Contracts Manager

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Minewarefare Contracts Manager – UWS

This role is based in Templecombe/Cheadle (with travel as required)

• Are you keen to work on and impact major contracts and bids in our fast-paced, growing business?

• Are you enthusiastic to bring a forward-thinking approach and strong commercial skills?

• Do you have good knowledge of both the defence business and the commercial environment?

What the role has to offer

Due to continued growth within the Defence sector we have an exciting new opportunity for a Contracts Manager to be based in our offices in either our Cheadle office or Templecombe office. Joining Thales in this capacity will give you the opportunity to work on a variety of projects within the Defence sector.

Working on Under Water Systems contracts, bids and negotiations, you will have exposure to high profile internal and external stakeholders, working on a challenging, diverse and interesting workload where you’ll be able to apply your technical proficiency to lead and support bids and contracts for our fast growing business.

Our Opportunity

You will join a diverse and high performing team in the Thales UK UWS Commercial team, which has substantial experience and expertise in managing high-value, high-complexity bids and contracts.

The opportunity is to be the Contracts Manager for a portfolio of bids and projects within the Minewarefare part of the UWS business, which includes the support of various UWS products across multiple export and domestic customers.

Key tasks;

• manage the contract baseline and lead contract change activities, with both the client and our internal stakeholders. 

• provide the commercial voice and expertise across multi-functional teams and provide support and guidance to programme managers.

• actively perform the commercial management of opportunities, identifying and managing the associated commercial risks and liabilities.

Flexibility to travel to other sites in the UK and overseas is required to support internal/customer engagements.

About You:

You may currently be working in programme management, procurement, bid finance or another commercial role with a desire to move into contracts management, or you may be an experienced contracts manager keen to work on higher value, higher complexity contracts and bids.

• Excellent communication and influencing skills across contract/project and bid lifecycles

• Able to establish effective working relationships with key stakeholders

• Forward thinking, able to look at the broader strategy and outcomes beyond the immediate task; think proactively, creatively and anticipate needs

• Able to quickly make sense of complex/difficult scenarios, translating into strategy and tactical solutions

• Understanding of risk & opportunity and ability to manage and mitigate effectively

• Collaborative, customer-focused, consistent and flexible

• Resilient and tenacious to deal with the periods of high intensity work, notably during bid activity

• Ability to manage change in a manner that protects the company’s interests

• Good commercial/business awareness providing voice and expertise across the enterprise

• Good understanding of the wider defence business and commercial environment

• An awareness of the UK MoD SSRO approach to procurement

• An understanding of Trade Compliance issues and how they relate to defence contracting

Skills and Experience

• Ideally Knowledge and experience of MoD Contracting and Single Source Pricing.

• Experience of Bids/Proposals/Contract Changes, Contracts and Contract amendments.

• Contract negotiation experience

• Risk Management experience

• IACCM, CIPS would be desirable.

• Will need to be mobile/ flexible enough to visit other sites both in the UK and overseas at short notice when appropriate and safe.

What We Can Offer

We’re committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

If you are interested in this role and would like to know more before applying, we would encourage you to have informal chat with the assigned recruiter.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.

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