Client-side Contracts Manager - United Kingdom - Laminarprojects

Description

Are you a Chartered Contracts Manager that is a bit tired of the standard old-fashioned way of doing things in the construction industry?

Do you get deep satisfaction from making things run more efficiently using a good dose of common sense and maybe a bit of technology?

Do you crave the freedom, power, and support to bring fresh ideas to how work is delivered, so client expectations are not just met, but smashed?

Have you ever wanted to work a bit more flexibly but still be hands-on in construction and improving the industry?

Sounds like a dream. Well, it isn't, it is quite real

Read on

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We are Laminar Projects

If you have already heard about us, you are probably reading this because you are tired of the typical old-fashioned and chaotic ways of doing things in construction. But in case you haven't; we are a high-end construction project management consultancy and also a construction management tech developer. Improving construction strengthens the very foundation of human civilisation.(Watch our short film about it)

As a consultancy, we are focused on genuinely upgrading the way construction projects are delivered. We bring control and clarity to projects using a pragmatic mix of the latest technology, our own processes, and a big dose of common sense.

The core of all this is our true secret sauce; people. We only recruit the very best both in capability and personality. We are deeply focused on designing a new type of organization that is optimised for the flourishing of the people in the team first and foremost. People that join us develop fast as a whole person in ways they never imagined. (Read more about our vision and mission )

This approach has allowed us to grow from just 2 people in 2017 to over 160 today and we are still very much at the beginning Joining us isn't just some "job", it is a transformative educational experience. We challenge you to be your best self in all aspects of life.

Any role that you start with at Laminar should be seen only as a starting point. Our fast growth means that there are many diverse and interesting challenges available and it is up to you to guide yourself into whichever areas you are most interested in – we will enable it.

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4 core values for a good life

We believe a life of human flourishing is all about meaningful relationships with others and challenging yourself to create a positive impact. So our values reflect the 4 levels of relationships that each of us has:

Grow yourself – Your relationship with yourself

Care about people – Your relationship with others around you

Execute to greatness – Your relationship with your team

Build civilisation – Your relationship with humanity and the world

This goes much deeper but for the sake of brevity, we will keep the summary version

We enshrined our values in our vision:

We exist so that everyone in our team can thrive in a high-impact community that:

Connects us withmeaningful relationships

Inspires us to develop ourselves to become better humans

Empowers us to pursue our own learning adventures

We believe that, by first doing this, we can achieve the highest levels of value for the world

And enable the achievement of our vision through our dual mission:

To fully digitise the construction of human civilisation

To create a new type of organisation that enables human flourishing while delivering a huge positive impact on society

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The Role

Purpose of the role

• Supercharge client service: Deliver cutting-edge project and cost management services in the construction industry, powered by the latest digital tools and technologies.

Cradle-to-grave expertise: Oversee every commercial aspect of projects, from initial concepts (Stage 1) through close-out (Stage 8) following the RIBA Stages of Work (dictating the workflow in the UK).

Champion collaboration: Work hand-in-hand with project managers to ensure timely, on-budget, and high-quality project delivery.

Innovate fearlessly: Bring fresh ideas to the table, design new processes, and exceed industry expectations with progressive thinking.

Embrace digital transformation: Lead the integration of project management elements through Laminar's project controls-centric delivery, streamlining workflow and maximizing control.

Think outside spreadsheets: You don't have to be a data fanatic, but a desire for a digitally enhanced approach is essential.

While not essential, prior experience in data center projects as a client or general contractor representative/consultant would be valued.

Proven ability to develop comprehensive commercial strategies for data center projects, encompassing budgeting, forecasting, risk management, and cost control, from initiation to close-out and handover.

Demonstrated success in leading negotiations with clients, contractors, and stakeholders to secure optimal terms and favorable outcomes in data center environments.

Team

This role is part of our Project Management Consultancy which focuses on:

Understanding what the real problems of projects are.

Implementing the best solutions to those problems.

Developing scalable best practices, tools and technology.

More specifically you will be part of our Commercial Services Team. Your leader will be our Commercial Director.

Your top 3 objectives:

To make construction projects deliver to near perfection

To create scalable and repeatable solutions to common problems

To develop yourself and everyone around you

Your top 5 responsibilities:

Own the cost : Own the project costs through all RIBA stages, providing consistency and clarity throughout, concurrently controlling change and risk management.

Own the outcome : Produce order of cost estimates and detailed cost plans, alongside live project cost management. Own procurement and tendering efforts (including BoQ creation), recommend, and appoint the most suitable supply-chain options. Own collaboration with all parties, internal and external – Laminar stands apart through the collective and integrated delivery of all disciplines, which must be maintained and nurtured.

Report and inform : Provide simple actionable reports to stakeholders at all levels that help them deliver their part of the project more efficiently and effectively (Laminar's existing infrastructure will support this).

Make scalable solutions : Develop scalable and repeatable best practices and tools in collaboration with the team so that long-term impact is achieved

Develop everyone : Maximise the development of your team personally and professionally and educate our clients to improve as well.

Your Capabilities:

You will be a seasoned Contracts Manager, with extensive experience working directly with clients, ideally with some stints working for Tier 1 or 2 Contractors as well, to provide the well-rounded experience that is hugely valuable as a consultant.

