Contracts Lead

Role Overview

Gulf Drilling International is hiring a Contracts Lead in Doha, Qatar to shape and direct the company’s contracting approach across sourcing, supplier management, claims handling, governance, and continuous improvement. This is a senior, commercially focused role for someone who can bring strategic thinking, strong negotiation capability, and cross-functional influence to a complex oil and gas environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive category and contracting strategies that improve commercial outcomes, align with market realities, and support business priorities.
• Work closely with teams across Operations, Technical, Business Development, Legal, Finance, IT, and other functions to move strategy from planning through execution, before and after award.
• Build and apply procurement, contracting, and inventory approaches that secure third-party services and materials in line with business requirements, quality expectations, and best commercial value.
• Manage sourcing activity in line with approved strategy, including competitive tenders and direct negotiations, while maintaining a fair, transparent, and ethical process for all bidders.
• Prepare strategy and award recommendation documents and present them to executive stakeholders and the Tender Committee for approval.
• Lead the drafting, review, and approval of contracts, ensuring alignment with legal, regulatory, and industry-specific requirements for oil and gas.
• Lead negotiations with complex and strategic suppliers, prepare detailed negotiation plans, and coordinate closely with the broader contract management team.
• Set up escalation routes with executive stakeholders to resolve stalled negotiations and keep commercial discussions moving.
• Use a strong understanding of contractual and legal terms to secure favourable positions while limiting liability and commercial risk for GDI.
• Develop and sustain productive relationships with key suppliers and internal stakeholders to encourage collaboration, trust, innovation, and value improvement.
• Manage supplier performance through contract KPIs such as QHSE, operations, and cost, while pushing corrective actions where performance falls short.
• Coordinate contract kick-off meetings and regular Business Performance Reviews with strategic suppliers.
• Create contract governance structures with operational, tactical, and strategic levels of engagement so issues are handled effectively without disrupting delivery or safety.
• Review claims and disputes from contractors, assess entitlement and value, and build counterproposals and negotiation strategies to protect contract value.
• Influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership, to build consensus and drive commercially sound decisions across functions.
• Identify internal commercial and procurement needs, challenge business demand or current procurement practices where appropriate, and propose more efficient solutions.
• Work with internal stakeholders to prepare budgets and forecasts for contract spend.
• Monitor spend against commitments and approved contract values, and flag possible overruns or funding gaps early.
• Track third-party expenditure across the portfolio to identify coverage gaps and opportunities to improve category commerciality.
• Develop and manage a value-improvement pipeline with contractors and the contract management team, then track delivery of realized benefits.
• Ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, and corporate governance obligations, and help maintain an ethical work environment free from conflicts of interest.
• Make sure tendering and contracting activities are handled to a high ethical standard and that contract terms are clearly communicated to relevant teams.
• Maintain accurate contract records in the ERP system and oversee renewals and closures as needed.
• Apply Supply Chain standards and related processes using sound judgement, simplicity, and a business-value mindset.
• Stay informed on leading industry practices and bring fresh ideas that improve commercial performance and ways of working.
• Identify, design, and implement process improvements that strengthen efficiency and end-to-end supply chain integration.
• Set policies and procedures for contract negotiation, execution, and compliance.
• Support learning and capability building by coaching junior team members and contributing to broader contract management competence across the organization.
• Promote teamwork, knowledge sharing, accountability, and continuous improvement within the wider contract management community.

Additional Information

This role sits within a high-accountability supply chain and commercial environment, where the ability to balance compliance, value delivery, stakeholder alignment, and operational practicality is essential.

Ethics and Governance

The role requires a strong commitment to ethical conduct, transparent sourcing, proper record-keeping, and adherence to applicable laws, standards, and corporate governance expectations.

Skills and Experience Focus

The position calls for advanced contract negotiation, supplier relationship management, claims analysis, commercial strategy development, stakeholder influence, and a continuous-improvement mindset, along with practical knowledge of ERP-based contract administration.