Contract Manager

Contract Manager

Legal, Risk & Compliance — Client-Embedded EPC Contracts & Change Management

ABOUT ENERGY PROJECT PARTNERS

Energy Project Partners (EPP) is a rapidly expanding energy project services firm providing project management, owner’s representation, field services, QA/QC, digital solutions, and technical consulting across a broad range of major capital and utility-scale energy projects in the U.S. Through our integrated divisions — EPP Resources, EPP Field Services, and EPP Digital Solutions — we combine people, processes, and technology to deliver industry-leading results.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Contract Manager is EPP’s engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts subject-matter expert, placed as an embedded resource within a client’s project organization. The role is the working conduit between the client’s legal department and its project execution department — translating legal intent into terms a project team can build to, and translating field and execution reality into language the legal team can stand behind.

The Contract Manager is engaged early, during pre-construction, and stays with the contract through its full life. In pre-construction, the role assembles the EPC request-for-proposal (RFP) package, organizes and controls the contract exhibits, and helps the pre-construction project manager interpret and compare bid responses on a common basis. Through negotiation, the role owns the redline and revision process and advises on how specific terms shift risk, cost, and schedule exposure between the owner and the contractor. After the contract is executed, the role facilitates the change order and change management process so that scope, cost, schedule, and contractual entitlement stay aligned as the work proceeds.

This is a contracts strategy position, not a document-processing position. The Contract Manager is expected to hold a clear point of view on how a contract should be structured for a given project, delivery model, and risk profile — and to defend that position with the client’s legal, commercial, and execution stakeholders.

The role demands an organizational mindset. The Contract Manager is expected to be genuinely integrated across the client’s departments — legal, project execution, engineering, procurement and supply chain, finance, risk and insurance, environmental, health and safety, and executive sponsors — and to know how to move a decision through that organization rather than simply route paper through it. As an EPP employee working inside a client’s organization, the Contract Manager represents the owner’s interests and coordinates the EPC contractor; EPP does not self-perform construction.

A fully performing Contract Manager will carry two to three active contract negotiations concurrently, at varying stages, while continuing to administer executed contracts already in the execution phase.

Reports to: [EPP Director – Legal, Risk & Compliance]     Day-to-day direction: [Client contracts or project execution leadership]     Division: [EPP Resources]

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Pre-Construction & EPC RFP Package Development

• Own the assembly of the EPC RFP package: the agreement form, instructions to bidders, scope of work, technical specifications, and the full exhibit set.
• Organize, number, and control every contract exhibit — scope and technical exhibits, drawings, scope splits and division-of-responsibility matrices, schedule and milestone exhibits, payment and pricing schedules, performance guarantees and testing protocols, warranty terms, insurance and security requirements, health and safety requirements, permits and compliance obligations, and owner-furnished equipment lists.
• Verify that the exhibit set is internally consistent and free of gaps, overlaps, and contradictions before the package is released — conflicts between technical exhibits and commercial terms are a leading source of downstream claims.
• Maintain the master exhibit register and revision control for the package, and manage the bidder question-and-answer log so that every clarification and addendum is captured, distributed, and carried into the final contract.
• Advise the pre-construction team on contracting strategy and delivery model — lump-sum turnkey EPC, EPCM, split EPC with owner-supplied equipment, multi-prime, or balance-of-plant — and on how that choice reallocates risk, interface responsibility, and schedule float.

Bid Evaluation & Award Support

• Help the pre-construction project manager interpret bid responses: normalize proposals to a common basis, isolate the commercial and technical exceptions behind headline pricing, and expose what each bidder has actually priced and excluded.
• Build and maintain the exceptions and qualifications matrix, translating each bidder’s deviations into a plain statement of the risk the owner would absorb by accepting them.
• Support commercial and technical bid clarification meetings, and prepare the contractual portion of the award recommendation for the client’s legal and executive reviewers.
• Identify terms best resolved before award rather than after, and sequence them into the negotiation plan.

Contract Strategy, Risk & Negotiation

• Serve as the client’s contracts subject-matter expert on risk allocation: scope and exhibit structure, milestone and payment terms, liquidated damages for delay and performance, performance guarantees and testing, warranty, indemnity, limitation of liability, consequential damages, insurance, force majeure, change and claims provisions, suspension and termination, dispute resolution, and security instruments such as letters of credit, retainage, and parent-company guarantees.
• Develop the negotiation strategy for each contract: define the owner’s positions, fallback positions, and true walk-away limits before the first exchange, and align them with the client’s legal department in advance.
• Lead or co-lead negotiation sessions with the EPC contractor alongside the client’s legal, commercial, and execution stakeholders, and keep the negotiation moving to a defined schedule.
• Escalate genuine legal risk to the client’s legal department with a clear framing of the commercial trade-off — not simply the clause in question.
• Manage two to three active negotiations concurrently, each with its own strategy, issues list, and closing schedule.

Redline & Revision Management

• Own the redline: maintain the authoritative working draft, control versions, and ensure every revision is attributable, dated, and traceable to the party and the decision that produced it.
• Maintain the open issues list through negotiation — issue, owner, position, counter-position, status, and resolution — and drive it to closure.
• Confirm that agreed positions are reflected accurately and consistently in the contract body and in every affected exhibit before execution, including cross-references, defined terms, and the schedule and payment exhibits.
• Prepare clean and comparison drafts for legal review and for signature, and assemble the final executed conformed set.

