Associate Contract Manager, Project Controls; Hybrid

Associate Contract Manager, Project Controls

Eversource is looking for an Associate Contract Manager, Project Controls in Westwood, MA. The Associate Contract Manager plays a critical role in managing the full lifecycle of critical Transmission and Engineering contracts related to the execution of the Capital Portfolio of work, from initial planning through execution and closeout, ensuring compliance with corporate policies and procedures and business processes. This role is instrumental in ensuring seamless execution and subsequent management of contracts, optimizing vendor performance, and driving compliance with company policies and procedures, and overseeing adherence to contractual obligations.

The Associate Contract Manager proactively collaborates with engineering, project management, and other related corporate organizations (i.e. procurement, legal, investment planning, etc.) to facilitate complex material and service contracts, ensuring proper execution, change management, and continuity of contracted work. The role is a key contributor in driving efficiency, cost control, and strategic contract execution. The ideal candidate is an organized, analytical, and professional with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.

Essential Functions:

• In collaboration with Project Managers, Engineering, and Procurement, manages service and complex material contracts in support of Transmission project execution (e.g. Constructor of Choice ("COC") Master Service Agreement ('MSA'), Engineer of Choice ('EOC') Master Service Agreement).
• Provides full management and ownership of contracts from inception to closeout, including review of rates, schedule of values, terms, change management, invoice review and approval, etc.
• Provides contract support and expertise in technical evaluation to Procurement during the major Contract category rebids to ensure a timely, fair, and equitable process.
• Manages bid process for both Engineering & Transmission Projects, including assembly, QA/QC review, and business approval of bid package prior to transmitting to procurement. Actively participates in technical evaluation to ensure consistency and equity across evaluation teams and to provide input consistent with project controls established vendor KPI performance metrics.
• Reviews Project Managers & Engineers contract strategy to ensure they are managing risks and claims in coordination with procurement and/or legal where appropriate.
• Participates in commercial negotiations to establish contract structure, price, terms and conditions and other pertinent contract conditions to ensure business requirements are appropriately captured and reflected in the final agreements.
• Ensures collaboration by communicating and coordinating consistently with Project Managers, project Engineers, and other project team members on contracts, vendor performance, RFP, and RFI related matters.
• Collaborates with Project lead to prepare direct award proposal packages to seek approval from the respective Committee meetings (i.e. EOC and COC, etc.)
• Maintains internal and external stakeholder relationships.
• Actively monitors contract compliance within assigned contract portfolio.
• Establishes and executes a strong change control process to mitigate out-of-scope charges.
• Tracks capital contractor performance by analyzing established KPI metrics in accordance with the Project Management & Engineering Organization's industry expectations, including safety.
• Maintains an organized electronic file retention database for Project Contract Controls to ensure robust justification for regulatory compliance, internal and external audits, etc.
• Completes various department and executive level assignments throughout the year with their tri-state counterparts to achieve positive outcomes on business goals within the assigned timeline.
• Carefully monitors the contractor's subcontracting process on behalf of the business to reduce the chances for irregularities and ensures compliance with subcontractor requirements in accordance with the contracts.
• Tracks errors, problems, reworks and aggressively supports the pursuit back charges and warranty claims.
• Responsible for invoice review, QA/QC, approval, and routing to ensure payment compliance within established contract terms. Includes monitoring vendor payments, mitigating duplicate charges, charges not billable under contract, over payment errors, etc. Involves close coordination with accounting and investment planning to maintain compliance with corporate accounting policies and regulations.
• Prepares data, presentations, reports, and information as needed to support business improvement initiatives. Requires fundamental understanding of and ability to effectively navigate data analytics dashboards and metrics to ensure proper and accurate interpretation.
• Assures good documentation of contract decisions and closeout, including full transfer of contract repository into Eversource's systems of record (i.e.…