Head of Contracts & Commercial Negotiations

Legal Durbanville, South Africa

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Description

Position at GVW Group, LLC

HEAD OF CONTRACTS & COMMERCIAL NEGOTIATIONS GROUP.
GVW Group (Pty) Ltd – Supporting GVW Group, LLC and its affiliated companies.
 
Who We Are 
GVW Group is a dynamic private investment and industrial holding company. Since 1993, we have been building and scaling early-stage, high-growth, and mid-sized operating companies across industries such as manufacturing, technology, distribution, big data, and energy efficiency. We operate with an entrepreneurial spirit and a deep commitment to creating long-term value through innovation, strategic partnerships, and operational excellence.
 
What You’ll Do 
We are seeking a strategic, commercially savvy, and accomplished leader to head our enterprise contracts function. This role is more than transactional — it is central to our operating model and competitive strategy. You will be responsible for designing and executing the contract strategy across all GVW Group businesses, protecting the enterprise from risk, creating long-term commercial leverage, and standardizing our approach to supplier, customer, and partner engagements.
You will build and lead a high-performing contracts organization that collaborates deeply with our global purchasing and distribution teams to create a unified, world-class approach to commercial collaboration. This is a critical shared services function that supports the execution of our Group’s strategy, enabling a smaller organization to compete successfully against much larger players through smarter structure, strategic discipline, and best-in-class execution.
Key Responsibilities 
1. Strategic Leadership & Group Management 
  • Build, lead, and scale a high-performance Contracts Group across all business units.
  • Establish and enforce enterprise-wide standards for commercial and legal contracts, driving consistency, leverage, and speed.
  • Govern the execution of the Group’s strategy for commercial collaboration through shared templates, structures, and playbooks.
  • Ensure the contracts function operates as a high-impact shared services capability aligned with finance, procurement, legal, and operations.
2. Collaboration with Global Purchasing & Distribution 
  • Partner closely and collaboratively with the global purchasing and distribution teams to ensure contracts support sourcing strategy, vendor leverage, and distribution efficiency.
  • Standardize our approach to supplier/customer relationships by using structured contracts to drive long-term commercial alignment and value.
  • Ensure that supplier and customer contracts enable speed, scale, and cost efficiency across the supply chain and go-to-market channels.
3. Contract Negotiation & Commercial Leverage 
  • Personally lead complex, high-value negotiations with vendors, customers, and strategic partners.
  • Collaborate with executive and business unit leadership to set commercial strategy and craft negotiation plans accordingly.
  • Structure commercial terms that balance risk mitigation with opportunity capture, such as volume-based pricing, pass-throughs, rebates, and SLAs.
  • Maintain visibility into enterprise-level contractual commitments and continuously identify opportunities to strengthen commercial positions.
4. Legal & Commercial Oversight 
  • Oversee the entire contract lifecycle: drafting, redlining, approval, execution, compliance, and renewal.
  • Partner with legal counsel to ensure all templates, terms, and workflows protect the business while enabling agility.
  • Continuously improve contract frameworks and risk controls to support growth, operational integrity, and compliance.
  • Ensure all commercial teams are aligned with contract intent and are extracting full contractual value and rights. 
5. Enablement, Training & Internal Partnership 
  • Educate internal stakeholders and executives on contract structures, commercial implications, and negotiation best practices.
  • Train business unit leaders and procurement teams to recognize, pursue, and protect strategic value through contract terms.
  • Own and improve the contract management system, data structure, and reporting across business units.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, CFO, GC, and business leadership on all commercial contracting matters.
Qualifications & Experience 
  • Master’s degree required; a legal qualification (LLB, JD, or equivalent) is a strong plus.
  • 7–10+ years of progressive leadership in contract management, commercial negotiation, or related legal/business roles.
  • Demonstrated experience leading a world-class contracts group or shared services contracting function, ideally in an industrial, manufacturing, or complex distribution environment.
  • Proven ability to close complex, high-value commercial agreements involving global supply chains, key customer accounts, or enterprise vendor arrangements.
  • Strong experience working cross-functionally with legal, finance, operations, and procurement in fast-paced or matrixed organizations.
  • U.S. and international (cross-border) contracting experience is highly beneficial.
  • Deep understanding of pricing structures, financial incentives, performance-based clauses, and contractual risk management.
Core Competencies 
  • Calm and composed under pressure, especially during high-stakes or time-sensitive negotiations.
  • Exceptional leadership and team-building skills — able to inspire, organize, and scale a high-performance contracts team.
  • Strategic negotiator — excels at creating commercial leverage and win-win structures, even when negotiating from a smaller base.
  • Financially fluent, with strong command of pricing, margins, and performance-based financial mechanics.
  • Able to translate complex legal language into actionable commercial strategies and internal clarity.
  • Strong judgment and integrity; trusted advisor to C-suite and business heads.
  • Highly organized, proactive, and solutions-oriented, with strong project and time management skills.
  • Proficient in contract management systems and Microsoft 365 tools.
  • Comfortable working across U.S. and South African time zones, with a presence in the office and flexibility to travel as needed.
This is a rare opportunity to lead a strategically vital function in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial group. If you’re a commercially driven contracts leader with vision, discipline, and the ability to create competitive advantage through structure and negotiation — we’d like to meet you.

 

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