Must-Have (The fundamentals)

Mastery : Commercial background with at least 7+ years of experience on construction projects, including hands-on claims involvement from start to finish

Communication : Proficient communicator in written and verbal English

Leadership : A relentless approach to dealing with people

Impact : A track record of making projects and organisations better beyond just doing the basics

Nice to Have (If you don't have it now you will be trained intensively after joining)

Mastery : Decent Excel skills, a strong interest in data, and a well-rounded knowledge of project scheduling principles

Communication : The charisma, influence and presence to get construction people to do new things and take the best approach

Leadership : A proven leader/coach/developer of teams or teams of teams

Impact : A track record of implementing scalable and repeatable solutions in projects and organisations that had a significant positive impact

Laminar isn't the place for you if any of the following is true:

You want an easy, chilled-out role without much challenge

You like to be the smartest person in the room

You don't like continuously receiving honest candid feedback

You prefer to do your own thing rather than work with a team

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you tell me more about what the role is like?

The nature of joining a Consultancy, is you will be exposed to a wide variety of work and sectors, requiring versatility and a can-do attitude supported by a range of professional experience in your career to date. Laminar is transitioning towards client-side projects – hence this Job Ad for a Contracts Manager – but support Tier 1 and 2 Contractors across numerous sectors.

We have developed a Claim Strength Calculator which has been the gateway to providing an increasing amount of specialist claims support, and this is just the beginning.

The role will include but not be limited to:

Business Development – bid writing, sales presentations, networking/ professional events, campaign ideation/ implementation alongside our growth team

Business Maturity – contributing to OKR setting and working towards these, helping develop business infrastructure (processes, procedures, templates, tools) to support Laminar in our quest to digitalise the construction industry, suppose client expectations, and do so in aligned collaboration with the wider business.

Live Project and Cost Management – delivering the fundamental day job with half an eye on how your actions support the wider business towards the short to medium-term goal of offering full project delivery.

Specialist Claims support – building upon the foundation created by the innovative Claims Strength Calculator, to make Laminar one of the leading players in dispute management/avoidance.

What kinds of projects would I be working on?

It isn't uncommon for people to be exposed to several projects in their first year of joining us. You will work on many types of complex projects including; data centres, highways, railways, nuclear power plants, and pretty much any other type of complex project you can think of. (Check out our portfolio )

Who are our clients?

Our clients include major Owners/Operators, Main Contractors, and Subcontractors, with project values between £1m and £1B+ globally.

Where would I be working?

Some weeks you might be working from home all week. Others you might travel to sites or client offices to meet the construction teams and help them get organised in person. Maybe you will pop into our London office for a workshop/beer/social event. Maybe you will travel to exotic (and sometimes not) locations in Europe or the Middle East to visit clients. It really depends on what you want to get involved with and what fits with your life.

This where you work varies depending on what types of projects. Most of our team works predominantly from home with regular visits to projects. As an absolute maximum expectation, we attend projects 2-3 days a week if they are near where you live. But also be prepared to travel further afield 3 days every second week.

How does what I do connect with the long-term impact on the construction industry?

As a consultant in the field, you will be tasked with understanding and solving common problems. We don't want to reinvent the wheel every time so you will be responsible for documenting new solutions and evolving existing ones we have developed. The improvement never stops. This will go into our knowledge repository which we are going to open source to the industry.

The knowledge you capture will be used to develop new products which we will build. You will constantly be testing our products in the field so that we can rapidly iterate and improve them for anyone in the industry to use.

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Salary and Benefits

Paid Annual Leave 25 days + statutory Bank Holidays

Flexible hours

Base salary for this role depends on your capability

Pension & private health insurance

IT Equipment

All travel costs outside of your local area are covered

The Life-Changing Stuff

Grow your whole self: Our leaders are more like coachesand one of our mainobjectivesis to give 5 years'worth of learning and development for every 1 year with us. You have a coach, mentor, well-being therapist and a development-orientated environment: That's literally what our vision is all about and the primary reason Laminar exists.You can checkout more of Laminar'scoaching programhere .

Be surrounded by the best: We only hire and retain the very best people. You might be used to being the smartest in the room but that won't be the case in Laminar. You will be surrounded by people you can learn from. We are 100% meritocratic so fast progression is the norm. You will be supported to excel in whichever areas you are most interested in With Laminar, development is unbounded.

Long-term impact: We are focused on solving the biggest issues in construction project delivery in a way that can spread and outlast us.

A generous equity scheme: as a fast-growing consultancy as well as the fact we are building software this has a huge upside, particularly for people that stay with us through our growth.

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Applying properly Important

We get thousands of applications so please write us a letter as part of your application explaining:

Why do you want to join us?

What do you think you bring to the team?

We aren't a giant faceless corporation; we really care about the people who want to join our team so all letters will be read thoroughly.

After that, we will reach out to you to schedule a casual conversation to help you to know us a bit better and tell us a bit about yourself.

After that, we will schedule a couple of technical and personal assessments to understand what your level of capability is based on our own development matrix. This is to ensure that when you join you are starting at the right level of responsibility based on your capability not just based on experience.

Who referred you to this position? Enter their first and last name here.