Senior Contracts Manager

Senior Contracts Manager Location: Field, office, and home based (Initial projects in North Wales, with future work across Mid Wales, Shropshire, and the West Midlands) Office base: Welshpool, Powys Package: Senior salary tailored to experience, £5,000 car allowance, discretionary project performance bonus, and 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays About SWG Construction SWG Construction (Build & Renovate) Ltd is a regional main contractor working across Mid and North Wales, Shropshire, and the West Midlands, with offices in Welshpool and Wolverhampton. Our turnover is around £15M with approximately 45 staff, and we hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 certification. Our work is mainly in the public sector, won through frameworks including the North Wales Construction Framework, CWM3, SEWSCAP, and Pretium, alongside direct tenders for local authorities and NHS bodies. We work across education, health, local authority property, and housing, with a strong reputation for refurbishment and extension projects within occupied or live buildings. The Role As our projects grow in scale and complexity, often with tight deadlines, we are looking to appoint an experienced Senior Contracts Manager. You will take full operational and programme ownership of a portfolio of projects (typically £500k to £5M, with occasional larger schemes) from pre-start handover through to the end of the defects period. Our emphasis is on certainty of completion. You will be measured first on whether projects finish on the contractual completion date, and second on whether the tender margin is protected or improved. This role suits someone who runs a tight programme and expects the same of others, who tells the directors early when something is going wrong rather than late, and who wants a say in how the delivery side of the business is run rather than simply being handed a job and a date. Location and Working Pattern Your initial portfolio will consist of three live projects in North Wales. However, as a regional contractor, we go where we win the work. Once initial schemes conclude, future projects will be allocated across our wider operating areas in Mid Wales, Shropshire, North Wales, and the West Midlands. A genuine willingness to travel across our operating footprint is essential. You will manage your own diary across a sensible weekly split:

• Two or three days per week on site, or as project demands require.
• At least one day per week in our Welshpool office (this can be any day of the week to suit your schedule) working alongside the pre-construction, commercial, and operational teams.
• The remainder of the week working from home.
• Attendance at the weekly operations meeting on a Friday morning, which can be joined via Microsoft Teams. Key Responsibilities
• Take handover from the pre-construction team, interrogate the tender allowances, and challenge anything that does not stand up before work starts.
• Produce and own the construction programme, including procurement and information release dates, and agree the site set-up, logistics, and resource plan.
• Manage site teams across your allocated projects, driving short-term programme discipline through weekly look-ahead planning and early identification of slippage.
• Chair progress meetings with clients, design teams, and subcontractors, resolving technical issues and maintaining high standards of finished work so handover is clean and snagging is minimal.
• Work alongside the project quantity surveyor on subcontract procurement, variations, valuations, and final accounts.
• Give early notice of events affecting time or cost under both JCT and NEC contracts, and take joint ownership of the monthly cost value reconciliation.
• Discharge the contractor's duties under the CDM Regulations 2015, maintaining safe systems of work within our ISO management systems.
• Act as the senior point of contact for clients during delivery and support the bid team with programme input and delivery content where required. What We Are Looking For Essential
• Proven track record as a Senior Contracts Manager, Contracts Manager, or Senior Project Manager with a main contractor, delivering complex projects in the £500k to £5M+ range to tight deadlines.
• Demonstrable record of completing projects on the contractual date, with a clear account of how you achieve that.
• Prepared to travel across North Wales initially, and across Mid Wales, Shropshire, and the West Midlands as future workload dictates.
• Strong working knowledge of both JCT (including Design and Build and Intermediate) and NEC forms of contract.
• Competent in producing and managing construction programmes using planning software.
• Commercially literate, comfortable with subcontract procurement, variations, compensation events, and cost value reconciliation.
• SMSTS, CSCS Manager card, First Aid at Work, and a full UK driving licence. Desirable
• Experience of public sector frameworks and associated reporting, including social value and community benefits.
• Experience of refurbishment and extension work in live or occupied schools and healthcare buildings.
• Membership of the Chartered Institute of Building (MCIOB), or working towards it.
• Welsh language skills, or a willingness to support Welsh language requirements on public sector work. Progression and Development SWG is a privately owned contractor, which means decisions are made quickly and you will have direct access to the directors. You will report to the Construction Manager. We provide full support for professional membership, including CIOB, alongside genuine involvement in the wider operational improvement of the business.