What is the role and job description of contract engineer in a construction project?

Contract Engineer Job Description:

A Contract Engineer is a specialist in the field of engineering, who oversees projects, conducts reviews and studies the legalities of the contract between the client and the engineer and makes sure that all terms of the contract are tended to fairly. A contract engineer also must draft commercial tenders, and also sometimes must estimate the budgets of a specific project, before the administrating or awarding of the contract.

Contract Engineer Skills

• Contract management – the ability to draft, alter and draw up numerous contracts for clients.

• Project management – having detailed knowledge within the engineering and contracting business is a must, as it helps in identifying problems, and contributing to solutions related to the project.

• Contractor billing and rate analysis – contract engineers are in charge of calculating the project costs, investments, commercial bids as well as contractor payment and rates.

• Tender preparation – preparing various offers for clients before contractual agreements are set.

• Expert mathematical skills – many of the duties of a contract engineer is calculating projected project costs, commercial bids, tenders as well as salaries.

Being a contract engineer requires a litany of skills – ones that will help with paperwork, with management, with people as well as with the projects being developed. That is why the skillset for a contract engineer must be vast and diverse, to be hired by any client. Basic social and technical skills are needed, however, some of the competencies that are specific to contract engineers are as follows:

1. Execute proper contracts appreciation and ensure adherence to contractual conditions:

We are normally provided with a hard copy of Contract Document which consists of thousands of pages. Whenever we need important clauses like variations/payments/advances etc, we can’t search the entire document. So, we prepare a Contracts Appreciation Document (we simply call it CAD). 

We enlist all the important clauses and streamline them in different schedules. I am not supposed to say anything more than that. 

This helps us in finding important clauses whenever required. This is the first page of what I have prepared for the project I am currently working on. (Got it signed by the Vice President & HOD Contracts - HCC Ltd when I was a Management Trainee. Big achievement indeed).

It took three months for preparation and 3 weeks for Approval.

2. Identify risks and develop risk mitigation plans:

Detailed analysis of Risk is done at different levels of Project Cycle like

• Pre Qualification Stage,
• Tendering/Bidding Stage
• Project Planning and Procurement Stage
• Execution and Monitoring Stage
• Project Closure and Claims stage
• Project Operation and maintenance stage.etc

3. Develop and maintain client relationship:

Even if you have a legitimate claim, client will not accept your claim. You can’t do anything without client’s support. So, we maintain good relations with the Client.

4. Ensure timely & accurate work measurement, billing, certification, and collection:

Need to keep a track on interim payment schedule. Check the deductions(Taxes, Interests on advance taken) and advances (Material advance, Mobilization Advance etc), Bank Guarantee expiry details etc.
Escalation calculations for steel, cement, labor, fuel and other commodities. Principal and interest deductions in the RA Bills. I personally love this Math part of my job. 

5. Ensure identification, documentation, and submission of claims & variations:

7. Draft contractual letters to get them approved by Project Manager and send them to Client, Subcontractors, Government bodies etc.

This is the most boring part. I had to sit for 3 weeks to draft a letter (14 pages) for Extension of Time. (Biggest career achievement so far- Awarded with 6 months project Extension based on a strong claim)

8. Finalize subcontractor engagement:

Creating subcontractor work orders, finalizing their rates and their scope of work etc and ensure validation of subcontractor bills as per contract conditions, including reconciliation of material/ quantities using SAP.

9. Ensuring of various contemporaneous records are correctly maintained by various departments as required in terms of the contract provisions. 

10. Recording hindrances and rescheduling physical and financial milestones as per the delay analysis using MSP.etc.

There are many other roles but we concentrate more on these. (We get to do planning, scheduling, micro-scheduling too). Interesting job right !?

Contract Engineer Salary :

The salary for a Contract Engineer ranges from $71,000 to $120,000, with a median salary of $94,600, according to online sources. Of course, a senior contract engineer earns almost double that at certain companies, and so as it is for most jobs, the longer you work, the more you earn.