Contracts & Supply Chain Manager

Job Description

Job DescriptionDescription:

Job Purpose

The Contracts & Supply Chain Manager leads contract administration, procurement, and supplier management for United Controls International (UCI), supporting the company’s work as a supplier to the commercial nuclear industry.

This role manages customer and supplier contractual requirements, oversees procurement activities, negotiates commercial terms, manages supplier relationships, and ensures that applicable requirements are identified, documented, and flowed down throughout the supply chain.

The position works closely with Sales, Project Management, Engineering, Quality Assurance, Operations, and Accounting to ensure UCI’s commitments are understood, managed effectively, and fulfilled in accordance with applicable nuclear quality and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate understands that nuclear-industry procurement extends beyond price and delivery. Success requires disciplined management of quality and technical requirements, source verification, documentation, traceability, supplier qualifications, and contractual flowdown.

Duties and Responsibilities

Contract Management

• Lead the review, administration, and management of customer contracts, purchase orders, subcontracts, amendments, and commercial terms and conditions.

• Review customer contracts and purchase orders to identify contractual, commercial, technical, quality, schedule, and financial risks.

• Identify customer requirements that require specific internal or supplier actions and ensure appropriate requirements are communicated to responsible departments.

• Coordinate with Sales, Engineering, Quality, Project Management, Operations, and Accounting to ensure contract requirements are understood and properly executed.

• Support contract negotiations with customers and suppliers, including pricing, payment terms, delivery requirements, warranty provisions, liability, cancellation provisions, changes, and other commercial terms.

• Manage contract changes, amendments, customer requests, claims, disputes, and other contractual matters.

• Maintain accurate and controlled contract documentation, including customer purchase orders, revisions, correspondence, amendments, and supporting documentation.

• Ensure contract requirements are appropriately incorporated into internal processes, purchase orders, and supplier agreements.

• Support management in evaluating contractual risk before UCI accepts new work or significant changes to existing work.

Supply Chain and Procurement

• Lead procurement activities for commercial nuclear projects, including sourcing, supplier selection, quotation evaluation, negotiation, purchase order issuance, and supplier performance management.

• Ensure procurement activities comply with applicable UCI procedures and customer requirements, including ASME NQA-1, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, ISO requirements, NRC requirements, and project-specific quality requirements, as applicable.

• Work closely with Quality Assurance to determine appropriate procurement controls based on the safety classification, quality requirements, and intended use of purchased materials, equipment, and services.

• Ensure applicable technical, quality, documentation, inspection, testing, certification, and traceability requirements are properly flowed down to suppliers.

• Coordinate with Engineering and Quality to ensure supplier requirements are technically appropriate and clearly defined before purchase orders are issued.

• Evaluate supplier quotations based on total value, including price, lead time, technical capability, quality requirements, documentation, risk, and past performance.

• Ensure supplier purchase orders accurately reflect customer and UCI requirements and contain appropriate quality and commercial flowdown.

• Support supplier qualification, evaluation, re-evaluation, and performance monitoring in coordination with Quality Assurance.

• Maintain appropriate procurement records and ensure required supplier documentation is received, reviewed, and retained in accordance with UCI procedures.

• Identify potential long-lead materials, obsolete components, sole-source requirements, and other supply chain constraints that could impact project schedules.

Supplier Management

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with key nuclear and industrial suppliers.

• Establish supplier performance expectations related to quality, delivery, cost, responsiveness, and documentation.

• Monitor supplier performance and proactively address issues affecting quality, schedule, cost, or customer commitments.

• Work with Quality and Operations to resolve supplier nonconformances, late deliveries, documentation deficiencies, and other supplier performance issues.

• Identify alternative suppliers and develop sourcing strategies for critical, obsolete, or difficult-to-source components and materials.

• Support supplier negotiations and establish commercial strategies that protect UCI while maintaining strong long-term supplier relationships.

• Develop a strong understanding of UCI's critical supplier base, including supplier capabilities, certifications, qualifications, lead times, and areas of technical expertise.

Commercial and Supply Chain Risk Management

• Identify contractual and supply chain risks early in the sales and project lifecycle.

• Evaluate risks associated with customer requirements, supplier availability, long lead times, escalation, cancellation, testing requirements, engineering requirements, and changing customer specifications.

