Service Manager - Internal Vacancy Only in Liskeard

Equality of opportunity and inclusivity is fundamental to the vision and values of Wildanet. The principles of equality and diversity are at the heart of Wildanet's work and are supported by appropriate employment policies, procedures and good practice. Wildanet is a thriving and growing internet provider bringing superfast and super-reliable service to homes and businesses throughout the region. Our aim is to attract, develop and retain colleagues with a unique combination of local knowledge and technical expertise who put the customer at the heart of the business.

Location: Liskeard Office

Salary: £60,000 DOE per annum

Role Purpose:

The Service Manager has a critical role within Wildanet’s build and delivery function, providing authoritative control, assurance, and governance over NEC3 contract delivery. The role exists to protect Wildanet’s commercial, contractual, and regulatory interests by ensuring NEC3 contracts are administered rigorously, payments and change are controlled, risks are surfaced early, and build partners are held to account for performance, quality, and value for money. The role acts as a line of defence, ensuring that commercial decisions, payments, and contractual changes are subject to robust governance, professional challenge, and NEC-aligned decision-making. This enables delivery teams to progress at pace, while giving the Executive and external stakeholders confidence that risk, cost, and compliance remain under control. Within Wildanet’s organisational structure, the Service Manager provides a deliberate and necessary separation between build delivery pressure and contractual control.

Main Responsibilities:

• The Service Manager is responsible for ensuring:

• that NEC3 contracts are administered with rigour, consistency, and integrity in accordance with contractual requirements and delegated authority.
• that Wildanet’s commercial, contractual, and regulatory interests are protected through robust, auditable contract governance.
• the compliance and verification framework is effective in validating all activities prior to payment.
• that all payments and contractual change represent demonstrable value for money and are controlled within agreed governance thresholds.
• that contractual, commercial, and delivery risks are identified early and actively managed in line with NEC Early Warning principles.
• that build partners are held to account for performance, quality, and compliance through formal governance and escalation.
• that senior leaders, funders, and auditors have confidence in Wildanet’s contractual control, financial discipline, and delivery assurance.

Key Activities:

• Compliance Verification

• Ensure PIA and civil activities are verified prior to payment.
• Conduct audits to confirm compliance with the required percentage in alignment with payment.
• Training and development and process creation for all verification activities – direct reports or external teams ensuring that the processes meet current business needs and strategy.

• Oversee the closure of task orders, including activity remeasurement and contract deliverables.
• Maintain a task order closure programme to forecast effective retention.

• Facilitate communication among contractors and internal departments to resolve issues to support strong partnering relationships/contractual compliance/programme and performance compliance and governance meetings.
• Manage monthly build partner contract meetings and KPI/SLA performance.

• Lead the quantity surveying team focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy, and productivity.
• Ensuring all contractual communications are responded to within contractual time frames.
• Administer contracts to ensure adherence to agreed terms, conditions, and obligations.
• Review and validate contract deliverables against scope, timelines, and quality requirements.
• Manage contract variations, extensions, and amendments in alignment with governance processes.
• Monitor contractor performance and compliance with contractual obligations.
• Identify, document, and escalate contractual risks or disputes for timely resolution.
• Management of BDUK and Build partner contract risk registers.
• Provide support to BDUK contractual performance as required.
• Onboarding of new build partners to contract and CEMAR.
• CEMAR compliance/auditing/reporting/training.
• Contractual management of build programme ensuring changes to programme are documented.
• Review and approval of high value CE’s (or similar).
• Support the build team to guarantee best value solutions are agreed and additional costs are avoided.

• Collaborate with the line manager to define strategy, KPIs, and performance benchmarks.
• Provide routine reports on team performance, compliance levels, and operational metrics.
• Report on KPI performance.
• Report on Build partner performance.
• Ensure Retention forecasting is maintained and updated.
• Provide cash flow and cost to complete reporting.
• Support build director for completion of monthly project review reporting and process.
• Provide support to the operational teams to ensure best value for money and tight cost control and contractual compliance is met.

• Identify and document defective work to assist quantity surveyors in pricing.
• Ensure quality issues are managed in compliance with the contract.

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Quantity Surveyor team, ensuring accountability and accuracy.

• Ensure payments are error-free, eliminating duplication, overclaims, and rate discrepancies.
• Ensure payments are made in accordance with contractual payment schedules and payments are made accurately.

• Support build partner site-based annual regulatory compliance audits.

• Work closely with the director to deliver on strategic objectives.
• Provide insights and support for decision-making, project coordination, and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure all Wildanet Health and Safety and People policies are fully discharged within your area of responsibility.
• Ensure the team is adequately skilled and resourced to meet the demands of the department.
• Drive a high performing culture, responding swiftly to underperformance or team challenges.
• Actively participate in team meetings and 360 feedback programmes.

Essential Person Specification:

Knowledge:

• Strong working knowledge of NEC3 contracts, ideally including TSC and/or ECC forms.
• Understanding of payment, change control, and risk management principles under NEC.
• Knowledge of contractual governance and assurance expectations within large-scale infrastructure environments.
• Working knowledge of CEMAR or equivalent NEC contract management systems.
• Experience working within regulated, publicly funded, or high-governance environments is desirable.

Skills/Attributes:

• Confidence interpreting and applying contract terms objectively, even under delivery pressure or commercial challenge.
• A proven ability to apply independent professional judgement within governance frameworks.
• Comfort making and standing by difficult or unpopular contractual decisions in the interests of compliance, value for money, and fairness.
• The credibility to challenge senior internal stakeholders and build partners constructively, using contract and evidence rather than hierarchy.
• A calm, authoritative approach to risk, dispute avoidance, and issue escalation.

Experience:

• 1. Contractual & NEC Experience

• Demonstrable experience operating in a decision-making NEC3 contractual role with accountability for formal contract administration.
• Direct experience administering NEC3 contractual mechanisms, including:

• Task Orders and associated programmes.
• Payment assessment and certification.
• Compensation Events.
• Early Warning processes.

• Experience holding accountability for payment accuracy, including validation of quantities, rates, and entitlement.
• Experience producing and maintaining:

• Cashflow forecasts.
• Cost-to-complete reporting.
• Retention forecasting.

• Experience identifying, managing, and mitigating contractual and commercial risk within NEC-governed environments.
• Experience operating within formal compliance and verification frameworks, including pre-payment verification.
• Experience supporting or responding to:

• Internal audits.
• External audits.
• Regulatory or funder assurance requirements (e.g. BDUK or equivalent).

• Experience holding suppliers or build partners to account for contractual performance, quality, and compliance.
• Experience operating formal contract governance forums, including:

• Performance reviews.
• KPI or SLA monitoring.
• Issue escalation processes.

• Experience leading or managing commercial, quantity surveying, compliance, or assurance teams.
• Experience setting standards, processes, and controls for contract administration functions.
• Experience ensuring teams are appropriately resourced, trained, and aligned to governance requirements.

Qualifications:

• Degree, HNC/HND, or equivalent professional experience in:

• Construction.
• Telecommunications.
• Engineering.
• Commercial or Contract Management.
• Quantity Surveying.

Circumstances:

• Full time 37.5 hours.
• Flexible working available.
• Will be some periods of pressure to meet deadlines and/or resolve conflict.