Sr. Specialist, Contracts at NextDecade in Houston, TX

Job description

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing! We're committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business. SUMMARY OF THE ROLE Reporting to the Sr. Manager, Contracts, the Sr. Specialist, Contracts is responsible for owning the full contract lifecycle – from strategic sourcing, bidding, and negotiation through execution, pose-award administration, and closeout for complex, high‑value commercial agreements, including Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreements supporting large-scale capital projects. This role manages sourcing events, competitive bidding, negotiations, contract drafting, and post‑award administration while ensuring alignment with company governance, risk frameworks, and business objectives. A significant portion of the role is dedicated to extensive post-award administration of EPC and major capital project contracts, including change management, claims and notice administration, obligations and key-date tracking, invoice and payment support, and contract closeout. The Sr. Specialist collaborates closely with cross‑functional teams and suppliers to drive optimal commercial outcomes, maintain contractual compliance, and support continuous improvement across sourcing and contracting processes. This is a strategic, hands-on role that requires strategic thinking, attention to details and the ability to drive the results in a fast paced, cross-functional environment. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Administer high-value EPC contracts from award through completion and closeout, ensuring all parties comply with contractual terms, conditions, procedures, and deliverables. Maintain a detailed understanding of assigned contracts, including scope, commercial terms, pricing, schedule requirements, milestones, warranties, securities, insurance, and risk allocation. Establish and maintain contract administration plans, obligation registers, notice logs, change logs, correspondence records, and other controls required for effective contract management. Monitor contractor performance against contractual scope, schedule, cost, quality, reporting, and other key requirements; identify noncompliance and coordinate timely corrective action. Prepare, review, issue, and track formal contractual correspondence, including notices, directives, reservations of rights, requests for information, and responses to contractor communications. Manage the contract change process, including change identification, entitlement review, contractor proposal analysis, cost and schedule evaluation, negotiation, approval, and issuance of change orders and amendments. Coordinate with project controls, engineering, construction, legal, finance, and other stakeholders to evaluate the commercial and contractual impact of proposed changes and emerging project issues. Review contractor invoices, progress measurement, milestone achievement, supporting documentation, credits, back charges, and other payment-related matters for contractual compliance. Identify, assess, document, and support the resolution of claims, disputes, delays, deficiencies, and other commercial issues, including analysis of contractual entitlement and exposure. EDUCATION, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE, & COMPETENCIES Basic Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, construction management, engineering, finance, or a related field. 7+ years of progressive experience in contract administration or commercial management supporting major capital projects in the energy, LNG, oil and gas, petrochemical, power, or industrial construction sectors. Extensive, hands-on post-award contract administration experience on large-scale EPC projects (e.g., LNG, petrochemical, refining, power, or comparable capital projects), including change orders, claims, notices, and closeout. Strong working knowledge of change management, claims analysis, contractual notices, payment provisions, schedule and cost impacts, warranties, securities, and contract closeout.