Primary Reporting: Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Functional Reporting: Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

Compensation: $130,000 to $185,000 depending on experience, responsibilities, and work location

Position Overview

Natel Energy is seeking a detail-oriented and proactive Senior Commercial Manager to join our team! Natel designs, tests and implements high-performance FishSafe™ hydraulic turbines, helping the hydropower industry modernize while protecting biodiversity. You will join an exciting and fast-paced team where we manage complex Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects, ranging from domestic upgrades to large-scale international installations.

You will help us achieve our goals of modernization, decarbonization, and biodiversity by serving as the primary architect and guardian of our contractual risk framework. Your role is twofold: you will negotiate comprehensive and protective contracts, and then ensure compliance with those agreements. You will work closely with our legal, engineering, and project management teams to ensure that every stakeholder fully understands their obligations and that Natel’s interests are protected throughout the entire project lifecycle. This is a high-authority role designed to manage the critical back-to-back alignment between our utility and IPP clients and our OEM and field service partners.

Prior experience in the hydropower or heavy civil construction industry is a plus, but not required. A successful candidate will have a deep understanding of EPC contract structures and a proven track record of managing the project contract life cycle from contract negotiation to post-award compliance and change management. Candidates must be highly independent, effective communicators, and organized administrators.

Responsibilities

Commercial Strategy & Negotiation

• Contract negotiation: Lead the negotiation of our contracts, with particular attention to the alignment of high-risk provisions between our prime contracts and our subcontractor and OEM agreements.

• Gap mitigation: Identify and quantify liability gaps (e.g., warranty mismatches, LD caps, or indemnity voids), develop mitigation strategies (working as needed with the finance, legal and engineering teams), and work with the sales team to incorporate those into contracts.

• Risk allocation: Negotiate specific unforeseen condition and latent defect protocols to ensure the firm is not held liable for pre-existing site degradation.

Contract Governance

• Change orders: Own change management by monitoring risk and scope growth, drafting and negotiating change orders and amendments, and ensuring alignment under unforeseen conditions.

• Contract compliance: Hold the authority to withhold notice to proceed or halt subcontractor mobilization if mandatory compliance hurdles—such as performance bonds, certificates of insurance, or safety clearances—have not been met.

• Claims management: Lead the strategy for all major commercial claims. Ensure that notice of delay and discovery requirements are met within relevant timeframes to preserve the firm’s right to time and cost extensions.

Operational Compliance & Audit

• Project handover: Transition deals from sales to operations by creating project risk playbooks that distill complex contracts into actionable checklists for the project execution team to ensure all milestones, notice requirements, and deliverables are met. Proactively identify, interpret, and enforce project-specific requirements across quality, cybersecurity, safety, and financial compliance obligations in collaboration with Natel’s technical, commercial, and back office teams.

• Compliance auditing: Conduct regular commercial health checks on all active projects to ensure that site logs, EHS logs, daily reports, quality certificates, cyber-access audits, prevailing wage/Davis-Bacon reports, and communication with the customer are being maintained to a litigation-ready standard. Develop processes and training for the team to support these needs.

• Interface management: Work with the project execution team to ensure a clean commercial interface between our turbine design/delivery and third-party installers to prevent warranty contamination.

Required Experience & Qualifications

Professional Experience

• Tenure: 7-10 years of experience in commercial management, contract law, or project controls within the energy or heavy infrastructure sectors.

• Industry Focus: Direct experience in hydropower or similar high-consequence retrofit environments (nuclear, thermal, or offshore wind).

• Leadership: Proven track record of managing matrixed reporting lines and the ability to manage across functions on compliance issues.

Technical Skills & Education

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical/Civil) or Construction Management. Not required, but preferred Master’s in Construction Law (LLM), JD, or MBA.

• Contractual: High-level proficiency in negotiating and interpreting complex EPC and/or equipment supply contracts. Familiarity with FIDIC (Silver and Yellow Books) and NEC4 a plus.

• Commercial forensic skills: Ability to analyze schedules (CPM) and cost reports to identify hidden delays or cost overruns that require contractual notices. Familiarity with project and contract management tools.

Competencies & Characteristics

• Comfortable acting as an independent auditor; ability to maintain professional objectivity when project schedules and contractual compliance conflict.

• A principled negotiation style capable of maintaining long-term relationships with utility customers and field services & OEM partners while firmly protecting the firm’s bottom line.

• Ability to translate complex legal risks into financial risk assessments for executive leadership.

• A motivation to apply your skills in a fast-paced environment where technical, operational, and legal requirements often overlap.

• An organized and data-driven approach to risk management.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills: comfortable providing firm guidance to external stakeholders while collaborating cross-functionally internally.

• Confidence in working independently to drive a contract from initial bid to final close-out.

Success Metrics

• Margin protection and change order recovery rate: Minimizing unrecovered changes and commercial leakage in contract execution.

• Back-to-back coverage: 100% alignment (or documented risk-acceptance) between prime and subcontract(s) penalties.

• Audit compliance: Zero instances of subcontractors mobilizing without valid insurance or performance securities; ensure all requirements for tax credits (on US projects) are met (FEOC, PWA, etc).

Location

Natel has a mixed in-person and remote team, with our headquarters and test facility located in Alameda, California. Excellent applicants for local or remote employment are welcome to apply; remote applicants must be willing to work west coast business hours. Occasional travel may be required for negotiations, site visits, or partner meetings.