Senior Contract Development Manager in Leeds

Department: Scheme Delivery

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Description

• Contract type: Full time
• Hours: 37.5
• Salary: circa £65k depending on experience
• Location: Leeds
• WFH policy: Employees are required to attend the office 2 days/week
• Flexible working: Variety of flexible work patterns subject to line manager discretion e.g. Compressed 9-day fortnight.

Role Summary

The Senior Contract Development Manager is a senior specialist commercial role with ownership of defined contract development workstreams across one or more assigned low-carbon energy schemes. The work spans the full arc of contract design: from developing and leading LCCC's positions at Heads of Terms through to full contract design, covering risk allocation, payment mechanics, contractual triggers, revenue adjustment mechanisms, termination provisions and change in law arrangements. The output is commercial architecture that is investable and bankable, that withstands government and legal scrutiny, and that is genuinely deliverable by LCCC as counterparty over the life of the scheme.

LCCC occupies a distinctive position in the UK energy landscape. As the recognised counterparty for new low-carbon schemes, it advises government and works alongside its external legal and technical advisers on how contracts should be structured – from the inside, as the organisation that will live with those contracts for their duration. The Senior Contract Development Manager is central to that advisory function, bringing deep commercial expertise to scheme design from Heads of Terms through to execution, and ensuring that what is drafted by government lawyers accurately reflects LCCC's commercial analysis and operational capability. Where schemes are live, the Senior Contract Development Manager takes responsibility for enabling their effective delivery, ensuring counterparties are supported to meet their contractual obligations and that low-carbon projects reach their potential. This is not a typical commercial management role. Performance is not measured against a commercial bottom line, but against LCCC's two guiding principles: maintaining investor confidence in low-carbon schemes, and minimising cost to consumers whilst enabling the delivery of low-carbon projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Contract Development
• Lead and own defined contract development workstreams on assigned schemes, taking commercial requirements from Heads of Terms through full contract design – covering risk allocation, payment mechanics, contractual triggers, termination provisions, change in law arrangements and revenue adjustment mechanisms – producing contractual architecture that is commercially sound, practically workable and capable of surviving government scrutiny and legal drafting.
• Lead substantive development of LCCC's Heads of Terms positions and commercial inputs to the full contract design process, ensuring that what government lawyers draft accurately reflects LCCC's agreed commercial analysis and remains operationally deliverable by LCCC as counterparty over the scheme's lifetime.
• Approve and assure the design and testing of payment structures, risk-sharing arrangements and other contractual mechanics for assigned schemes, directing scenario modelling and commercial analysis to support government decision-making at Phase Gate and other critical milestones.
• Oversee and direct the work of external legal and technical advisers on assigned workstreams, providing commercially grounded challenge and ensuring their outputs are integrated effectively into the overall contract development process.
• Represent LCCC's commercial perspective in technical and commercial engagement with government counterparts at working and mid-senior levels, actively shaping contractual positions and contributing to policy development where LCCC's operational expertise is directly relevant.
• Set and maintain the risk framework for assigned workstreams, directing risk registers, assumptions logs and mitigation plans, and ensuring material issues are identified, documented and escalated with clear analysis and options.
• Manage the bridge between contract development and contract implementation with rigour, ensuring operational requirements, implementation risks and lessons from executed contracts are systematically reflected in new contract design, and that handovers to operational teams are planned, documented and well-executed.
• Operational Insight and Contractual Performance
• Take responsibility for enabling the effective delivery of assigned executed contracts, ensuring counterparties are supported to meet their contractual obligations and that commercial obligations are managed with the rigour schemes require.
• Ensure payment processes, notice obligations, reporting requirements and other contractual triggers on assigned schemes are managed accurately, on time and with a clear audit trail.
• Lead the assessment of contractual claims, Change in Law events, variations and disputes on assigned schemes, taking ownership of commercial positions and legal adviser engagement, and escalating strategic or material issues where required.
• Maintain senior working-level counterparty relationships on executed contracts, resolving complex commercial interactions constructively.
• Ensure that operational experience across the team's executed scheme portfolio is systematically captured and fed back into contract development activity, so that future contract design is continuously strengthened by the reality of long-term scheme delivery.
• Stakeholder Relationship Management
• Represent LCCC externally with government departments, counterparties, industry bodies and external advisers at working and mid-senior levels, across both contract development and contract management phases.
• Build and maintain constructive, professional relationships with counterparties and government stakeholders, ensuring LCCC's commercial positions are clearly understood and that trust is maintained across the full lifecycle of schemes.
• Provide assurance that stakeholder relationships, commercial positions and key decisions are documented clearly and remain organisationally resilient, supporting continuity across the scheme portfolio.
• People Management and Internal Capability
• Hold formal line management responsibility for Contract and Assistant Contract Development Managers, including objective-setting, performance management, regular one-to-one meetings and active support for professional development and career progression.
• Direct the quality of contract development and commercial management outputs produced by direct reports, providing coaching, constructive challenge and assurance that work meets the standard required for government and legal scrutiny.
• Lead Portfolio Control governance for assigned schemes, setting the standard for how commercial decisions, risks and scheme status are reported, and ensuring the Head of Commercial Development has the visibility needed to manage the portfolio effectively.
• Lead contributions to SHoP briefing cycles and other team-wide reporting mechanisms, ensuring assigned schemes are accurately and compellingly represented in senior internal forums.
• Lead the preparation of papers and briefings for the Scheme Delivery Leadership Committee and other governance bodies, taking responsibility for the quality, accuracy and commercial rigour of all submissions.
• Lead internal briefings, knowledge sessions and handover planning so that operational teams across LCCC have a clear and grounded understanding of new scheme mechanics, contractual obligations and implementation risks.
• Contribute actively to the development and continuous improvement of Commercial Development processes, standards and guidance, sharing lessons learned and building team capability.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

