Senior Contracts Manager in London

Nicholas Howard are delighted to be recruiting for a Senior Contracts Manager.

As Senior Contracts Manager, you will provide strategic and commercially focused legal support across our client's operational, sales, pre‑sales, procurement, and senior management teams.

You will ensure the business operates within a robust legal framework whilst supporting the achievement of its commercial objectives and driving revenue enablement, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency through best-in-class contracting practices.

Working collaboratively across departments, you will deliver efficient, pragmatic, and commercially focused contract support, whilst also working closely with senior executives and coaching mentoring and developing junior members of the commercial contracts team.

Responsibilities

• Lead the provision of clear, strategic, and commercially minded advice on complex contract terms, legal matters, and business risk across multiple areas of the business.
• Take ownership of reviewing, drafting, and negotiating a broad and complex range of agreements, including high‑value supplier and customer contracts, software licences, Saa S agreements, agency, reseller, subcontractor and service provision arrangements.
• Lead negotiations with customers and suppliers on complex or high‑value matters, acting as the primary point of contact and ensuring outcomes align with business objectives, company policies, and risk appetite.
• Oversees and continuously improves Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), including contract registers, obligation tracking, renewals, amendments, and system optimisation, ensuring accuracy, accessibility, and compliance across the business.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for internal teams, providing guidance and support on complex on‑boarding, contractual disputes, claims, and legal risk matters.
• Monitor, interpret, and proactively communicate relevant legal and regulatory developments, assessing their impact on the business and recommending appropriate action (including data protection and other applicable regulatory frameworks).
• Engage, instruct, and strategically manage external legal counsel within agreed budgets, including oversight of matters involving non‑UK jurisdictions or specialist areas of law.
• Own and govern the business's suite of legal templates, driving regular reviews to ensure they remain current, commercially appropriate, and legally sound.
• Lead the identification and implementation of improvements to legal team processes, ways of working and internal tools, including legal technology and automation solutions, to enhance efficiency and service quality.
• Provide regular data‑driven reporting and insights to senior leadership on legal risk, workload, contract lifecycle metrics (e. g. cycle time, deviation rates) and matters of strategic relevance to the business.
• Support the development of less experienced team members, sharing knowledge and providing guidance to build capability within the legal function through coaching and mentorship.
• Ensure full compliance with all processes and procedures adopted by the team and the wider business and contribute to their ongoing development whilst championing a culture of consistent, compliant, and risk‑aware contracting.
• Act as the dedicated Legal Business Partner to an assigned business practice, developing a deep understanding of its strategy, commercial objectives, operating model, and risk profile.
• Act as the primary legal point of contact for strategic initiatives, deals, and projects within the assigned practice, ensuring effective alignment between legal, commercial, and operational objectives.

Skills/Experience

• Legal qualification or training (e. g. law degree, GDL, or LPC) demonstrating a strong command of fundamental legal principles, including English contract law.
• Minimum of seven (7) years' experience in a contract management or commercial contracts role, with significant experience within the technology sector or a systems integration environment and in‑depth knowledge of data protection principles (including UK GDPR and related regulatory frameworks).
• Demonstrated expertise in independently leading and concluding complex, high‑value commercial negotiations across a range of agreement types.
• Substantial experience managing cross‑border agreements and navigating the legal and regulatory complexities of international contracting.
• A track record of working at a senior level alongside Sales, Procurement, Compliance, and operational teams to deliver commercially sound legal outcomes.
• Extensive experience negotiating key commercial risk provisions, including limitation of liability, indemnities, service levels, and data‑related risks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex legal matters clearly and confidently to senior stakeholders and non‑legal audiences.
• Person
• Highly organised and self‑directed, with the ability to manage competing priorities and lead multiple workstreams simultaneously.
• Exceptional attention to detail, combined with a pragmatic and commercially astute approach to problem‑solving.
• Strong business judgement and the confidence to make sound decisions on complex legal and commercial matters, often under pressure.
• Demonstrates the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct, with an unwavering commitment to confidentiality and data protection.
• A strategic and commercially minded thinker and trusted adviser who actively challenges conventional approaches and drives innovation within the legal function.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop others, contributing to the growth and maturity of the contracting function.
• Strong change and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to implement new processes, tools, and ways of working effectively.
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