For more than 35 years, Thales acts in Portugal for global Defense and Aerospace markets and promotes and delivers innovative solutions that enhance its customer’s critical systems´ security, on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, through a technical team of excellence.
We are looking for a Contract Manager to join our Legal & Contracts team in Portugal. In this role, you will support the delivery of strategic projects, acting as a trusted partner to project teams and ensuring the successful negotiation, administration and management of complex commercial contracts throughout their lifecycle.
Responsibilities:Manage the full contractual lifecycle of strategic projects, acting as the primary contractual interface with customers, subcontractors and consortium partners, ensuring contractual compliance while safeguarding Thales' commercial and contractual interests from contract award through project completion;
Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements—including subcontracts, teaming agreements, SLAs, MOUs and intercompany agreements—while supporting project teams in contract interpretation, commercial negotiations and the implementation of customer contractual requirements;
Lead contract administration activities by managing contractual correspondence, notices, amendments, variations and documentation, ensuring contractual obligations are fulfilled, contractual records are maintained and change management processes are effectively implemented;
Drive the management of contractual and commercial claims by analysing contractual positions, preparing supporting documentation, gathering evidence related to delays or disruptions, assessing contractual entitlements and working closely with the Legal team to support claim and dispute resolution strategies;
Identify, assess and mitigate contractual, commercial and project risks by evaluating the impact of scope, schedule and cost changes, providing practical recommendations to minimise risk, maximise project performance and support compliance with Portuguese Public Procurement legislation and applicable contractual obligations;
Collaborate closely with Legal, Procurement, Project Management, Engineering and Planning teams, participating in customer and internal meetings, supporting Trade Compliance activities and contributing to the successful delivery of multidisciplinary and international projects.
Law degree;
At least 5 years of professional experience as a Contract Manager or Legal Counsel, ideally within infrastructure, engineering, transportation or other project-driven environments;
Strong knowledge of Portuguese Public Procurement Law is essential;
Experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating complex commercial contracts and managing contractual claims throughout the project lifecycle;
Knowledge of international contract law and experience working on international projects would be considered a strong advantage;
Fluent in Portuguese and English;
Availability for occasional international travel;
The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies.
In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.
For our more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries we open up visionary perspectives, realize individual career paths and enable creative freedom. This is achieved with courage, versatility and the firm intention to make the demanding challenges of our time safer and more inclusive. With our sustainable value-focused management we support diversity actively.
Say HI* – Your journey to us
At times of change our international teams are ready to meet the complexity of today with the industry-leading technologies of tomorrow. Will you be part of it? Your contact Tiago Vital is looking forward to your online application on our
Career Portal.
Tiago Vital – Talent Acquisition Partner
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*Human Intelligence
Skills Required
- Law degree
- At least 5 years experience as a Contract Manager or Legal Counsel in project-driven environments (infrastructure, engineering, transportation)
- Strong knowledge of Portuguese Public Procurement Law
- Experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating complex commercial contracts and managing contractual claims through the project lifecycle
- Knowledge of international contract law and experience on international projects
- Fluent in Portuguese and English
- Availability for occasional international travel
Thales Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Thales and has not been reviewed or approved by Thales.
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Retirement Support — Retirement plans with employer contributions and matches, profit sharing, and share purchase opportunities are emphasized across multiple regions. These elements are positioned as competitive components of total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO that increases with tenure, paid holidays, and paid military, maternity, and paternity leave are described. This breadth supports work–life balance across locations.
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Flexible Benefits — Hybrid work options, flexible schedules, and parental supports such as childcare benefits and leave for sick children are available in several markets. Flexibility is presented as a core part of the employee experience.
Thales Insights
What We Do
Thales is a global high technology leader investing in digital and “deep tech” innovations – connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum technology – to build a future we can all trust, which is vital to the development of our societies. The company provides solutions, services and products that help its customers – businesses, organisations and states – in the defence, aeronautics, space, transportation and digital identity and security markets to fulfil their critical missions, by placing humans at the heart of the decision-making process.







