Sr Commercial Contracts Manager

About the role

The Sr. Manager, Commercial Transactions supports First Solar's Americas Global Business Development team by drafting, negotiating, executing, and managing customer-facing sales contracts.

Responsibilities

• Lead drafting and negotiation of principal customer facing contracts, including original contracts as well as post-contract agreements/documents.
• Develop and maintain relationships with customers' commercial counterparts.
• Work with team members to ensure the contracting nuances of risk management, warranties, deliverables, tax, accounting, revenue recognition, bonuses, damages, costs, and schedule are understood and are consistent with SoA policies and procedures.
• Represent transactions Deal Review Committee process.
• Interface closely with Executive Leadership Team, legal, finance, accounting, tax, risk management, internal audit, and other critical functions essential to deal negotiations and approvals.
• Develop and maintain a streamlined negotiation process to minimize risk and reduce legal costs, while ensuring strict adherence to First Solar’s Scope of Authority (SoA) policies and procedures.
• Follow procedures that ensure a timely and complete handover of executed commercial agreements to the fulfilment teams responsible for delivering on contractual obligations.
• Provide effective leadership to direct and indirect reports in support of commercial transactions.
• Work closely with cross-functional deal teams including Warranties to eliminate gaps, manage risk and deliver a cohesive set of agreements.
• Responsible for the timely preparation of draft agreements; ensuring that the legal, commercial, and operational obligations meet performance and profitability targets.
• Carefully coordinate reviews of customer draft agreements and seek replacement with First Solar forms if possible; if not possible, understand and document deviations from First Solar’s standard agreements and obtain SoA approvals as required.
• Ensure timely preparation and review of requests for proposals, term sheets, exhibits, warranties, guarantees, and other agreement documents to meet deal closing deadlines and customer schedules.

Requirements

• B.A. degree in Business, Technical or Legal related field or combination of Education, Certificate (Legal / Contract Management focus) and 5+ years’ experience in fulfilling contracts.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, preferred.
• Juris Doctor or equivalent career experience, a plus.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience managing contractual documentation, in aggregate, of $100 MM per annum or more.
• Proven experience and skills in drafting commercial contract terms is a must.
• Experience and detailed commercial and legal knowledge of the principal customer-facing agreements/terms.
• Proven success in commercial deal structuring, pricing strategy, and contract development, drafting and negotiation.
• ERP and CLM experience strongly desired.
• Strong leadership, vision, business acumen and exemplary work ethic.

Qualifications

• Strong cross-functional leadership skills.
• Exemplary customer service skills, interfacing directly with company heads, vice presidents, and legal counsel on “the other side of the table”.
• Business acumen, including excellent critical thinking and analytical ability, along with strong organizational and risk assessment skills, and demonstrated time management ability.
• Strong ability to identify, evaluate, and allocate risks.
• Exceptional attention to detail with the ability to discern subtle requirements, nuances, and differences within complex commercial and legal documents.
• Solid technical acumen and/or in-depth knowledge of solar power plant technology, construction, operation, maintenance, and performance.
• Commitment to Scope of Authority and Business Code of Conduct; act and guide others with integrity.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills.
• Hightly effective time management skills, with the ability to execute on multiple negotiations and business objectives simultaneously.
• Aptitude to quickly learn new business applications, processes, and provide recommendations for improvements.