[Remote] Senior Commercial Contracts Manager – Supplier & Service Agreements

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Epiq Counsel is partnering with a leading utility company based on the west coast that provides electricity and natural gas. The Senior Commercial Contracts Manager will act as the lead for the Procurement Contract Management team, overseeing complex contracts and ensuring compliance with corporate policies while promoting a culture of safety and ethical conduct.

Responsibilities

• Point of escalation for the Customer Energy Management team on legal issues
• Coaching, mentoring, and upholding contracting best practices for the Customer Energy Management team, including policy, process, negotiation strategy, and corporate risk tolerances
• Workload balancing lead for the team
• Contract Management/Project Management:
• Engage with the CEM team to define project scope, plan and initiate, mitigate risks, coordinate, problem solve, and facilitate communication
• Operating completely autonomously, contract management of the most complex/critical agreements including drafting, negotiating, redlining, and ongoing administration
• Negotiate favorable contract terms and conditions to secure the best possible outcome for PSE, including risk mitigation
• Handle disputes regarding performance and compliance issues, facilitating resolution to minimize impact of disruptions on internal customers
• Coordinate with Suppliers, Sourcing/Category Managers, Sourcing Analysts, Procurement Operations, Supplier Management, as well as Legal, Risk, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, and other internal teams
• Process Excellence & Technology Utilization:
• Drive consistency in contracting, identify opportunities to standardize or improve templates and processes
• Identify opportunities to increase the effectiveness of the contracting function on an ongoing basis
• Utilize contract management technology to manage the end-to-end contract lifecycle
• Work with Legal function to identify and obtain approval for alternative and supplemental clauses during negotiations

Skills

• 10 plus years of experience in Procurement, Contract Management, or a related field
• Experience with customer energy contracts as well as service contracts for customer-facing interactions including those with software components
• Experience with legislatively mandated energy savings
• Strong presentation, project management, negotiation, and redlining skills are required, as well as demonstrated conflict resolution skills
• Excellent working knowledge of contracting concepts and commercial law
• Excellent ability to identify, assess, and mitigate risk
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required
• Experience identifying legal, compliance, regulatory, and operational issues requiring subject matter expertise
• Ability to present highly complex topics in an effective and concise manner to broad-based audiences including various levels of management
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively, both as a team member and independently
• Excellent customer service, problem solving, and decision-making skills
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks and assignments simultaneously
• Demonstrated ability to influence without positional authority
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
• Familiarity with eProcurement Source-to-Pay tools desirable, Ariba specifically
• Experience in Contract Lifecycle Management tools desirable
• Understanding of procurement governance, processes, and policies
• Strong analytical and interpretive skills to recognize, comprehend, and assess data, as well as complex issues and industry information
• Previous people management/coaching/development a plus
• Experience in a regulated industry a plus (UTC, WEC, FERC)
• Experience with rebate programs, grant funded projects, non-profit and community based projects, partnership projects
• Experience with customer-facing software and engagement services for residential and local business customers
• Experience with service contracts for customer education

Company Overview

• Epiq Counsel helps manage in-house workflow by engaging experienced legal professionals. It was founded in undefined, and is headquartered in New York, NY, US, with a workforce of 1001-5000 employees. Its website is https://www.epiqglobal.com/en-us/services/business-of-law-services/epiq-counsel.