Commercial Contracts Manager in Basingstoke

We are working in partnership with a professional organisation who are currently seeking to recruit a Commercial Manager. The Commercial Manager will be responsible for shaping, protecting and managing the company’s commercial interests across both customer and supplier contracts. The Commercial Manager will play a pivotal role to ensure risks are identified, managed and balanced while enabling effective and commercially sound business outcomes. You will work closely with Business Development throughout the opportunity life cycle, translating commercial intent, bids and proposals into clear, robust contractual arrangements that protect margin and support delivery. The Commercial Manager will be responsible for the organisation’s commercial contracting framework across the full contract life cycle, including governance, standards, systems, and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities:

• Commercial Contracting & Deal Shaping

• Draft, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of commercial contracts, including customer and supplier agreements, framework agreements, statements of work, bids, and proposals.
• Translate evolving commercial concepts, deal structures, and bid positions into clear, workable, enforceable, and profitable contractual terms.
• Identify commercial and contractual risks early, assess their materiality, and manage them.
• Exercise sound commercial judgement when making trade-offs between opportunity and protection, escalating to senior leaders where appropriate.
• Protect margin by aligning customer terms, supplier commitments, and pricing structures, ensuring that commercial exposures are properly accounted for and mitigated.

• Own and continuously improve the company’s commercial contracting framework across the pre- and post-contract life cycle.
• Design, implement, and maintain contract standards, templates, playbooks, guidance notes, and approval processes to ensure consistency and control.
• Oversee the commercial change control framework, ensuring variations are accurately assessed, documented, priced, and approved.

• Operate confidently at the intersection of commercial decision-making and legal risk.
• Serve as a translator between commercial and legal perspectives, ensuring commercial intent is accurately reflected in contract terms and that legal considerations are clearly understood by non-legal stakeholders.
• Identify matters requiring legal escalation and work collaboratively with Group Legal to resolve complex or higher-risk issues, while independently managing routine and moderate-risk contracting.
• Support commercial contracts involving international counterparties and delivery models. Work with Group Legal to manage jurisdictional considerations such as governing law, jurisdiction, and cross-border risk allocation.

Skills and experience

• Experience in commercial contracts, contract management, or commercial law roles, with the ability to manage complex contractual arrangements.
• Good understanding of English law as applied to commercial contracts, or the ability to develop this knowledge quickly.
• Proven ability to take ambiguity, partial information, and evolving commercial concepts and convert them into clear contractual outcomes.
• Strong commercial acumen, with a clear understanding of how commercial objectives, risk allocation, and legal enforceability interact.
• Strong negotiation skills, with the ability to confidently lead contractual negotiations, manage commercial trade-offs, and secure balanced outcomes aligned to the company’s risk appetite.
• Ability to identify risk, assess its real-world impact, and manage it commercially rather than defaulting to avoidance.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to challenge constructively and influence outcomes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate contractual concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders.

Desirable

• Legal qualification.
• Experience with international contracts and cross-border transactions.
• Exposure to complex, proposal- or bid-driven commercial environments.
• Familiarity with contract life cycle management tools or systems.