Contracts and Operations Manager

Search Talent; Cavan; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Search Talent is partnering with a growing Irish organisation to appoint a Senior Contracts & Operations Manager to lead the Major Projects division in Ireland. You will manage a significant portfolio of major contracts and lead a multidisciplinary team of project managers, planners, coordinators and support professionals.

This is a people and contracts leadership role, offering an opportunity to shape performance, drive commercial outcomes and guide strategic growth across multiple live

Qualifications

• Experience leading managers and multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong understanding of civil engineering contracts and commercial risk.
• Experience overseeing multiple projects or a substantial contract portfolio.
• Excellent client-facing and negotiation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of project managers and planners.
• Provide direction across live projects, ensuring commercial and contractual deliverables.
• Oversee variations, claims, change control and final accounts at management level.
• Lead high-stakes client negotiations and resolve commercial issues.
• Support tender and pre-contract decisions on scope and risk.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to grow the team and capability.

Skills

People leadership

Contract management

Commercial risk management

Project portfolio management

Job description

Senior Contracts & Operations Manager – Major Projects

Ireland | €Competitive Senior Management Package

Search Talent is partnering with a growing Irish organisation to appoint a Senior Contracts & Operations Manager to take a leading role within its Major Projects division.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced contracts, projects or operations professional who wants something broader than managing individual projects.

You’ll take responsibility for a significant portfolio of major contracts while leading and developing a multidisciplinary team of project managers, planners, coordinators and support professionals.

The Opportunity

This is fundamentally a people and contracts leadership role.

You’ll provide direction to the management team, oversee performance across multiple live projects and ensure contracts are being delivered commercially, operationally and contractually as they should be.

You won't be expected to sit behind a desk preparing every variation or claim yourself. Instead, you'll have specialist support and will provide the leadership, judgement and commercial direction around the contracts.

You'll be responsible for:

• Leading, coaching and developing managers across a major-projects portfolio
• Creating clear accountability for project performance, programme, cost and delivery
• Providing senior oversight of large and complex contracts
• Identifying contractual and commercial risks early and driving them through to resolution
• Overseeing variations, claims, change control and final accounts at management level
• Working closely with project teams to improve margin, forecasting and project performance
• Leading significant client negotiations and resolving commercial or contractual issues
• Supporting tender and pre-contract decisions around scope, risk, programme and deliverability
• Working with senior leadership to build the team and capability required for continued growth

Who We're Looking For

We're interested in speaking with experienced Contracts Managers, Senior Contracts Managers, Commercial Managers, Senior Project Managers or Operations Managers who have progressed into genuine people leadership.

You could come from civil engineering, utilities, infrastructure, energy, telecoms, industrial projects or another major contracting environment where you've been exposed to sizeable, commercially complex contracts with a strong civils or infrastructure element.

What matters is that you can lead people, understand contracts, challenge project performance, manage commercial risk and confidently deal with senior clients and project stakeholders.

You'll ideally have:

• Experience managing managers and multidisciplinary project teams
• Strong understanding of construction/civils contracts and commercial risk
• Exposure to variations, claims, notices, change control and final accounts
• Experience overseeing multiple projects or a substantial contract portfolio
• Strong client-facing and negotiation skills
• The confidence to improve performance and hold people accountable

Why Consider It?

This isn't another role managing one contract or one site.

It's an opportunity to step into a high-impact senior management position, inherit a substantial project portfolio and team, and play a major role in how the division develops from here.

The business is growing, the project pipeline is strong and there is genuine scope for the successful person to build the team, influence how the division operates and make the role their own.