Essential

• Substantial experience in a commercial advisory, contract development or contract management role within the energy, infrastructure or public sector.
• Sound and demonstrable understanding of commercial contracts, risk allocation, payment mechanics and subsidy or regulatory support structures, including the ability to design and test contractual provisions to a standard suitable for government and legal scrutiny.
• Demonstrated experience leading or contributing substantively to Heads of Terms development and full contract design processes, working alongside external legal and technical advisers.
• Experience managing executed contracts commercially, including compliance monitoring, payment processes and handling contractual claims, variations or disputes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead commercial workstreams with significant independence, making sound commercial judgements and producing high-quality outputs consistently.
• Strong analytical capability, including the ability to direct scenario modelling and translate complex commercial analysis into clear, well-structured advice for government and senior stakeholder audiences.
• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience of working-level and mid-senior engagement with government departments, counterparties or external advisers.
• Experience managing, coaching or developing junior commercial colleagues.
• A STEM degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant commercial, legal or financial discipline.

Desirable

• Experience of new scheme development in the energy sector, such as CCS, Hydrogen, GGR, SAF or similar.
• Knowledge of UK energy policy, the CfD scheme and related regulatory frameworks.
• Experience supporting Phase Gate or equivalent governance processes for scheme approval.
• Public sector or government advisory experience.

Employee Benefits

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. Key benefits that may be available depending on the role include:

• Annual performance based bonus, up to 10%
• 25 days annual leave, plus eight bank holidays
• Up to 8% pension contribution
• Financial support and time off for study relevant to your role, plus a professional membership subscription
• Employee referral scheme (up to £1500), and colleague recognition scheme
• Family friendly policies, including enhanced maternity leave and shared parental leave
• Free, confidential employee assistance, including financial management, family care, mental health, and on-call GP service
• Three paid volunteering days a year
• Season ticket loan and cycle to work schemes
• Family savings on days out and English Heritage, gym discounts, cash back and discounts at selected retailers
• Employee resource groups