Legal and Contracts Manager, London Office.
The Legal and Contract Manager’s role is to safeguard the long-term success of Flowbird by ensuring that Flowbird’s obligations, rights and entitlements are considered, established, understood, and preserved, and that the duties and obligations of the client or subcontractor are met, and their rights respected.
The Contract Manager will have a direct-line report to the Head of Legal Contracts and Compliance and work closely with any necessary Flowbird’s teams and has access to all documents and staff members, as and when required. For large tenders or projects, the Contract Manager will be a key member of the bid or project team and will have authority for commercial and contractual matters related to tender approval, project execution and contract variations. The Contract Manager participates to opportunity, bid and project reviews.
The Contract Manager works within the framework of Flowbird internal rules, policies and standards and the relevant country legal requirements. The Contract Manager is the local point of contact for any ESG matter and the ESG program deployment.
Responsibilities:
- Develop, analyse, negotiate and finalise all kind of contracts, in coordination with the pertaining business team (e.g. sales, project, R&D, purchasing)
- Proactively identify and negotiate amendments, changes and claim (customers, partners, etc.) in order to protect and improve Flowbird’s situation in collaboration with project teams
- Set-up and/or participate in risks reviews/opportunities by proposing action plans to reduce risks and highlighting the opportunities to maximize their achievement
- Manage and facilitate the resolution of pre-litigation situations and prepare, follow any legal dispute
- Help to develop awareness of contract management good practice internally and, where necessary, participate in training or coaching of internal staff (e.g. project managers, sales, lead engineers, etc)
- Ensure the safety of all contractual commitments and work within Flowbird guidelines and levels of authority
- Proactively contribute to the improvement and optimisation of Flowbird’s legal and contract management best practices, templates and/or any other documents etc.
- Contribute to the improvement and optimisation of Flowbird’s finance KPIs (Cash, profitability and revenue) with finance team based on risks and contract opportunities
- Ensure the defence of commercial, contractual and legal aspects of tenders:
- The Contract Manager will assess and respond to client contract terms and conditions, working with others as necessary to identify issues, mitigate risks and create opportunities
- In tendering, the Contract Manager ensure that company risks are minimized and liability is managed, and that critical aspects of implementation, acceptance, support and performance are considered along with the financial milestones and criteria for milestone completion
- The Contract Manager is involved at the pre-sales and proposal stage of projects, especially large or complex projects and review contracts and prepare responses to these or propositions of alterations
- The above includes participating in customer meetings, presentations and contract negotiations
- Ensure the defence of commercial, contractual and legal aspects of projects:
- For complex projects, the Contract Manager takes overall responsibility for all project contractual activities. Procurement usually owns the relationship with suppliers, however, the Contract Manager will work closely with procurement and in some cases may could take direct contractual responsibility, for example, where specific suppliers are identified as project-critical.
- The Contract Manager ensures the appropriate flow-down of terms to suppliers at tendering and during project negotiations and continues to be involved throughout project execution
- The Contract Manager supports the projects to identify opportunities and foresee risks in order to improve and maximise Flowbird’s finance KPIs (cash, margin, revenue) and protect the business from legal and financial exposure. The Contract Manager works with the Project Manager to ensure that risks are managed in accordance with best practice
- The Contract Manager ensures that the project team is aware of legal, contractual or regulatory requirements that they need to pay specific attention to and that these are clearly identified and managed
- Implement and maintain effective Contract Management procedures for the business:
- The Contract Manager proactively participates to the set-up and improvement pf appropriate procedures, processes and systems are in place to protect the business with regards commercial, contract and claim management. This will include introducing new processes and systems where appropriate
- Drive the resolution of all commercial, contractual or legal issues
- The Contract Manager will negotiate terms directly with clients and partners
- ESG: the contract manager is the local point of contact with regards to the ESG program
Technical Skills:
- Legal knowledge
- Contract management
- Negotiation and conflict resolution
- Excellent written and verbal communication ability
- Project risk management
Soft Skills:
- Analysis and reasoning skills
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Strong Interpersonal skills
- Decision making skills
- Ability to pay attention to quality and detail without losing sight of the bigger picture is critical to success in this role.
Required experience:
- Law degree or equivalent UK Law experience
- Relevant professional qualifications (e.g. in Project Management, Commercial/Contract Management, Business Administration)
- Legal and Contracts experience within the UK
- Engineering, Software, IT industry experience is preferable, not essential
About Flowbird:
Flowbird Transport delivers solutions for smart cities on the move. Our Smart Transport solutions can be seen in world-class cities including London, Edinburgh, Paris, New York, Sydney, Rome, Brussels and Toronto. Flowbird is present in 5,000 towns and cities around the world. We employ over 1,300 people creating and delivering effective, high quality solutions for our clients.
Our market leadership is underpinned by a continuous drive to innovate and push the frontiers of what is possible in order to make our customers more successful. As a result, we are a thriving business that is investing strongly and building the team for both new opportunities and supporting existing ones.
Location:
A London based role with a hybrid working style. Bi-weekly travel to the head office in Poole will be required as well as monthly visits to our French headquarters.
Company Benefits:
· 25 days holiday, plus Bank holidays, with the option to purchase up to 35 days per annum
· Up to 6% contributory Company pension scheme
· Life assurance of x4 annual salary
· Health Cash Plan
· Discounted gym membership with a company subsidy
· 6 months Company sick pay
· Employee discounts
· Employee assistance programme available 24/7
· Flexible Benefits platform giving you the option to purchase additional benefits including critical illness cover, additional life assurance, dental insurance, health screening, cycle to work scheme, personal car leasing, breakdown cover, purchase of technology
· Paid Employee Volunteering days
· Hybrid working
· Additional Maternity / Paternity leave