Change Manager (PUMA)

Bilfinger is a leading international industrial services provider, driving efficiency and sustainability for the process industry. With about 31,000 employees and over €5.4 billion in revenue in 2025, we offer solutions in consulting, engineering, manufacturing, maintenance, turnarounds, and digital applications across key sectors like energy, chemicals, pharma, and oil & gas.

About the role

Based full-time onsite at Hull, the Change Manager will lead the commercial governance, administration, and resolution of change across the PUMA Projects. Operating at the forefront of the NEC contract administration process, the role is responsible for ensuring that all potential and instructed change is identified early, notified correctly, assessed robustly, and progressed through the contractual process to conclusion. The Change Manager will provide the central interface between Commercial, Project Management, Planning, Engineering, Procurement, and Construction in relation to change and will ensure that the commercial, programme, and contractual consequences of each event are fully understood and appropriately reflected within Bilfinger’s submissions.

As the projects operate under a fixed Bill of Quantities (BoQ), the role requires a strong understanding of the Price List/Bill of Quantities, measurement principles, quantities, rates, and the distinction between changes arising from remeasurement and events giving rise to Compensation Events. The role will be expected to challenge constructively, maintain rigorous contractual discipline, and drive timely agreement of change to protect Bilfinger’s contractual and commercial position.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate the end-to-end management of change across the project, including Early Warnings, notifications, Compensation Events, quotations, Project Manager instructions, assessments, and implementation.
• Act as the principal commercial focal point for change and ensure the requirements, terminology, and timescales of the NEC contract are correctly applied.
• Maintain clear ownership and status of every change from initial identification through to contractual close-out.
• Identify events that may constitute Compensation Events and ensure that appropriate notifications are issued within the contractual timescales.
• Coordinate the preparation of robust CE quotations, bringing together:
  • Scope and technical definition
  • Quantities and measurement
  • Cost build-up
  • Subcontractor and supplier impacts
  • Programme and time effects
  • Risk allowances
  • Contractual entitlement
  • Supporting records and substantiation
• Critically review CE submissions before issue to ensure they are contractually compliant, commercially robust, and fully supported.
• Review and challenge Project Manager assessments, rejected quotations, and alternative assessments where these do not appropriately reflect the contractual or commercial consequences of the event.
• Drive CEs towards timely agreement and implementation rather than allowing unresolved change to accumulate.
• Provide strong commercial governance over the operation of the Option B measurement mechanism.
• Work closely with Quantity Surveyors, Engineering, and Construction teams to ensure that completed work is measured correctly and consistently against the contractual method of measurement, Price List/Bill of Quantities, and applicable contract provisions.
• Clearly distinguish between:
  • Changes in measured quantities
  • Changes to the Scope
  • Instructed changes
  • Changes to Prices arising from Compensation Events
  • Matters already provided for within the existing Prices
• Challenge inappropriate classification or valuation of change and ensure that Bilfinger receives the correct contractual value for work undertaken.
• Ensure implemented Compensation Events are appropriately incorporated into the Prices and subsequently reflected within measurement, applications, and forecasts.
• Work closely with the Project Planner to ensure that the programme consequences of change are properly identified and demonstrated.
• Ensure CE quotations appropriately address effects upon planned Completion, Completion Date, Key Dates, access, sequencing, productivity, and other time-related obligations where applicable.
• Ensure programme evidence supporting CE submissions is consistent with the accepted programme and the requirements of the NEC contract.
• Challenge attempts to assess change solely on cost where demonstrable programme consequences also exist.
• Promote proactive use of the NEC Early Warning process as an effective project-management tool.
• Ensure emerging matters with potential cost, programme, or delivery consequences are identified and notified at the earliest opportunity.
• Participate in and support risk reduction meetings and ensure agreed actions are tracked through to completion.
• Maintain clear alignment between the Early Warning Register, CE Register, programme risks, and commercial risk/opportunity reporting.
• Own and maintain a comprehensive Change Register providing a single source of truth for all project change, including:
  • Event/change description
  • Contractual basis
  • Notification status
  • CE status
  • Quotation status and value
  • Bilfinger assessment
  • Project Manager assessment
  • Agreed/implemented value
  • Programme impact
  • Outstanding actions
  • Contractual response dates
  • Responsible owner
  • Forecast commercial exposure or opportunity
• Ensure there is clear reconciliation between the Change Register, project forecast, contract management system, and financial reporting. No material change should remain commercially unidentified or without an agreed strategy for progression.
• Lead regular change-management meetings with the Project Manager/client and internal project team. Present Bilfinger’s position clearly and professionally, using the NEC contract and contemporaneous project evidence to support entitlement and valuation.
• Drive actions, responses, and decisions to closure and escalate matters where contractual response periods or project outcomes are at risk.
• Establish a collaborative relationship with the client while protecting Bilfinger’s contractual rights and commercial position.
• Chair regular internal change reviews involving Commercial, Project Management, Planning, Engineering, Procurement, and Construction.
• Ensure operational teams understand the importance of identifying change and preserving contemporaneous records.
• Actively engage with Engineering and Construction personnel to identify change that may otherwise remain commercially unrecognised.
• Ensure there is a clear audit trail between the event occurring on the project and the resulting contractual notification, quotation, and commercial recovery.
• Coordinate upstream and downstream change management to ensure subcontractor notifications and quotations are properly assessed and, where appropriate, incorporated into Bilfinger’s position under the main contract.
• Ensure subcontractor change does not create unmanaged commercial exposure. Challenge subcontractor quotations where appropriate and ensure the project does not accept downstream liabilities without considering corresponding upstream entitlement.
• Ensure the financial effect of change is accurately reflected within project forecasts and commercial reporting. Provide clear visibility of:
  • Notified change
  • Submitted CE value
  • Agreed/implemented CE value
  • Rejected or disputed value
  • Unsubmitted change
  • Potential change
  • Measurement movement
  • Cost and programme exposure
  • Commercial opportunity
• Work with the Commercial Manager and Project Manager to prevent unrecovered change from adversely affecting project P&L performance.
• Ensure each material change has a clear and auditable evidence file containing the relevant instructions, correspondence, drawings, records, quantities, calculations, programme information, and commercial substantiation.
• Maintain accurate records within the applicable contract-management systems, including Sypro where required.
• Ensure all contractual correspondence uses appropriate NEC terminology and accurately reflects Bilfinger’s contractual position.
• Identify CEs or contractual matters that are becoming contentious and develop a clear resolution strategy with the Commercial Manager and Project Manager.
• Seek early resolution through robust contractual administration and evidence rather than allowing matters to develop unnecessarily into formal disputes.
• Where agreement cannot be achieved, prepare a clear record of the contractual and commercial position for escalation through project and business governance.

