Senior Contracts Manager

Are you an experienced Contract Manager with a background in rail, engineering or manufacturing looking to take ownership of high-value maintenance contracts within a complex operational environment?

We are recruiting on behalf of a leading UK transport operator for a Senior Contracts Manager to lead the commercial management and delivery assurance of Heavy Maintenance (HM) activities across a large, safety-critical fleet operation.

Reporting into the Fleet Commercial function, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring maintenance work delivered by both internal teams and third-party suppliers is completed safely, on time, to specification and within budget. With responsibility for approximately GBP
15m of materials expenditure and GBP7m of external contract spend, this is a highly visible position with direct influence on fleet reliability, operational performance and commercial outcomes.

Working closely with depot teams, engineering departments, planning functions and key suppliers, you'll lead supplier performance initiatives, manage contractual compliance, challenge costs, assess additional work requirements and ensure your organisation's commercial interests remain protected.

This is an excellent opportunity for a commercially focused contracts professional looking to make a tangible impact within a critical engineering and operational environment.

Heavy Maintenance Contract Management: Lead and assure the delivery of Heavy Maintenance activity across internal operations and third-party providers, ensuring safety, quality and contractual compliance.

Supplier Performance Management: Manage supplier relationships and challenge performance against agreed safety, quality, cost and delivery objectives.

Commercial & Budget Control: Take ownership of approximately GBP
15m in HM materials expenditure and GBP7m in external contract spend, ensuring effective financial management and budget adherence.

Additional Arising Work (AAW): Assess, challenge and approve additional maintenance work requests, ensuring the most commercially viable solution is selected.

Contract Governance: Lead contract review meetings, manage supplier obligations and ensure contractual commitments are achieved.

Cost Reduction Initiatives: Identify opportunities to improve value, reduce maintenance costs and improve operational efficiency.

Commercial

Risk Management:

Manage warranty claims, liquidated damages and contractual disputes to protect the organisation's commercial position.

Stakeholder

Collaboration:

Work closely with depot operations, engineering teams, planning functions and supply chain partners to ensure successful programme delivery.

Performance Reporting: Provide clear reporting and assurance to senior stakeholders regarding contract performance, budgets, risks and delivery outcomes.

People Leadership: Support and guide the Heavy Maintenance team, ensuring workloads are delivered safely, effectively and to agreed standards.

Safety & Compliance: Champion a strong safety culture and challenge any activity that falls below required operational or maintenance standards.

Contract Management

Experience:

Proven contract management experience, ideally within the rail sector; however, candidates from engineering or manufacturing backgrounds will also be considered.

Commercial & Financial Management: Experience managing substantial budgets, supplier contracts and commercial performance within a complex operational environment.

Heavy Maintenance Knowledge: Strong understanding of heavy maintenance activities, depot operations or asset-intensive engineering environments.

Stakeholder Management: D…