• Develop mitigation strategies for critical supply chain and contractual risks.

• Provide leadership with visibility into significant supplier, contractual, and procurement risks.

• Support decisions regarding make/buy, supplier selection, alternate sourcing, stocking strategies, and commercial commitments.

• Participate in project and contract reviews to identify potential issues before they impact cost or schedule.

• Support resolution of customer and supplier commercial disputes in coordination with UCI leadership.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Sales to review customer requirements and identify contractual and procurement considerations during the quotation process.

• Work with Engineering to ensure technical requirements are clearly defined before procurement activities begin.

• Partner with Quality Assurance to establish appropriate procurement controls, supplier qualification requirements, inspection requirements, and documentation requirements.

• Coordinate with Project Management and Operations to ensure procurement activities support project schedules and customer commitments.

• Work with Accounting to ensure purchase orders, invoices, payment terms, and commercial commitments are properly aligned.

• Serve as a key connection between UCI's commercial organization and its procurement and supplier network.

Process Improvement and Systems

• Develop and maintain standardized contract and procurement processes, templates, and procedures.

• Improve the use of ERP, CRM, document control, and reporting systems to increase visibility and accountability.

• Establish procurement and contract metrics, including supplier on-time delivery, procurement cycle time, purchase order aging, cost performance, supplier quality, and contract turnaround.

• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes and improve procurement efficiency.

• Establish appropriate controls to ensure sensitive commercial and supplier information is accessible only to personnel with a legitimate business need.

• Continuously evaluate procurement and contract processes for opportunities to improve efficiency while maintaining required nuclear quality controls.

Leadership and Team Development

• Lead and develop personnel supporting Contracts and Supply Chain activities.

• Establish clear priorities, responsibilities, performance expectations, and accountability.

• Develop employees' understanding of nuclear procurement requirements and UCI's quality processes.

• Establish and monitor department KPIs.

• Promote a culture of ownership, attention to detail, responsiveness, and continuous improvement.

• Work with leadership to develop long-term strategies for UCI's procurement and supplier management capabilities.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Engineering, Contracts Management, or a related field preferred.

• 8+ years of experience in contracts, procurement, supply chain, commercial operations, or a related field.

• Experience supporting the commercial nuclear, government, defense, energy, or other highly regulated industries strongly preferred.

• Experience reviewing and negotiating customer and supplier contracts, purchase orders, and terms and conditions.

• Working knowledge of ASME NQA-1, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, NRC requirements, ISO 9001, and nuclear procurement practices preferred.

• Understanding of commercial grade dedication, supplier qualification, quality assurance requirements, material traceability, and procurement documentation preferred.

• Experience managing suppliers of engineered components, electrical equipment, mechanical equipment, materials, testing services, or specialty services preferred.

• Strong understanding of contractual risk, commercial terms, supplier performance, and supply chain risk management.

• Strong negotiation, analytical, organizational, and communication skills.

• Ability to interpret technical and commercial requirements and translate them into clear procurement and contractual requirements.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively across Sales, Engineering, Quality, Operations, Project Management, and Accounting.

• Experience with ERP and procurement systems required; experience with Jarvis or similar ERP systems is a plus.

Key Competencies

• Nuclear procurement and quality requirements

• Contract administration and negotiation

• Supplier qualification and management

• Commercial and contractual risk management

• Procurement strategy and sourcing

• Requirements identification and flowdown

• Supplier performance management

• Nuclear quality assurance

• Material and documentation traceability

• Cross-functional leadership

• Process improvement and automation

• Negotiation and problem-solving

• Attention to detail

• Accountability and results orientation

Success in This Role

Success in this position will be measured by UCI's ability to:

• Secure quality materials and services at competitive costs.

• Maintain strong supplier performance and relationships.

• Identify and mitigate contractual and supply chain risks before they impact projects.

• Ensure customer and nuclear quality requirements are properly flowed down to suppliers.

• Improve procurement cycle time and supplier responsiveness.

• Reduce avoidable procurement costs, delays, and rework.

• Maintain complete and accurate procurement and contract documentation.

• Improve visibility into supplier performance, contractual obligations, and supply chain risk.

• Support UCI's reputation as a reliable, technically capable, and quality-focused nuclear supplier.