Key Deliverables

• 100% of identified potential Compensation Events reviewed for contractual notification requirements and applicable NEC time bars.
• All contractual response dates actively tracked, with upcoming deadlines clearly visible and escalated before expiry.
• A complete and current Change Register, reconciled at least monthly with the project forecast and commercial reporting.
• Weekly change review with the relevant project disciplines and clear actions allocated to named owners.
• Regular client/Project Manager change meetings focused on progressing outstanding CEs to agreement and implementation.
• CE quotations submitted with appropriate scope, measurement, cost, programme, risk, and contractual substantiation.
• No material project change left commercially unidentified or unmanaged.
• Clear separation and reconciliation of Option B remeasurement, instructed Scope change, and Compensation Events.
• All implemented CEs correctly incorporated into the Prices, measurement, and project forecast.
• Robust challenge of PM assessments or rejected quotations where these do not appropriately reflect Bilfinger’s contractual entitlement.
• Clear monthly reporting of submitted, agreed, outstanding, disputed, and forecast change value.
• Reduction in the age and value of unresolved Compensation Events throughout project delivery.
• Complete and auditable commercial records capable of supporting Bilfinger’s position in the event of subsequent dispute or formal assessment.

Requirements

• Significant experience in a commercial, Quantity Surveying, or contract-management role within major engineering, infrastructure, energy, or construction projects.
• Strong practical experience administering NEC3 and/or NEC4 contracts, with particular expertise in Compensation Events and change management.
• Demonstrable understanding of NEC Option B and the commercial implications of measurement and changes to quantities.
• Strong understanding of NEC programme provisions and the relationship between programme, change, time, and cost.
• Experience preparing, reviewing, and negotiating complex Compensation Event quotations.
• Strong commercial awareness with the ability to understand the impact of contractual decisions upon project P&L and forecast performance.
• Experience using contract-management systems such as FastDraft and/or CEMAR.
• Degree or equivalent professional experience in Quantity Surveying, Commercial Management, Construction Law, or a related discipline.
• Membership of an appropriate professional body such as RICS is desirable.