Director / Senior Director, Commercial Contracts and Negotiations

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

About the company

A private-equity-backed infrastructure security platform operating nationally. We design, install and service the perimeter and access systems that protect critical facilities: gates, barriers, doors, access control, and integrated security. 

We perform the work with our own people rather than subcontracting it out. That is the foundation of our field quality and of the service business we are building on top of it. 

Why this role exists

We win large, complex work as a subcontractor to national general contractors and program builders, on multi-year capital programs. Those agreements are drafted by the counterparty, and they deserve a professional on our side of the table. 

We are building a commercial contracting function to match the scale of the work we now win. This role is that function. 

You will be the single owner of every inbound contract. Not a reviewer who flags issues and hands them back. The person who sets our commercial position, takes it to the counterparty, and closes it. 

What success looks like

Four outcomes, all quantified and reported to the CEO monthly. 

1. Margin protected and improved through terms

Value sits in the terms, not only the price. Escalation, unpriced scope, mobilization, and the mechanics of change orders and claims are where it is won or lost. You find it and you get it. 

• Measured on margin retention from bid to booked, and improvement against the contract as first presented. 

2. Cash timing built into the agreement

Capital project work carries long cycles by nature. The contract is where the cash curve gets shaped, and it gets shaped before signature or not at all. 

• Mobilization and deposit payments, milestone billing, stored materials billing, retention reduction at substantial completion, payment terms and pay application timing. 
• Measured on days from work performed to cash collected on new agreements, and on the share carrying favorable billing structure. 

3. Downside risk controlled

The jobs that hurt are not the ones that go wrong. They are the ones that go wrong with no contractual path to relief. 

• Schedule relief for owner-caused and general-contractor-caused delay. A change order and claim process that can actually be executed. Escalation and force majeure protection. Scope definitions with exclusions that survive to the final document. 
• Measured on the share of new agreements above a defined threshold carrying each protection. 

4. Liability and damages capped

No unlimited exposure on anything we sign. 

• Mutual limitation of liability. Waiver of consequential damages. Liquidated damages with a stated aggregate cap. Indemnity narrowed to our own negligence. Warranty durations that end. 
• Measured on the share of new agreements carrying each protection, and on the standard holding without exception. 

And one more thing we care about

We are growing a multi-year service and maintenance business with response-time commitments to our highest-tier customers. You will build and own the master service agreement and SLA templates that let that business scale instead of being negotiated one at a time. 

The authority you will have

A contracts leader who can be overruled by whoever wants the booking is not a contracts leader. So the seat comes with real teeth. 

• You hold veto authority over a defined list of terms. Uncapped liability, unwaived consequential damages, pay-if-paid, uncapped liquidated damages, and unilateral termination without recovery of demobilization cost do not get signed on your objection. 
• Anything on that list moves forward only with the CEO's signature. Not the seller's, not the estimator's, not the operator's. 
• You own the commercial terms half of our bid and no-bid standard, and you publish it to every estimator and seller so those calls get made at the front end. 
• You sit in pursuit review before the letter of intent, not after it. Your position shapes the bid instead of cleaning up behind it. 
• You report to the CEO. As the function matures, this seat is expected to move under the COO or the VP of Finance, with the standard already set and holding. 

You are not starting from zero

A contract review workflow, a written SOP, a project approval form and delegation of authority thresholds are already in place, and the organization has been trained on them. 

What the platform does not yet have is a negotiator. Today the process routes agreements for review and approval. You will own that process and advance it into what comes next: a commercial position, taken to the counterparty, and closed on better terms than it arrived with. 

Where this role can go

We are writing this as a Director or Senior Director role because we want the right person more than we want a tidy title. If you are someone who outgrows the job you were hired for, there is a clear runway here. 

There is adjacent corporate work a proven leader can grow into over time: entity management and multi-state registrations, contractor licensing, the insurance and surety program, compliance, and legal operations. We are deliberately keeping it out of the requirements, because commercial negotiation is the skill that has to be excellent on day one. 

For the person who proves this function, that scope is available to earn. We would rather grow it into you than hire around you. 

Requirements:

What you bring

• Seven or more years negotiating construction subcontracts, from the trade contractor side or the general contractor side. 
• Working command of AIA and ConsensusDocs forms and, more importantly, the GC-drafted forms that ignore both. 
• Real fluency in flow-down provisions, pay-if-paid and pay-when-paid enforceability by state, lien and bond claim rights, retention, liquidated damages, indemnity, additional insured and waiver of subrogation, and surety and bonding requirements. 
• A track record of extracting terms improvements from counterparties who hold most of the leverage. You will be asked for specific examples and what you traded to get them. 
• Ownership of a function end to end, not just command of the document. This role runs a process, sets a standard and holds it across a national footprint. 
• The judgment to recommend walking away from revenue, and the discipline to know when that is the wrong call. 
• Speed. This function cannot become a bottleneck, and contract turnaround time sits on the scorecard alongside everything else. 

Helpful, not required

• Master service agreement and recurring service contract experience with SLA structures. 
• Data center, utility, transportation or other critical infrastructure end markets. 
• Multi-entity environments and acquisition diligence exposure. 
• Public agency and federally funded work, including prevailing wage and bonded project requirements. 
• A JD or paralegal certification is welcome and not required. Outside counsel is retained for litigation and specialized matters, and you would manage that relationship. 

Your first 90 days

• Days 1 to 30. Build the baseline. Read the active portfolio above a defined threshold and come back with the three provisions most worth changing first, and why. 
• Days 31 to 60 . Publish the terms standard: our positions, our fallbacks and our walk-away lines, in a form an estimator can use without calling you. 
• Days 61 to 90. Own the negotiation on live pursuits and show measured improvement on margin, cash timing and capped exposure against the agreements as presented. 

Compensation

Base range of $135,000 to $200,000 depending on level and experience, plus an annual incentive targeted at 20 percent with upside to 30 percent. The incentive is tied to margin retention, cash timing, and risk outcomes. It is deliberately not tied to bookings volume. 

Full benefits, 401(k), and the travel required to be credible with our operating teams and our customers. 

How to apply

Send a resume and, in place of a cover letter, a short answer to one question: describe a contract where you improved your company's position without changing the price. What did you ask for, what did you give up, and what did it save?