Senior Contract Manager

We are looking for a Senior Contract Manager to be a senior member of the Contracts Support Team, responsible for the effective management of business-critical contracts throughout their lifecycle, ensuring that contractual obligations are met and that services deliver value for money, performance and strategic outcomes.

The postholder will act as the primary interface between HM Land Registry and its suppliers, leading contract management activities including performance management, governance, change control, risk management and compliance monitoring. They will develop and maintain contract management plans and obligations frameworks, ensuring that supplier performance is managed effectively and contractual remedies are identified and applied where appropriate.

Working collaboratively with colleagues across Commercial, Legal, Finance and operational teams, the postholder will ensure that contracts continue to meet business requirements, support organisational objectives and deliver continuous improvement. The role will also contribute to future commercial activity including contract renewals, sourcing strategies, business case development and transition planning.

Main Duties

Contract Management

• Lead the development, implementation and maintenance of contract management plans, governance arrangements and contractual obligations matrices.
• Manage supplier performance against contractual commitments, KPIs and service levels, ensuring delivery against agreed outcomes.
• Monitor contract compliance and identify emerging risks, issues and performance trends, escalating where appropriate.
• Support the enforcement of contractual obligations through performance improvement activity, dispute resolution and application of contractual remedies where necessary.
• Maintain effective contract management information systems, ensuring all contract documentation is accurate, current and readily accessible.
• Provide commercial insight and advice to operational stakeholders on contractual matters and supplier performance.

Supplier and Stakeholder Management

• Act as the central point of contact for operational contract matters.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with suppliers and internal stakeholders to support effective service delivery and collaborative working.
• Facilitate supplier governance meetings and communicate outcomes, actions and decisions to relevant stakeholders.
• Work closely with Commercial, Finance and Legal colleagues to resolve contractual issues and support contract decision making.
• Keep stakeholders informed of key contractual obligations, risks and performance issues.
• Support projects and business initiatives where commercial considerations may impact contractual agreements or supplier delivery.

Contract Changes and Commercial Support

• Initiate and manage contract change and variation processes, ensuring appropriate governance and approvals are obtained.
• Monitor change controls through to implementation, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose and appropriately funded.
• Support the preparation of business cases, spend approvals and commercial submissions.
• Contribute to sourcing and contract renewal activities, including market analysis, supplier engagement and transition planning.

Operational Service Delivery

• Facilitate the monitoring of supplier service delivery, analysing management information and performance data.
• Ensure services are delivered in accordance with contractual service levels and business requirements.
• Monitor supplier risk registers and business continuity arrangements, ensuring appropriate mitigation and escalation.
• Provide assurance that contractual obligations relating to continuity, resilience and exit planning are maintained and regularly tested.
• Produce management information and reporting for senior leadership and governance boards.

Financial Management and Value for Money

• Maintain oversight of contract expenditure, committed spend and forecast costs.
• Work closely with Finance Business Partners to ensure accurate budgeting and forecasting.
• Monitor contracts for value for money opportunities through benchmarking, open-book accounting and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Identify opportunities for efficiencies, cost savings and service improvements across the contract portfolio.
• Escalate actual or forecast expenditure concerns where expenditure exceeds agreed tolerances.

Leadership and Team Development

• Line manage, supervise and develop members of the Contracts Team where required.
• Contribute to succession planning, skills development and knowledge sharing within the wider commercial community.
• Act as a subject matter expert on contract management, providing advice and guidance to colleagues and stakeholders.

For more information, please see the attached Job Description.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Ability and Experience.

After submission of the first stage of your application form, you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Management Judgement Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the full application form.

The closing date for the test and full application form is 11:55pm on Monday 23 November 2026. You must build in time to complete the full application form if you pass the online test. It is recommended that you complete the practice test first. For more information about preparing for the Civil Service Management Judgement Test and access to the practice test, please follow this link:

Preparing for the Civil Service Management Judgement Test - GOV.UK

There are 15 scenarios in total and each scenario includes four actions to review. Scenarios for some of the behaviours are presented as short videos, while the other behaviours are in text format. Please note, the test is not timed, however most people take between two and four minutes to answer one scenario.

Online tests will not be available between midnight on Saturday 14 November and 6am on Monday 16 November. Your progress will be saved, and you will be able to continue once the tests are available again.

If you need guidance about reasonable adjustments for online tests, see the link above and please use the ‘help required’ button on the application form to request support.

If you pass the online test, you will progress to the next stage of the application process, where you will be required to complete the full online application form, which includes your CV and personal statement.

Please copy and paste your CV onto the online application form, detailing your qualifications and work history. The CV will be assessed against the essential technical criteria below:

• Demonstrable experience of contract management and supplier performance management.

If your CV does not meet the above criteria, then your personal statement may not be scored.

The Personal Statement section (in no more than 750 words) should be used to outline your technical skills and experience for the role and detail how you meet the following essential experience and technical criteria below. Please give up to 250 words per criteria:

• Significant experience managing suppliers and commercial relationships within a complex operational environment.
• Ability to challenge constructively and influence senior stakeholders to achieve positive commercial outcomes.
• Strong understanding of contract lifecycle management, governance and compliance.

In the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to conduct an initial sift against the lead criteria. Candidates who do not demonstrate this criteria, may not progress to the full personal statement sift:

• Significant experience managing suppliers and commercial relationships within a complex operational environment.

Please review your application form before clicking ‘submit’ – once you have submitted, you will not be able to amend your application. Ensure your application form is received by the closing date for receipt of applications – this is 23:55pm on the advertised date.

Candidates who successfully progress through the recruitment process will be invited to attend a virtual interview which is expected to be held in early January 2027. Further details will be provided in the invitation.

The interview will assess the behaviours listed in the Job Description, as well as the strengths associated with the role. We want to hear your first, unrehearsed, natural response to the strength questions, and so we don’t advertise which strengths are being tested. The best way to prepare for strengths questions is to reflect on what you identify as your own personal strengths, and your preferred ways of working. As part of the interview, you will also be required to deliver a pre-prepared presentation. Further details, including the presentation topic, will be provided in your interview invitation.

Candidates may refer to notes within their interview, but they should be used as a prompt only.

HMLR is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria at the shortlisting stage may be invited to attend an interview. If you require the panel to consider a reasonable adjustment or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you are asked to notify us of this at application stage where possible or during the process as soon as it becomes a requirement.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to share these values. Please ensure all examples provided throughout the recruitment process are representative of your own experience. Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating (including the improper use of artificial intelligence) will be investigated and, if proven, the application will be withdrawn.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

HM Land Registry operates a hybrid working arrangement and we expect colleagues to typically spend at least 60% of their working time in the office.

Visa Sponsorship - Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role is in a certain business critical category.

This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a skilled worker visa. You must ensure you have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying.

You can find more information on how we use your personal data on our website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.