Contract Relationship Manager

National Highways; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

National Highways is seeking a Contract Relationship Manager to own day-to-day relationships and contract management for operational technology suppliers supporting renewals and maintenance on the Strategic Road Network.

Based in the UK with a balance of remote and office-based work, the role involves governance, KPI management, and coordinating with demand planning to ensure safety, service delivery, and alignment with organisational objectives.

Qualifications

• Contract and supplier management experience in a regulated/public sector or complex infrastructure environment.
• Experience delivering supplier performance management using KPIs, governance, and corrective action plans.
• Experience aligning demand forecasts with supplier capacity, manufacturing lead times, delivery plans and budgets.
• Understanding of Operational Technology scheme delivery considerations (service continuity, safety, change control).
• Confident drafting variations and formal supplier communications; strong written communication and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Lead contract management activities on behalf of the OT Asset Improvement Team Leader across the contract lifecycle, ensuring supplier compliance with contractual terms, policies, and governance requirements.
• Plan, chair, and minute monthly supplier governance meetings, driving clear actions, decisions, risks/issues management, and forward delivery plans aligned to programme milestones.
• Monitor and manage contractual KPIs and service performance, producing regular performance reporting, trend analysis, and improvement plans; trigger remedies or performance management mechanisms where applicable such as service credits.
• Coordinate with the Demand Management function to understand future demand signals and translate these into supplier forecasts, capacity planning, manufacturing lead-times, and delivery readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement and supplier development, agreeing improvement initiatives, tracking benefits, and ensuring lessons learned feed into service delivery and future procurement strategy.

Skills

Contract management

Supplier management

KPIs & governance

Stakeholder management

Policy compliance

Job description

National Highways has an exciting opportunity for a Contract Relationship Manager to join the Operations Control Division. You will be responsible for owning the day-to-day relationship and contract management for operational technology (OT) suppliers supporting delivery of renewals and maintenance activity on the Strategic Road Network, acting as the primary point of contact and escalation route. Also, support stakeholder management across internal departments, ensuring OT supplier activities align with operational needs, safety and service priorities, and wider organisational objectives for the network.

This position will be based from any of our UK offices with a balance of remote and office-based work.

• Lead contract management activities on behalf of the OT Asset Improvement Team Leader across the contract lifecycle, ensuring supplier compliance with contractual terms, policies, and government-owned company governance requirements.
• Plan, chair, and minute monthly supplier governance meetings, driving clear actions, decisions, risks/issues management, and forward delivery plans aligned to programme milestones.
• Monitor and manage contractual KPIs and service performance, producing regular performance reporting, trend analysis, and improvement plans; trigger remedies or performance management mechanisms where applicable such as service credits.
• Coordinate with the Demand Management function to understand future demand signals and translate these into supplier forecasts, capacity planning, manufacturing lead-times, and delivery readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement and supplier development, agreeing improvement initiatives, tracking benefits, and ensuring lessons learned feed into service delivery and future procurement strategy.

About you.

• Contract and supplier management experience in a regulated/public sector or complex infrastructure environment.
• Proven delivery of supplier performance management using KPIs, governance, and corrective action plans.
• Experience aligning demand forecasts with supplier capacity, manufacturing lead times, delivery plans and financial budgets.
• Understanding of Operational Technology scheme delivery considerations i.e. service continuity, safety, change control (desirable).
• Confident drafting variations and formal supplier communications; strong written communication and attention to detail.

About us.

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England's motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.

Operations is at the heart of keeping the strategic road network moving and ensuring our customers get the best possible experience when using our roads.

We address over 39,000 customer enquiries every month, plan and deliver all maintenance activities on the network, drive efficiencies and improvements across our systems and roads, and respond to incidents across 4,500 miles of motorways and major A-roads that we manage. All to make sure National Highways customers have safer, smoother, and more reliable journeys.

External candidates will be offered a starting salary at the lower end of the pay scale, while current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy.

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.