Senior Product Manager - Commercial & Contract Management, Construction & Engineering at IFS in Itasca, Illinois, United States

Job description

• Construction and engineering projects succeed or fail based on how effectively organizations manage commercial commitments, contractual obligations, procurement, change, cost, and risk.
• We are looking for an experienced Senior Product Manager, Commercial & Contract Management to lead the strategy and evolution of IFS capabilities covering:
• Customer and sales contract management
• Procurement and supplier commitments
• Material and equipment procurement
• Subcontract management
• Contract changes, variations, and change orders
• Commercial controls across the project lifecycle
• This is a senior, hands-on product leadership role for someone who understands how commercial and contractual processes operate in real construction and engineering environments and has translated that understanding into successful enterprise software products.
• You will own the problem-to-outcome journey for the Commercial & Contract Management product area. You will define the vision and strategy, identify the most valuable customer and market problems, build evidence-led investment cases, and lead discovery and product definition with customers, engineering, design, sales, and industry specialists.
• The initial focus will include strengthening our subcontract-management capabilities while also establishing a broader commercial management framework that connects customer contracts, procurement, supplier commitments, contract changes, and project financial outcomes into a cohesive experience.
• You will work directly with construction and engineering organizations across Europe and North America, engaging with commercial managers, contract managers, quantity surveyors, project directors, procurement leaders, project controls teams, and finance stakeholders.
• This role requires deep product leadership, strong industry credibility, commercial thinking, and the ability to lead a product area from strategy and customer discovery through delivery, adoption, and measurable market impact.

Responsibilities

• Own the Product Strategy
• Define and communicate the vision and strategy for Commercial & Contract Management within IFS Construction & Engineering.
• Establish a differentiated market position spanning contract management, procurement, subcontract management, and commercial controls.
• Translate customer feedback, market trends, industry insight, and competitive intelligence into focused product investments.
• Own and evolve a roadmap that balances innovation, architectural modernization, adoption, customer retention, and commercial growth.
• Drive alignment across related domains including project management, project controls, procurement, finance, project accounting, risk management, and document management.
• Lead Customer and Market Discovery
• Engage directly with construction and engineering customers to understand commercial processes, procurement workflows, contractual risk, and operating models.
• Build trusted relationships with customers, partners, and industry experts.
• Validate customer problems and product opportunities before committing investment.
• Establish lighthouse customers and design partners for discovery, prototyping, validation, and early adoption.
• Ensure the product strategy is grounded in measurable customer outcomes and business value.
• Define the Product
• Own product specifications describing customer problems, business outcomes, user workflows, acceptance criteria, and success measures.
• Lead functional prototyping and validate solutions with real users before development.
• Work closely with engineering and design as part of a high-performing product triad.
• Ensure solutions form a coherent end-to-end commercial management experience rather than isolated features.
• Apply systems thinking across contracts, procurement, project execution, change management, cost control, revenue management, and commercial risk.
• Deliver Commercial and Customer Outcomes
• Build investment cases with clear customer, strategic, and financial outcomes.
• Partner with engineering and design to move efficiently from validated problem to adopted product.
• Support go-to-market activities including positioning, enablement, launch planning, and customer engagement.
• Represent the product area with customers, prospects, partners, analysts, and internal stakeholders.
• Drive adoption from early customers to repeatable market scale.
• Measure success through customer outcomes, adoption, retention, revenue influence, and commercial impact.
• Shape the Future of Commercial Management
• Identify opportunities for AI-driven innovation across procurement, supplier management, contract administration, obligation management, commercial risk, and contract change management.
• Leverage AI to accelerate discovery, research, prototyping, and product definition.
• Ensure AI-enabled capabilities deliver tangible business outcomes and trusted decision support.
• Build reusable product capabilities that support multiple construction and engineering business models globally.
• Customer obsessed and committed to solving meaningful industry problems.
• Commercially minded and focused on measurable business outcomes.
• Outcome driven, prioritizing impact over feature count.
• Credible in the industry, able to engage with experienced construction and commercial professionals.
• Decisive and pragmatic, able to make difficult prioritization decisions.
• Collaborative, working effectively across product, engineering, design, sales, consulting, and customer success.
• Technically fluent, comfortable discussing architecture, APIs, data models, integrations, and AI.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, providing clarity and direction in evolving situations.
• Hands-on, willing to engage directly in discovery, prototyping, specification, and customer engagement.
• A multiplier, helping improve product-management practices and mentoring others.

Requirements

• Experience & Education
• Essential Experience
• Significant product-management experience within a software company developing SaaS, ERP, construction-management, project-management, procurement, or enterprise software solutions.
• Direct responsibility for commercial management, contract management, procurement management, subcontract management, project controls, or related capabilities within an enterprise software portfolio.
• Strong domain experience within construction, engineering, EPC, infrastructure, contractors, specialist subcontractors, or project-centric industries.
• Customer and sales contracts
• Procurement and supplier commitments
• Subcontract management
• Change orders and contract variations
• Commercial obligations and compliance
• Valuation, payment, retention, and claims
• Cost, revenue, margin, and cash-flow impacts
• Demonstrated ownership of product strategy, roadmap, discovery, delivery, launch, and adoption.
• Strong customer-facing experience working with both operational users and executive stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder-management, and prioritization skills.
• Experience collaborating with global engineering and design teams.
• Fluent English communication skills.
• Based in Europe or North America with willingness to travel as required.
• Desirable Experience
• Construction commercial management, quantity surveying, procurement management, contract administration, or project controls experience.
• Familiarity with major construction contracting models and commercial delivery frameworks used in Europe or North America.
• Experience with construction ERP, project controls, procurement, contract management, or capital-project software platforms.
• Understanding of project accounting, forecasting, cost controls, earned value, applications for payment, supplier payments, and revenue management.
• Experience modernizing enterprise software products and introducing AI-enabled capabilities.
• Exposure to pricing, monetization, business-case development, or product P&L ownership.
• Experience creating customer design-partner or lighthouse-customer programs.
• Degree or equivalent experience in construction management, engineering, quantity surveying, business, computer science, or a related discipline.

Skills

Required

• Product management
• Commercial management
• Contract management
• Procurement management
• Subcontract management
• Project controls
• Customer discovery
• Product strategy
• Roadmap development
• Stakeholder management
• Communication
• Prioritization

Preferred

• Construction commercial management
• Quantity surveying
• Contract administration
• Construction ERP
• Project accounting
• Forecasting
• Cost controls
• Earned value

Benefits

• Salary Range: $150,000 - $175,000 salary plus bonus
• Flexible paid time off, including sick and holiday
• Medical, dental, & vision insurance
• 401K with Company contribution
• Flexible spending accounts
• Life insurance and disability benefits
• Tuition assistance
• Community involvement and volunteering events