Senior Contracts and Commercial Manager

Overview

This role supports review, negotiation, administration, and risk management of commercial agreements for a Michigan-based organization focused on renewable energy for agriculture, commercial, and utility customers.

The Senior Contracts and Commercial Manager leads contract-related work across EPC and construction contracts, subcontracts, vendor and supplier agreements, purchase terms, nondisclosure agreements, and downstream obligation alignment with prime-contract commitments. The position also supports project teams through change management, claims, payment, closeout, and warranty matters.

Responsibilities

• Prime contracts: Review, draft, redline, and negotiate EPC agreements, construction contracts, LNTPs, amendments, and other customer agreements.
• Subcontracts and flow-downs: Negotiate subcontractor agreements and align obligations with prime contracts to avoid unintended gaps.
• Vendor and supplier agreements: Negotiate MSAs and purchase and supply agreements, including purchase-order terms, warranties, delivery obligations, acceptance rights, remedies, and documentation requirements.
• Nondisclosure agreements (NDAs): Own the NDA review and approval process; promptly advance routine agreements and negotiate exceptions when needed.
• Commercial risk: Prioritize material legal, operational, financial, schedule, and compliance exposures and provide practical recommendations to management.
• Project terms: Address scope and design responsibility, milestones, owner dependencies, delays, force majeure, testing, acceptance, liquidated damages, and performance requirements.
• Payment and security: Review payment milestones, retainage, withholding, setoff, lien and bond rights, suspension rights, and final-payment conditions.
• Liability and remedies: Negotiate indemnity, insurance, warranties, damages waivers, liability caps, termination rights, and dispute-resolution terms.
• Changes and claims: Support notices, change orders, pricing, schedule impacts, payment disputes, claims documentation, negotiation, and resolution.
• Compliance: Evaluate contractual responsibility for prevailing wage, apprenticeship, domestic content, restricted-entity sourcing, tax-credit and other incentive support, public-project, and environmental requirements.
• Administration and tracking: Maintain executed agreements, approvals, amendments, correspondence, and an obligations register for notices, milestones, deliverables, insurance, bonds, acceptance, and warranties.
• Standards and systems: Maintain templates, fallback clauses, negotiation playbooks, approval thresholds, and reliable version control in designated systems, including Procore where applicable.
• Business partnership: Advise leadership, estimating, operations, engineering, procurement, finance, and project teams to ensure commitments are understood, priced, documented, and performed.
• Counsel and improvement: Escalate specialized matters to outside advisors, manage support efficiently, train internal teams, and improve processes using lessons learned.

Requirements

• Education: High school diploma or GED; Bachelor’s Degree in construction management, engineering, business, finance, supply chain, or related field, or equivalent relevant experience. Required.
• Experience: 7–10 years of progressive construction-contract experience, including at least 5 years directly negotiating prime contracts, subcontracts, and vendor or supplier agreements. Required.
• Project experience: Experience with an EPC, electrical, renewable-energy, utility, or comparable project-driven organization. Solar or battery-storage experience is strongly preferred.
• Legal training: Juris Doctor (JD) Degree or construction-law training is preferred but not required; must exercise sound judgment and recognize when specialized counsel is needed. Preferred.
• Driver’s license: Valid State Driver’s license. Required.
• Core competencies:
  • Ability to manage challenges tied to project timelines and work the time required to resolve issues.
  • Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while staying aware of completion dates.
  • Ability to build and maintain relationships across associates, customers, and suppliers.
  • Ability to influence others, identify and overcome objections.
  • Proactive, solutions-oriented problem solving.
  • Strong organization and attention to detail.
  • Ethics and integrity.
  • Positive, can-do attitude.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Strong contract knowledge, including scope/changes, delays, LDs, payment, liens and bonds, indemnity, insurance, warranties, termination, liability limitations, remedies, and dispute resolution.
  • Ability to identify gaps between prime contracts, subcontracts, and supply agreements and negotiate MSAs, purchase terms, delivery obligations, warranties, and supplier remedies.
  • Ability to efficiently negotiate NDAs and recognize prevailing-wage, apprenticeship, domestic-content, restricted-entity, public-project, environmental, and tax-credit risks.
  • Lifecycle support experience through notices, changes, claims, payment issues, closeout, and warranty matters—not solely negotiating and filing documents.
  • Ability to produce concise redlines, balance risk with project realities, and explain complex provisions clearly to executives and project teams.
  • Strong deadline and document control skills; proficiency with Word redlining, Excel, Adobe Acrobat, e-signature and contract-management systems; Procore experience preferred.
  • Practical, collaborative approach; calm under pressure; comfortable challenging internal and external stakeholders when necessary.

Preferred Qualifications

• Solar or battery-storage experience.
• Juris Doctor (JD) Degree or construction-law training.
• Procore experience.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $125,000.00 to $150,000.00 USD (salary commensurate with education and experience).

Annual Bonus Target: 5% of annual base salary/annual wages, paid based on meeting both organizational and individual targets.

Benefits

Immediately after Hire

• Nine paid holidays per year, including: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve.
• Paid vacation: accrued each week at a rate of .924 to achieve 48 hours in the calendar year. Unused vacation can be paid out and/or up to 40 unused hours can be rolled over at year end.
• Paid time off (PTO): 72 hours available each year on January 1. In the first year of employment, available hours are prorated based on date of hire.

First of the month after the date of hire

• Health insurance: premiums are a shared expense with 80% covered by the organization and 20% covered by the associate via weekly payroll deduction; premiums based on level of coverage (Associate only, Associate & Spouse, Associate & Child(ren), Family).
  • Option 1: Priority Health, HMO HSA 2000 Plan
    • Members must seek care from in-network providers.
    • HSA compatible health plan with weekly HSA deposits based on coverage option:
      • Associate: $10.64
      • Associate & Spouse: $27.25
      • Associate & Child(ren): $21.65
      • Family: $37.55
  • Option 2: Priority Health, Traditional HMO 1000 Plan
    • Members must seek care from in-network providers.
    • Preventive care covered 100% when received in-network.
    • Not an HSA compatible health plan.
• Dental insurance: premiums shared 80% organization / 20% associate via weekly payroll deduction.
• Vision insurance: premiums shared 80% organization / 20% associate via weekly payroll deduction.
• Group life insurance: $50,000.00 with an Accident Death clause; premiums covered by the organization.
• Group short-term disability: 60% of earnings with a $1,000.00 weekly maximum after a seven-day waiting period; premiums covered by the organization.
• Voluntary supplemental programs: Accident, Critical illness, and Hospital Indemnity available at associate expense; plans organized through Allstate and premiums paid through payroll deduction.

First of the month after 90-days of employment

• 401(k) plan: associates are auto enrolled at a 3% deferral rate. After enrollment, associates may make changes, including increasing deferral rate to applicable IRS limits. Company match availability:
  • When the associate defers 3%, the organization matches 3%.
  • When the associate defers 4%, the organization matches 3.5%.
  • When the associate defers 5%, the organization matches 4%.

Location

• Michigan-based with potential for Remote/Hybrid work from home.

Work Environment & Physical Demands

• Office environment: busy office with frequent interruptions and multi-tasking required; standard office equipment available including Microsoft Office.
• Travel: occasional travel up to 5% of the time.
• Physical demands:
  • Ability to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel.
  • Ability to talk and hear.
  • Ability to climb stairs and/or ladders.
  • Ability to reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
  • Ability to lift and/or move up to 20 pounds.
  • Vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
  • Ability to tolerate the above requirements for a minimum of 8 hours daily.