Senior Defense Contracting Lead (Remote/Brussels)

Work Life Group; Brussel Hoofdstad; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Wlgroup in Belgium is seeking a senior contracting professional to run an acquisition from market research through tender and negotiation to award, and to stay with it to measure delivery.

The role is largely off site with regular days in Brussels, involving tender management, supplier market research, advising on sourcing models, and ensuring compliance and documentation.

Qualifications

• A degree in a related discipline with post-related experience, or a long and progressive contracting career in place of one.
• Pre-award and post-award contracting on high-value, systems-level acquisitions, ideally acquired in a large international institution or a large international company.
• Command of competitive and sole-source practice, cost and price analysis, contract law and contract administration.
• The independence to work directly with a project manager on a large acquisition with little supervision.
• Clear speaking and writing, including briefing senior management, and practical use of e-procurement and procure-to-pay tooling.
• Welcome extras: exposure to ICT, artificial intelligence, cloud, secure data environments or next-generation digital services

Responsibilities

• Running tender, evaluation and acquisition processes on complex, high-value requirements
• Researching suppliers and markets, and turning that into sourcing strategy rather than a folder of notes
• Advising on sourcing models, and on the policy and procedure behind tendering and supplier selection
• Negotiating with suppliers and partners, including the acceptance criteria that decide later arguments
• Overseeing delivery against the contract, using performance measures to challenge what is not good enough and to fix under-performance with the terms you have
• Keeping the procurement record straight in the systems used for it, and compliant with the rules that apply

Skills

Tender management

Contract law

Procurement systems

Stakeholder briefing

e-procurement tooling

Education

Related degree or equivalent contracting career

Tools

e-procurement tooling

Job description

Most contracts are won or lost before anybody signs anything.

A large international defence buyer needs a senior contracting professional who can run an acquisition from market research through tender and negotiation to award - and who then stays with it, measuring whether the supplier actually delivers. The work is mostly off site, with regular days in Brussels.

What you would be doing

• Running tender, evaluation and acquisition processes on complex, high-value requirements
• Researching suppliers and markets, and turning that into sourcing strategy rather than a folder of notes
• Advising on sourcing models, and on the policy and procedure behind tendering and supplier selection
• Negotiating with suppliers and partners, including the acceptance criteria that decide later arguments
• Overseeing delivery against the contract, using performance measures to challenge what is not good enough and to fix under-performance with the terms you have
• Keeping the procurement record straight in the systems used for it, and compliant with the rules that apply

What you would bring

• A degree in a related discipline with post-related experience, or a long and progressive contracting career in place of one
• Pre-award and post-award contracting on high-value, systems-level acquisitions, ideally acquired in a large international institution or a large international company
• Command of competitive and sole-source practice, cost and price analysis, contract law and contract administration
• The independence to work directly with a project manager on a large acquisition with little supervision
• Clear speaking and writing, including briefing senior management, and practical use of e-procurement and procure-to-pay tooling
• Welcome extras: exposure to ICT, artificial intelligence, cloud, secure data environments or next-generation digital services

Why this one is worth a look

It is senior commercial work with real scope, mostly delivered from wherever you are based, and it runs from a standing framework rather than a one-off project.