Senior Contracts Manager

Bell Integration; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Bell Integration is seeking a Senior Contracts Manager to deliver strategic and commercially focused legal support across operational, sales, pre-sales, procurement and senior management teams. The role aims to ensure the business operates within a robust legal framework while supporting commercial objectives and revenue enablement.

You will own and negotiate a broad range of agreements, manage external counsel within budgets, and drive improvements in contracting processes, templates and tools.

Qualifications

• Formal legal qualification or training (e.g. law degree, GDL or LPC) demonstrating understanding of fundamental legal principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead provision of strategic, commercially minded legal advice on complex contracts and business risk.
• Review, draft and negotiate high-value supplier and customer contracts, software licences, SaaS and service agreements.
• Coordinate negotiations with customers and suppliers to align outcomes with business objectives and risk appetite.
• Oversee Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), including registers, renewals, amendments and system optimization.

Skills

Contract management

Commercial negotiations

Data protection

Cross-border contracting

Stakeholder management

External counsel management

MS Office 365

Education

Law degree / GDL / LPC

Tools

Contract management systems

MS Office 365

Job description

As Senior Contracts Manager, you will provide strategic and commercially focused legal support across Bell’s operational, sales, pre-sales, procurement, and senior management teams. You will ensure the business operates within a robust legal framework whilst supporting the achievement of its commercial objectives and driving revenue enablement, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency through best-in-class contracting practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead the provision of clear, strategic, and commercially minded advice on complex contract terms, legal matters, and business risk across multiple areas of the business.
• Take ownership of reviewing, drafting, and negotiating a broad and complex range of agreements, including high-value supplier and customer contracts, software licences, SaaS agreements, agency, reseller, subcontractor and service provision arrangements.
• Lead negotiations with customers and suppliers on complex or high-value matters, acting as the primary point of contact and ensuring outcomes align with business objectives, company policies, and risk appetite.
• Oversees and continuously improves Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), including contract registers, obligation tracking, renewals, amendments, and system optimisation, ensuring accuracy, accessibility, and compliance across the business.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for internal teams, providing guidance and support on complex on-boarding, contractual disputes, claims, and legal risk matters.
• Monitor, interpret, and proactively communicate relevant legal and regulatory developments, assessing their impact on the business and recommending appropriate action (including data protection and other applicable regulatory frameworks).
• Engage, instruct, and strategically manage external legal counsel within agreed budgets, including oversight of matters involving non-UK jurisdictions or specialist areas of law.
• Own and govern the business's suite of legal templates, driving regular reviews to ensure they remain current, commercially appropriate, and legally sound.
• Lead the identification and implementation of improvements to legal team processes, ways of working, and internal tools, including legal technology and automation solutions, to enhance efficiency and service quality.
• Provide regular data-driven reporting and insights to senior leadership on legal risk, workload, contract lifecycle metrics (e.g. cycle time, deviation rates) and matters of strategic relevance to the business.
• Support the development of less experienced team members, sharing knowledge and providing guidance to build capability within the legal function through coaching and mentorship.
• Ensure full compliance with all processes and procedures adopted by the team and the wider business and contribute to their ongoing development whilst championing a culture of consistent, compliant, and risk-aware contracting.
• Act as the dedicated Legal Business Partner to an assigned business practice, developing a deep understanding of its strategy, commercial objectives, operating model, and risk profile.
• Act as the primary legal point of contact for strategic initiatives, deals, and projects within the assigned practice, ensuring effective alignment between legal, commercial, and operational objectives.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with key stakeholders within the assigned practice, proactively identifying legal needs and providing tailored, commercially focused guidance.
• Anticipate and support the evolving legal requirements of the business practice, ensuring timely and pragmatic advice aligned with its growth plans and operational priorities.
• Develop, implement, and continuously improve standard form documentation, templates, playbooks, and guidance specific to the needs of the assigned business practice, ensuring consistency, scalability, and risk alignment.
• Embed best-practice contracting processes within the business practice, including training stakeholders on policies, tools, and risk frameworks to enable self-sufficiency where appropriate.

Skills/Experience

• Legal qualification or training (e.g. law degree, GDL, or LPC) demonstrating a strong command of fundamental legal principles, including English contract law.
• Minimum of seven (7) years' experience in a contract management or commercial contracts role, with significant experience within the technology sector or a systems integration environment and in-depth knowledge of data protection principles (including UK GDPR and related regulatory frameworks).
• Demonstrated expertise in independently leading and concluding complex, high-value commercial negotiations across a range of agreement types.
• Substantial experience managing cross-border agreements and navigating the legal and regulatory complexities of international contracting.A track record of working at a senior level alongside Sales, Procurement, Compliance, and operational teams to deliver commercially sound legal outcomes.
• Extensive experience negotiating key commercial risk provisions, including limitation of liability, indemnities, service levels, and data-related risks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex legal matters clearly and confidently to senior stakeholders and non-legal audiences.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office 365, with experience of contract management systems and tools.
• Experience managing external legal counsel within agreed budgets.

Person

• Highly organised and self-directed, with the ability to manage competing priorities and lead multiple workstreams simultaneously.
• Exceptional attention to detail, combined with a pragmatic and commercially astute approach to problem-solving.
• Strong business judgement and the confidence to make sound decisions on complex legal and commercial matters, often under pressure.
• Demonstrates the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct, with an unwavering commitment to confidentiality and data protection.
• A strategic and commercially minded thinker and trusted adviser who actively challenges conventional approaches and drives innovation within the legal function.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop others, contributing to the growth and maturity of the contracting function.
• Strong change and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to implement new processes, tools, and ways of working effectively.
• Resilient, decisive, and proactive, with a proven ability to lead through ambiguity and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.
• A credible and influential negotiator and trusted adviser who builds influential relationships with stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership.

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