Contract Execution, Handover & Administration

• Produce the conformed contract set at execution and run a structured contract handover and kickoff with the project execution team, so the people delivering the work understand the obligations, notice requirements, and deadlines they now own.
• Build and maintain the contract obligations and deliverables register — notice periods, submittal and reporting obligations, milestone dates, testing and commissioning requirements, insurance certificates, bonds and security, lien waivers, and closeout conditions.
• Monitor compliance with contractual notice provisions on both sides; a missed notice deadline can extinguish a valid entitlement or create one for the contractor.
• Maintain organized, audit-ready contract records and correspondence in the client’s document management and contract lifecycle systems.

Change Order & Change Management (Execution Phase)

• Facilitate the change management process end to end: intake, contractual entitlement assessment, cost and schedule evaluation, negotiation, approval routing, and execution of the change order.
• Evaluate every change request against the contract before it is priced — establish whether entitlement exists, on what basis, and which party carries the risk under the agreed terms.
• Coordinate the technical, cost, and schedule review of change requests with engineering, project controls, and the field, including time-impact analysis where a schedule extension is claimed.
• Negotiate change order pricing and terms with the EPC contractor and prepare the change documentation for approval and execution.
• Maintain the change log and report change status, exposure, and trends to the project and client leadership; identify recurring change drivers and feed them back into future contract and exhibit language.
• Manage early warning, claims, and dispute avoidance — surface potential claims while they are still commercially resolvable, and support the client’s legal department if a matter escalates.

Organizational Integration & Stakeholder Management

• Operate as an integrated member of the client’s organization: build working relationships across legal, project execution, engineering, procurement and supply chain, finance, risk and insurance, environmental, health and safety, and executive sponsors.
• Understand each department’s decision rights, review cycles, and approval thresholds well enough to route a contract or change to closure without avoidable delay.
• Communicate contractual positions in language each audience can act on — legal precision for counsel, risk and cost consequence for executives, and plain obligations and deadlines for the field.
• Serve as a coaching resource to project managers and field leadership on contract interpretation, notice discipline, and change process compliance.
• Represent EPP professionally within the client’s organization, and keep EPP leadership informed of assignment scope, workload, performance feedback, and opportunities to add value.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, Supply Chain, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• 7+ years of EPC contract administration, contract management, or commercial management experience on utility-scale or major capital projects, with meaningful time on the owner’s side of the table.
• Demonstrated ownership of at least one full EPC contract life cycle — RFP package through negotiation, execution, change management, and closeout.
• Fluency with standard EPC and EPCM contract forms and owner-drafted agreements, including lump-sum turnkey EPC, EPCM, balance-of-plant, and equipment or module supply agreements, and their interfaces with transportation, interconnection, warranty, and long-term service or O&M agreements. Working familiarity with the FIDIC, ConsensusDocs, and AIA contract families.
• Working command of the commercial terms that drive project risk: liquidated damages, performance guarantees and testing, warranty, indemnity, limitation of liability, insurance, force majeure, change and claims provisions, security instruments, suspension, termination, and dispute resolution.
• Proven independent negotiation experience — building a negotiation strategy, leading redline exchanges, and closing terms with a counterparty.
• Demonstrated exhibit and document control discipline, with the organizational rigor to keep a large exhibit set accurate through many revision cycles.
• Ability to run two to three active negotiations concurrently while administering executed contracts, without losing track of commitments or deadlines.
• Strong written communication and sound commercial judgment; able to produce clear, decision-ready analysis for legal, executive, and field audiences.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365, document management and contract lifecycle systems, and working literacy in Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project sufficient to evaluate schedule impacts.
• Ability to work effectively as an embedded resource inside a client organization — self-directed, credible with senior stakeholders, and comfortable with dual accountability to EPP and to the client’s project leadership.

Preferred

• D., paralegal certificate, or formal contract-law coursework (not required).
• NCMA certification (CPCM, CFCM, or CCCM), CCM, or comparable contracts or commercial-management credential.
• Prior experience in the contracts or commercial group of an independent power producer, developer, utility, or other major capital project owner.
• Experience across utility-scale generation, storage, or transmission project types — for example wind, solar, battery energy storage, thermal generation, substations, or high-voltage transmission.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms, Procore, Deltek Vantagepoint, or LCPtracker.
• Claims preparation, claims defense, or dispute resolution experience.
• Experience supporting interconnection agreements, tax equity or financing diligence, or lender technical advisor requests as they affect EPC contract terms.

WORK LOCATION & TRAVEL

This is a remote position with limited travel to site. Travel as required for negotiation sessions, project sites, and client meetings — estimated travel will vary.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Classification: Full-time employee, [FLSA: Exempt].

Salary range: Commensurate with experience.

Variable pay: Annual performance bonus eligibility.

Benefits: Health, dental, and vision insurance; retirement benefit plans (401k) with employer matching; paid time off and holidays; professional growth and advancement opportunities.

Energy Project Partners is an Equal Opportunity Employer.