Senior Contracts Management Specialist in Stainborough

At the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Senior Contract Management Specialist leads post-award contract management, ensuring effective delivery of contracts from signature through closure across core and programme-funded activities. The role also supports the pre-award phase, advising on contractual clarity and downstream implications, and maintains ownership of the full post-award lifecycle.

About ECMWF: ECMWF is a world leader in numerical weather predictions, providing high-quality data for weather forecasts and environmental monitoring. As an intergovernmental organisation, we collaborate internationally to serve our members and the wider community. Our talented staff, international scientific community, and powerful supercomputing capabilities enable a 24/7 research and operational centre focusing on medium- and long-range predictions and maintaining one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world.

Your Responsibilities:

• Leadership, Team Management & Delivery: Lead and guide the team, overseeing delivery, coordinating workload, and developing team members. Provide expert advice to the Head of Section on contract-related risks, systemic issues, performance trends and improvement opportunities. Drive continuous innovation and improvement in contract management practices, methodologies, and tools.
• Ownership of the Post-Award Contract Lifecycle: Provide oversight of contracts from signature to closure, coordinating actions when issues, risks or deviations arise. Oversee monitoring of contractual obligations, milestones, KPIs, risks, and compliance requirements. Ensure systematic, consistent, and high-quality use of the CLM tool across the team. Oversee standard amendments and low-complexity disputes, escalating complex or commercially significant matters to SST. Ensure timely, transparent contract reporting to internal stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional Coordination & Stakeholder Engagement: Coordinate with Technical Officers and Programme Directors, who retain technical oversight and acceptance authority. Coordinate with Finance on invoicing, payments, compliance requirements, forecasting and funding conditions. Liaise with Legal regarding contractual interpretation, dispute handling and formal notices. Support PCT with contract-related inputs for programme-level planning and reporting, without transferring ownership of contract or supplier management. Engage with contractors at senior level regarding post-award issues, performance concerns and governance matters.
• Process Governance, Innovation & CLM Evolution: Lead the development, refinement and implementation of contract management frameworks, including templates, SOPs, playbooks, and guidance. Identify inefficiencies and drive improvements aligned with ECMWF and external funding requirements. Act as the business lead for contract-management-related aspects of the CLM tool, owning functional requirements, supporting enhancements and ensuring adoption. Promote harmonisation and transparency across the contract lifecycle.
• Reporting, Risk Management & Organisational Contribution: Provide regular reporting on contract progress, risks, compliance trends and issues to the Head of Section and governance bodies. Oversee timely identification, escalation and mitigation of contract-related risks. Represent the CMS and SSS in organisational working groups, audits and internal coordination forums as applicable. Contribute to Strategic Sourcing Section planning and organisational alignment.

What We Are Looking For: We seek a Senior Contract Management professional with credibility, judgement and leadership maturity to lead ECMWF’s post-award contract management function. The ideal candidate has a strong grasp of contract governance in complex, technical and EU programme-funded environments, balancing day-to-day operational delivery with strategic oversight. Skilled at engaging senior internal stakeholders and external contractors, they navigate ambiguity with pragmatism, rigour and a solutions-focused mindset.

Your Profile:

• Essential criteria: Education – Advanced university degree (EQF 7 or 8) or equivalent professional experience in business administration, law, engineering, science, project management or related field. Professional Experience – significant experience in contract management, project management, governance, or procurement support in an international or technical environment; experience leading teams or supervising staff across mixed-grade; proven experience managing complex contract portfolios, performance monitoring, risk management, amendments and supplier engagement; experience handling routine disputes and escalations and working effectively with Legal and senior stakeholders on sensitive matters. System, Process & Governance Expertise – strong experience with CLM and ERP systems, driving adoption, improving data quality and optimising workflows; demonstrated ability to design and implement contract management frameworks, templates, SOPs and governance routines; strong understanding of compliance, audit readiness and reporting requirements in regulated environments. Behavioural & Leadership Competencies – strong judgement, balance operational delivery with strategic oversight; excellent stakeholder engagement skills; structured and pragmatic approach to resolving issues and driving improvements; strong communication skills (written and verbal), including the ability to produce clear reporting and recommendations. Language – fluency in English is essential.
• Desirable criteria: experience in an intergovernmental organisation and/or within EU-funded programme environments; fluency in French, German or Italian.

Other Information: Grade remuneration: The successful candidate will be recruited according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations. Full details of salary scales and allowances are available on the ECMWF website. Starting date: Appointments will be made with effect from 1 October 2026. Location: External candidates are expected to relocate to Bonn or Reading. No internal candidates will be relocated as part of the appointment process. Candidates must already be based in Bonn or Reading. ECMWF has adopted a hybrid model allowing staff to mix office working and teleworking, including away from the duty station within the area of our member states and co-operating states. Interviews will take place via videoconference – MS Teams. Successful applicants and members of their family forming part of their households will be exempt from immigration restrictions.

Who Can Apply: Applicants are invited to complete the online application form. At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment essential for our success and are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of our community. Applications are invited from nationals of ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States. In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy. Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases.

ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.