Senior Construction Contracts and Claims Specialist

Senior Construction Contracts and Claims Specialist U.S. Heavy Civil and Infrastructure Projects Remote | Part-time independent contractor Initial engagement: 3-4 months, with potential extension About The Client U.S.-based civil engineering and construction management firm providing engineering, surveying, project management, and construction support services for major infrastructure projects. The Role We are seeking an experienced, hands-on specialist to own the preparation and coordination of construction claims, change-order packages, and contract reviews. You will turn project records into substantiated submissions, develop proposed contract revisions, and drive assigned matters through management and legal review. Success requires independent analysis, clear writing, and persistent follow-through with project teams. The initial focus is on outstanding changes and payment-related disputes, together with new contracts and amendments requiring review. You work directly with project managers, finance, administrative support, and external legal counsel. Claims and Change Management Develop claim packages covering changed scope, additional costs, disruption, delay, remobilization, and other documented project impacts. Build an event chronology and connect the contractual basis, cause, impact, and requested relief. Review contracts, amendments, directives, correspondence, daily reports, schedules, quantities, and cost records. Distinguish supported facts from assumptions, identify weaknesses, and obtain missing evidence directly from the responsible team members. Prepare claim narratives, calculations, indexed exhibits, change-order requests, draft notices, and responses. Reconcile amounts with finance and identify prior payments, credits, overlapping claims, and unsupported costs. Assess schedule impacts using available records and identify when specialist delay analysis is needed. Evaluate both supporting and adverse evidence, including potential responsibility shared by multiple parties. Contract Review and Administration Compare original and revised agreements, subcontracts, and amendments. Produce a prioritized issues matrix and proposed revisions addressing scope, exclusions, survey responsibility, access, schedule, compensation, payment, insurance, indemnity, liability, termination, and dispute provisions. Identify incorporated documents, ambiguous obligations, notice requirements, submission deadlines, and documentation gaps. Coordinate unresolved legal questions with counsel and insurance requirements with the authorized broker. Maintain a live contract and claims register showing amounts, status, deadlines, evidence gaps, owners, next actions, and decisions required. Track approved submissions, delivery records, acknowledgments, and responses. Prepare concise recommendations and negotiation briefs for management. Follow up on missing inputs and overdue responses, escalate time-sensitive issues promptly, and develop reusable checklists and templates. Required Qualifications Demonstrated, hands-on experience preparing claims and administering U.S. construction contracts for heavy civil, transportation, transit, or public infrastructure projects. Experience supporting project owners or contractors through change-order preparation, disputed payment issues, and claim review or negotiation. Clearly describe your personal contribution to prior assignments. Ability to interpret contract requirements, analyze project records and schedule impacts, and reconcile claim calculations to source cost records. Strong technical writing, analytical, spreadsheet, and document-control skills, with the ability to produce clear, traceable, review-ready work. Ability to work independently, obtain information across a distributed team, manage concurrent deadlines, and coordinate during agreed U.S. Eastern Time hours. Preferred Qualifications Experience with rail or transit work, professional service agreements, delay and disruption analysis, and public-sector contracting. Familiarity with Critical Path method (CPM) Scheduling, Procore, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, Bluebeam, Excel, and Google Workspace are helpful. Practical capability and relevant work samples carry more weight than software familiarity alone. Coordination and Authority The specialist owns package preparation and follow-through. Project staff validate technical facts and field records; finance validates costs, billing, and payment history; administrative support coordinates access and approvals. Legal advice and representation remain with appropriately licensed counsel. The specialist may request records and coordinate reviews but may not accept contractual terms, certify insurance compliance, waive rights, settle claims, commit company funds, or authorize execution. External submissions and negotiations require designated management approval and legal review where appropriate. Engagement and Application The engagement is remote and initially part-time for approximately 3-4 months. Weekly hours, response expectations, hourly rate, and a spending limit will be agreed before work begins. Please provide your earliest start date, weekly availability, Eastern Time overlap, and proposed hourly rate. Submit a resume or professional profile, two relevant project examples describing your role and outcomes, and a redacted claim narrative or contract-review sample that you are authorized to share. Shortlisted candidates may complete a short paid assessment using sanitized project records. Do not submit confidential client information.