Contracts Manager – ICP in Reading

Base Location: You'll be expected to spend 50% of your working week in our Reading or Manchester office.

Salary: £50,100 - £75,100 + performance-related bonus + a range of benefits to support your finances, wellbeing and family.

Working Pattern: Permanent | Full Time | Flexible First options available.

The role:

The Contracts Manager plays a critical role within the ICP Business Unit, taking ownership of contract strategy, drafting, and negotiation for electricity infrastructure projects. This is a contractually led role, focused on ensuring that all client and supply chain agreements are robustly drafted, commercially balanced, and aligned with delivery strategy prior to contract award, while also supporting the drafting of contractual changes and variation agreements during project delivery to maintain commercial and contractual integrity throughout the project lifecycle.

The postholder will act as the lead authority on contractual matters at bid stage, ensuring that risk is identified, allocated appropriately, and clearly reflected in the contract documentation and commercial position.

You will:

• Lead the drafting and negotiation of all upstream contracts.
• Personally draft, amend and finalise client-facing contracts.
• Develop contract qualifications, assumptions, and departures to achieve balanced risk allocation.
• Ensure contractual clarity and eliminate ambiguity prior to contract execution.
• Own contractual risk allocation and positioning.
• Identify and assess contractual, commercial and delivery risks early in the bid lifecycle.
• Translate risk into clear contractual protections, pricing mechanisms and assumptions.
• Ensure alignment between contract terms, scope, programme and commercial position.
• Lead all contract negotiations through to award.
• Act as the contractual lead in client and key supply chain negotiations.
• Define negotiation strategy, red lines, and acceptable risk thresholds.
• Challenge and push back on unfavourable contract positions where required.
• Drive alignment between upstream and downstream positions.
• Support procurement to ensure supply chain contracts mirror upstream risk allocation.
• Close gaps in liability, scope definition and contractual obligations.
• Ensure back-to-back positions wherever commercially required.
• Support commercial and bid strategy.
• Provide contractual advice into bid/no-bid decisions and commercial strategy.
• Challenge delivery assumptions to ensure contractual commitments are achievable.
• Support pricing strategy by ensuring risk is appropriately reflected.
• Influence governance and approvals.
• Provide clear contractual summaries and risk positions at governance gates.
• Support senior decision-makers with transparent recommendations on contractual exposure.
• Provide ongoing contractual support during project delivery.
• Draft and formalise variation agreements, deeds of amendment and contractual changes on live projects.
• Work with delivery teams to translate agreed commercial positions into clear and enforceable contract amendments.
• Ensure that all change documentation maintains consistency with original contract risk allocation and commercial intent.
• Support resolution of commercial issues by providing robust contractual wording for settlements and change agreements.
• Maintain auditability and contractual clarity across all post-award amendments.

You will have:

• Strong contract drafting and negotiation experience.
• Proven ability to personally draft and negotiate bespoke contracts.
• Experience drafting contract amendments, variation agreements or settlement agreements on live projects.
• Comfortable leading day-to-day contract drafting, with appropriate use of legal support for complex or high-risk matters.
• Experience in ICP / utilities / infrastructure contracting environments.
• Strong understanding of how contracts operate in construction/utilities environment.
• Appreciation of design, programme and construction risk.
• Deep understanding of contractual risk and commercial impact.
• Clear understanding of how contract mechanisms translate into cost, cashflow and claims risk.
• Experience structuring contracts to protect margin and manage downstream exposure.
• Proven experience leading contractual negotiations.
• Ability to manage challenging client and supplier positions.
• Strong stakeholder influence and negotiation skills.
• Commercial awareness.
• Understanding of pricing, risk allowances and bid economics.
• Ability to challenge inconsistencies between contract and commercial assumptions.

This role requires hands-on contract drafting experience and will not suit candidates whose experience is primarily cost management or quantity surveying without direct drafting responsibility.

Flexible benefits to fit your life:

• Enjoy discounts on private healthcare and gym memberships.
• Wellbeing benefits like a free online GP and 24/7 counselling service.
• Interest-free loans on tech and transport season tickets, or a new bike with our Cycle to Work scheme.
• Generous family entitlements such as maternity and adoption pay, and paternity leave.

Work with an equal opportunity employer:

SSE will make any reasonable adjustments you need to ensure that your application and experience with us is positive. Please contact zoe.gillespie@sse.com to discuss how we can support you. We're dedicated to fostering an open and inclusive workplace where people from all backgrounds can thrive. We create equal opportunities for everyone to succeed and especially welcome applications from those who may not be well represented in our workforce or industry.