Legal Contract Manager – Strategic Projects

About the role

Thales is seeking a Legal Contract Manager to join its Legal & Contracts team in Portugal. You will act as a trusted partner to project teams, ensuring the successful negotiation, administration, and management of complex commercial contracts throughout their lifecycle.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the full contractual lifecycle of strategic projects, serving as the primary interface with customers, subcontractors, and consortium partners.
• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements, including sub‑contracts, teaming agreements, SLAs, MOUs and inter‑company agreements.
• Lead contract administration activities, handling correspondence, notices, amendments, variations and documentation.
• Drive the management of contractual and commercial claims, preparing supporting documentation and coordinating with the Legal team.
• Identify, assess and mitigate contractual, commercial and project risks, ensuring compliance with Portuguese Public Procurement legislation.
• Collaborate closely with Legal, Procurement, Project Management, Engineering and Planning teams and support Trade Compliance activities.

Required profile

• Law degree.
• Minimum 5 years of experience as a Contract Manager or Legal Counsel, preferably in infrastructure, engineering, transportation or other project‑driven environments.
• Strong knowledge of Portuguese Public Procurement Law.
• Proven experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating complex commercial contracts and managing contractual claims.
• Knowledge of international contract law and experience on international projects is a strong advantage.
• Fluent in Portuguese and English.

Required skills

What we offer

• Opportunity to work on high‑impact defence and aerospace projects.
• Collaborative, multidisciplinary international environment.
• Professional development within a leading global technology company.