Contracts and Compliance Manager

Role Summary

The role is responsible for the day to day management of our Contracts & Compliance function, with a focus on reviewing and negotiating contractual terms, giving commercially-minded guidance to consultants, overseeing interim contractor onboarding and compliance, handling data protection enquiries, and leading a small team of Contracts & Compliance Assistants. The Interim contractor business is growing quickly, and the role will help shape how the function scales.

The role would suit someone with strong commercial contracts experience in recruitment, staffing or professional services, who is as comfortable giving a clear steer on a negotiated clause as they are running a tight administrative process.

Key Responsibilities

The postholder owns six areas of work and is accountable for the quality and turnaround of all of them.

Contract review and negotiation support

• Prepare and review client Terms of Business, MSAs, engagement letters, NDAs, RFP contractual schedules and supplier agreements against Kernel’s contract playbooks, and give clear written feedback on risk and recommended positions.

• Support all levels of the group through client and supplier negotiations, advising on what to hold, what to trade and when to escalate.

• Maintain and improve the contract playbooks, templates and standard positions.

Contracts administration and records

• Own the contracts register, the hands off list and associated records in Bullhorn and Kernel’s contract repositories, ensuring they are complete, accurate and current.

• Oversee the contract lifecycle from issue through negotiation, signature, storage and renewal, including tracking expiry and renewal dates.

• Respond to client and supplier due-diligence requests.

• Produce regular management information on contracts in negotiation, recently signed and approaching renewal.

Interim contractor onboarding and placement compliance

• Own the end-to-end onboarding of interim contractors through Xemplo, including assignment schedules, statements of work and contractor agreements.

• Ensure all required compliance documentation is in place before an assignment starts.

• Oversee assignment extensions, rate changes and end-of-assignment processes, and support IR35 determinations and engagement model decisions, escalating to specialist advisers where needed.

Data protection and compliance enquiries

• Act as the first point of contact for GDPR and data protection enquiries from candidates, contractors, clients and colleagues, including subject access and consent-related requests.

• Keep consent documentation and related compliance processes aligned with current requirements.

Team leadership and development

• Lead the day-to-day work of the Contracts & Compliance Assistants, setting priorities, managing workload allocation, and reviewing work quality.

Process improvement and technology

• Identify and implement ways to make contracting and onboarding faster and more self-service for the business, using Kernel’s existing technology stack.

• Provide clear guidance and training to consultants and other internal teams on contracting and onboarding processes.

What success looks like

By the end of the cover period you will have:

• Kept contract turnaround and interim onboarding at or ahead of agreed service levels throughout the cover period.

• Maintained a complete and accurate contracts register, hands off list and onboarding records.

• Embedded improved, more self-service processes and tools, and left clear documentation for the substantive postholder’s return.

• Become a trusted partner to consultants, Finance, Compliance and Group leadership.

Person Specification

The ideal candidate combines hands-on commercial contracts experience with the judgement to give a clear steer under time pressure, and can run a small team and an admin-heavy process without dropping detail.

Essential

• Significant experience reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts, ideally in recruitment, staffing or professional services (for example client Terms of Business, MSAs, NDAs and supplier agreements).

• Ability to review a contract against a playbook, spot the commercial and legal risks, and explain them clearly to non-lawyers with a recommended position.

• Confidence supporting negotiations with clients and suppliers, including senior stakeholders.

• Working knowledge of UK contract law fundamentals and UK GDPR / data protection.

• Experience of contractor or interim onboarding, IR35 / off-payroll working and recruitment-specific regulation.

• Excellent organisation and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and a high volume of requests.

• Strong written and verbal communication, and proficiency in Microsoft Office.

Desirable

• A legal qualification or equivalent legal training (for example law degree, paralegal, CILEx, SQE or LPC). Not essential for the right experience.

• Experience with Bullhorn, DocuSign, Xemplo or similar CRM, contract management and workflow systems.

• Experience managing, directing or coaching others, whether as a line manager or as a senior team member.

Behaviours

• Commercial: balances protecting Kernel with keeping deals moving.

• Decisive: makes a call, explains the reasoning and knows when to escalate.

• Collaborative: builds trust with consultants and teams who do not always welcome contracts input.

• Adaptable: comfortable stepping into an established function, learning it quickly and improving it.