Senior Manager, Commercial Contracts

Fervo Energy; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) match

Paid time off

Parental leave

Employee stock purchase program

Life insurance

Disability coverage

Wellbeing stipends

Job summary

Fervo Energy, headquartered in Houston, TX, seeks a Senior Manager of Commercial Contracts to lead end-to-end commercial leadership for major equipment supply and strategic project contracts. You will collaborate with Legal, Supply Chain, Engineering, Project Management, and Finance to negotiate, administer, and improve contract performance.

Responsibilities include planning sourcing events, negotiating terms, and maintaining contract-management plans, while driving change control, warranties,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, supply chain, business, finance, law, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in commercial contract management or related roles.
• Experience negotiating and administering high-value equipment supply, EPC, construction, services, or complex industrial agreements.
• Post-award experience managing changes, claims, notices, warranties, supplier performance, and closeout.
• Ability to drive cross-functional decisions and communicate complex issues concisely.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute sourcing events for major equipment and construction contracts.
• Lead day-to-day negotiations of equipment supply agreements and related instruments.
• Establish and maintain a contract-management plan for each agreement.
• Serve as primary commercial contracts contact for suppliers after award.
• Administer change control and negotiate approved change orders.
• Lead warranty management and supplier recoveries, including related costs.
• Establish supplier performance metrics and conduct commercial reviews.
• Coordinate amendments and disputes with Legal and support documentation.
• Maintain concise portfolio reporting on negotiations, obligations, and changes.
• Conduct after-action reviews and improve future contracting processes.
• Develop scalable contract-management procedures and CLM workflows.
• Apply AI to contract-management use cases with validation and security controls.
• Use data to improve cycle time, notice compliance, and warranty recovery.

Skills

Contract management

Negotiations

Sourcing

AI-enabled workflows

CLM

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

CLM systems

Data reporting tools

Job description

Fervo Energy (NASDAQ: FRVO) is a modern power company developing next-generation geothermal resources to meet the growing demand for affordable, reliable, 24/7 carbon-free energy. Our mission is to transform geothermal into America’s most dependable and affordable source of clean, around-the-clock power. By combining innovations in horizontal drilling, fiber-optic sensing, and advanced reservoir engineering, Fervo has developed a repeatable approach to building utility-scale enhanced geothermal systems. Our flagship Cape Station development in Utah is planned to deliver 500 MW of firm, carbon-free power, and we are advancing a development pipeline of more than 50 GW. Join us and work alongside world-class engineers, geoscientists, operators, project builders, and business leaders working to make geothermal a cornerstone of a more reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy future.

Position Description

The Senior Manager, Commercial Contracts will provide end-to-end commercial leadership for major equipment supply agreements and other strategic project contracts on a “cradle to grave” basis. This role will work across Legal, Supply Chain, Engineering, Project Management, Construction, Commissioning, Operations, and Finance. The Senior Manager will support contract negotiations and remain accountable after execution for contract administration, change orders, claims, supplier recoveries, warranties, and closeout. This position will report to the Senior Counsel, with a dotted-line relationship to Procurement leadership.

This role acts as a liaison between Legal, Supply Chain, and Engineering. Legal owns drafting, Procurement owns sourcing strategy and supplier selection, and Engineering owns technical scope and acceptance. This position provides the commercial continuity, contract discipline, and portfolio visibility needed to convert those decisions into executable agreements and enforce them through performance. The role will also improve Fervo’s contract-management processes from the ground up, using contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems and practical AI-enabled workflows to increase speed, visibility, and accountability.

Responsibilities

Sourcing Events: Partner with Procurement and Engineering to plan and execute sourcing events for assigned major equipment and construction contracts, including commercial RFP content, contractual exceptions, bid evaluation, and award recommendations.

Negotiations: Lead day-to-day negotiations of equipment supply agreements, purchase terms, framework agreements, services agreements, amendments, and related commercial instruments under Legal’s direction. Negotiate pricing and payment mechanics, delivery commitments, performance obligations, liquidated damages, warranties, security, changes, acceptance, remedies, termination, and closeout requirements.

Contract Management Planning: Establish and maintain a contract-management plan for each assigned agreement, including obligations, milestones, deliverables, notices, change orders, payment conditions, liquidated damages, securities, acceptance requirements, and warranty periods.

Supplier Contact and Record Keeping: Serve as the principal commercial contracts contact for assigned suppliers after award, and maintain the definitive record of notices, decisions, changes, claims, backcharges, and unresolved obligations.

Change Control: Administer change control, evaluate supplier requests with Engineering, Project Controls, and Procurement, and negotiate approved change orders and commercial settlements within delegated authority.

Warranty and Supplier Recoveries: Lead the commercial management of warranty claims and supplier recoveries, including repair, replacement, reperformance, field service, expedited logistics, and recoverable costs.

