
* generous holiday entitlement of 30 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
* a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
* maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
* volunteering opportunities
* training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
* a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
* health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans
For further detail on rewards and benefits, please see our Rewards and Benefits page.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.
Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.
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