- Location
- Bamber Bridge, Preston
- Type
- Contract
- Seniority
- Manager
- Closing date
- Today
Description
Contracts Manager - Nuclear
Application Deadline: 10 December 2026
Department: Commercial
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Preston
Description
Are you an experienced Contracts Manager with a background in Nuclear defence, aerospace, energy, engineering or another highly regulated sector?
We’re looking for a Nuclear Contracts Manager to take ownership of strategically important customer contracts, managing them from initial quotation and contract review right through to delivery, invoicing and close-out.
Working closely with Business Development, customers, suppliers, Operations and teams across tk accelis, you’ll play a key role in turning new opportunities into well-controlled, commercially successful contracts.
This is a varied role combining contract management, commercial management, customer relationships and project delivery, with responsibility for ensuring contractual, technical, quality, programme and compliance requirements are understood and delivered.
Key Responsibilities
You’ll take ownership of allocated contracts throughout their full lifecycle, ensuring clear plans, responsibilities and controls are in place.
You’ll:
- Support Business Development with bids, tenders, quotations and customer presentations
- Carry out detailed contract reviews covering scope, specifications, pricing, margin, delivery milestones, commercial terms and quality requirements
- Ensure commitments made during the bid process are achievable and clearly handed over to the relevant teams
- Manage contracts from order acceptance through delivery, invoicing, final account and close-out
- Maintain contract plans, milestones, action logs, risk and opportunity registers and change controls
- Coordinate activity across Sales, Procurement, Quality, Technical, Operations, Logistics, Finance and external suppliers
You’ll have a strong commercial focus and will be responsible for protecting the performance and profitability of your contracts.
This will include:
- Monitoring revenue, cost, margin, cash, stock and invoicing
- Managing contract performance against agreed KPIs
- Managing variations, claims, extensions of time and commercial disputes
- Maintaining clear contractual evidence and appropriate approvals
- Working with Finance and Credit Control on milestone payments, credit exposure, overdue debt and cash collection
You’ll be a key point of contact for customers and will build trusted relationships across their commercial, procurement, project, engineering and quality teams.
You’ll lead and support customer meetings, contract reviews, project updates, audits and site visits, making sure communication is accurate, timely and followed through.
The position will involve travel to customer locations as well as regular travel to our Preston site to ensure priorities, capability and delivery remain aligned.
You’ll proactively identify commercial, programme, supply-chain and compliance risks, putting appropriate mitigation plans in place and escalating issues when required.
You’ll also:
- Manage changes in scope and contractual requirements
- Support the management of non-conformances and corrective actions
- Develop recovery plans where delivery is at risk
- Maintain a clear audit trail of contractual correspondence, changes and approvals
- Capture lessons learned to strengthen future contract delivery
Safety, quality and integrity are fundamental to this role.
You’ll promote a strong Nuclear safety culture, right-first-time delivery and a questioning attitude, escalating immediately where safety, quality or compliance could be compromised.
Working with our Quality and Technical teams, you’ll help ensure the correct documentation is delivered, which may include:
- Certificates of conformity
- Material traceability
- Inspection records
- Manufacturing records
- Lifetime quality records
You’ll also ensure contracts are managed in line with company policies, delegated authority, legal and ethical requirements, export controls, information security requirements and applicable customer standards.
You’ll maintain accurate contract, order, forecast, stock and customer information within SAP, CRM and contract reporting systems.
You’ll provide clear management reporting covering areas such as:
- Contract progress and milestones
- Commercial and programme risk
- Margin and cash
- Quality documentation
- Customer actions and outstanding issues
You’ll also use contract reviews, performance information and lessons learned to continuously improve future bids and contract delivery.
Skills, Knowledge & Expertise
We’re looking for someone with:
- Proven contract, project or commercial management experience within Nuclear, defence, aerospace, energy, engineering or another highly regulated sector
- A strong understanding of the full contract lifecycle
- Good commercial knowledge, including contractual terms, risk, change control, claims, margin and cash management
- Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and suppliers against demanding customer requirements and deadlines
- The ability to understand specifications, technical drawings, quality plans and complex customer documentation
- Strong negotiation, influencing and customer relationship skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- A highly organised and analytical approach with strong attention to detail
- The ability to manage several contracts and competing priorities
- A full UK driving licence and willingness to travel to customer locations and our Preston site
- The ability to meet customer security, site access and vetting requirements where required
Desirable
- Experience working directly with UK Nuclear customers, Tier 1 contractors or organisations within the Nuclear supply chain
- Knowledge of ISO 9001 and ISO 19443
- Experience working with NEC3 or NEC4 contracts, bespoke customer terms, framework agreements or long-term supply contracts
- Experience using SAP and CRM systems
- Knowledge of metals or metal supply
- Familiarity with export controls, cyber security and information classification requirements
You’ll be someone who takes ownership and understands how to balance the needs of the customer with the commercial and operational needs of the business.
You’ll have a strong focus on safety and integrity, speaking up when quality, safety or compliance could be compromised and maintaining accurate and transparent records.
You’ll be customer focused, taking the time to understand contractual and operational priorities and making sure agreed actions are followed through.
Collaboration will also be key. You’ll work closely with Business Development, our Preston operation and wider support functions, sharing information early and bringing the right people together to deliver against our commitments.
Most importantly, you’ll be accountable for the performance of your contracts, identifying risks early, taking action and looking for opportunities to improve the way we deliver for our customers.
Job Benefits
- Annual Leave: 25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays
- Health Cash Plan
- Company bonus scheme
- Advantageous pension scheme
- Learning & Development opportunities
- Advanced Family Friendly Policies
- Discounts portal
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Length of Service Awards
- Christmas savings scheme
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Company events
- Christmas Closedown
Skills
SAPContract ManagementComplianceProcurementNegotiation