Supplier Performance: Establish supplier performance measures and KPIs, lead periodic commercial reviews, and provide early warning of material cost, schedule, performance, and contractual risks.

Formal Correspondence and Disputes: Coordinate amendments, cure notices, reservations of rights, and other formal correspondence with Legal, and support material disputes with an organized factual and contractual record.

Portfolio Reporting: Maintain concise portfolio reporting on negotiations, obligations, changes, claims, warranties, supplier exposure, deadlines, and required management decisions.

Closeout and Lessons Learned: Conduct after-action reviews following each agreement’s closeout, and provide feedback to the Legal, Procurement, and Engineering teams to improve future contracting and sourcing decisions.

Scalable Procedures: Develop scalable contract-management procedures, templates, playbooks, registers, and training, and incorporate execution lessons into future contracts and procurement decisions.

CLM Process Ownership: Assess current contracting and post-execution processes from first principles, and serve as the business process owner for CLM workflows covering intake, negotiation, approvals, obligations, notices, changes, warranties, claims, and closeout.

AI-Enabled Workflows: Apply AI to defined contract-management use cases such as clause and obligation extraction, contract summaries, notice preparation, issue tracking, and reporting, with appropriate validation, human review, confidentiality, security, and access controls.

Data-Driven Improvement: Use contract data and baseline measures to improve cycle time, notice compliance, change-order aging, warranty recovery, data quality, and user adoption.

Qualifications

Required

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, supply chain, business, finance, law, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience

10+ years of progressive experience in commercial contract management, project procurement, equipment contracting, claims, or related project-execution roles

Demonstrated experience negotiating and administering high-value equipment supply, EPC, construction, services, or other complex industrial agreements

Substantial post-award experience managing changes, claims, notices, warranties, supplier performance, and contract closeout

Strong working knowledge of payment milestones, schedule remedies, performance obligations, warranties, acceptance, changes, liability allocation, insurance, security, and termination rights

Ability to drive decisions across functions without direct authority and communicate complex commercial issues in concise, decision-ready terms

Hands‑on experience improving contract work with AI, CLM, or comparable workflow tools, including workflow design, testing, data structuring, reporting, or implementation ownership

Ability to evaluate AI outputs against source documents and apply appropriate controls for accuracy, confidentiality, security, and human accountability

Willingness to travel to project sites, supplier facilities, factory acceptance tests, and commercial meetings as needed

Preferred

Owner or developer‑side experience combined with experience at an EPC contractor, OEM, or complex industrial supplier

Experience in power generation, renewable energy, data‑center power, or other major industrial infrastructure

Experience with turbines or ORC systems, heat exchangers, pumps, process skids, transformers, switchgear, control systems, or comparable long‑lead equipment

Experience with fast‑track, first‑of‑a‑kind, or design‑evolving projects

Experience as a process owner, product owner, administrator, or implementation lead for a CLM platform, AI‑enabled contracting solution, or related reporting system, with measurable improvement in a contract‑management outcome

Who Thrives at Fervo

We screen for attributes as much as experience. The people who do best here share a few things in common:

First‑principles thinkers who question inherited processes and trace problems to their source

An extreme ownership mindset and willingness to remain accountable through final resolution

A bias for speed, iteration, and practical implementation

Simplifiers who reduce complexity without losing necessary commercial discipline

Collaborators who can align Legal, Procurement, Engineering, and project teams

A commitment to Fervo’s mission and to building systems that scale

Location

Fervo Energy is headquartered in Houston, TX. This is a hybrid role based in Houston, with regular in‑office collaboration and periodic travel to project sites and supplier facilities.

• Fervo offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well‑being, and life outside of work. Benefits for eligible employees include:
• Medical, dental, and vision plan options
• Employer‑paid basic life insurance and short‑term and long‑term disability coverage
• A 401(k) plan with up to 6% match
• Flexible paid time off and paid parental leave
• Family‑building, fertility, hormonal health, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting support through Carrot
• A dependent care FSA for eligible child and elder care expenses
• An annual Lifestyle Spending Account for eligible wellness expenses, including fitness, financial planning, pet insurance, and pet care
• Employee ownership opportunities through Fervo’s Employee Stock Purchase Program, as well as stock option grants and bonus opportunities for eligible roles

Benefits and programs are subject to eligibility requirements and may change.

Our Workplace

Fervo Energy highly values having employees work in the office to foster collaboration and strengthen our company culture. This role follows a hybrid schedule, with team members expected to work in the office three days per week. Fervo considers this in‑office schedule an essential function of the role. Your recruiter can share more information about the schedule.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Fervo Energy is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion, marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, genetic information, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local law. Fervo also prohibits discrimination based on the perception that an individual has any of these characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of these characteristics.