Contract Manager

About the role

The Exploration Company builds complex space systems under contracts with government and institutional customers. Programs of this kind evolve: requirements change, design maturity improves, schedules shift, and suppliers and customers request adjustments. Each change must be formally proposed, assessed, negotiated, and recorded in the contract before it can be executed and paid for.

As Contract Manager, you will own the change lifecycle for your assigned contracts. You will drive Contract Change Notices (CCNs) from initial request to signature, protect the company's position on scope, cost, and schedule, and keep the contract baseline accurate for the program team.

Key responsibilities

• Own the CCN lifecycle from receipt or initiation through impact assessment, negotiation, approval, and formal issue, with clear ownership and deadlines for every open item.

• Define a process to identifying extra effort from the team which could be characterized into a CCN request to the customer, and all the steps until CCN nego and signature

• Chase and track open CCNs with customer contracting officers, program managers, and internal stakeholders, and escalate delays that threaten schedule or cash flow.

• Coordinate impact assessments with engineering, quality, supply chain, and finance, covering technical scope, cost, schedule, risk, and compliance effects.

• Prepare and negotiate change proposals, including pricing justification, supporting documentation, and changes to terms and conditions.

• Maintain the contract baseline by recording each approved CCN in the contract register and ensuring the scope, price, milestones, and deliverables reflect the current agreed position.

• Monitor entitlement and notice obligations, including time limits for submitting change requests and claims under the contract and applicable procurement rules.

• Manage the CCN register and reporting, providing regular status updates on open, pending, and approved changes, value at stake, and aging to program leadership.

• Support invoicing and revenue recognition by ensuring approved changes are reflected in billing milestones and Odoo or ERP records.

• Ensure compliance with the contract's terms, applicable public procurement and export-control rules, and internal approval and delegation-of-authority policies.

• Prepare for audits and reviews by maintaining a complete, traceable record of change decisions and correspondence.

In the role of Contract Manager, ideally, you will have the following:

• 5+ years of B2G experience (sales, procurement or contract management), ideally in aerospace, space, defence industries

• An understanding of complex contracts with Institutions like ESA, EU, Space agencies and ability to propose solution preserving company's interest and add value to the customer.

• Strong negotiation, presentation, and proposal-writing skills

• Fluency in English; additional fluency in German, French, or Italian is a strong advantage, depending on your location

• Experience either as Contract manager in space company or as Contract officer in institution like ESA is welcome

• We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind