Construction Contract Administrator

Every trade contract we sign creates a paper trail: quotes, contracts, variations, invoices, retentions, final accounts. Multiply that by 30+ trades per project, across several projects, and you get the thing

that quietly decides whether a development goes smoothly or sink into chaos.

That trail is your job.

We're looking for someone who finds genuine satisfaction in a file that's complete, a register that reconciles, a number that ties back to the contract. Someone who notices that an invoice exceeds the contract sum before anyone else opens it.

About Us

We're Aēform, a boutique developer building high-end residential properties in Budapest's most sought-after neighbourhoods. We deliver complete turnkey homes, and we work without a general contractor: every trade is contracted directly by us. That's unusual, and it's exactly why this role matters so much. There's no builder absorbing the commercial administration — it sits with us, and it will sit with you.

What you'll own

Tender and contract documentation. Sending out tender packages, chasing deadlines, collating the returned quotes into our comparison format and flagging where they aren't comparable — scope differences, exclusions, missing items. The decision is our Procurement Manager's and Construction Project Manager's; the process is yours. Once it's made, you write the letter of award and carry it through to executed contract: accurate scope, dates and figures, required attachments, signatures chased, every version tracked and filed.

The variation register. Every variation from the moment it's raised: logged, priced according to approval, incorporated into the contract sum. Pricing decisions are made by our Procurement Manager, the register, the arithmetic and the discipline are yours.

Subcontractor compliance. Insurances, licences, safety documentation — current and verified before anyone starts work. This one comes with real authority: if the paperwork isn't valid, the answer is no, and you don't need to ask us first.

Retentions. The register per project: amounts, release conditions, timing and flagging when conditions are met.

RFIs. Logged, routed to the right person, chased, closed. The answers come from our project managers and architects; the process is yours.

Progress claims prepared, not decided. You check each claim against the contract sum and the variation register, reconcile it, flag any discrepancy, and hand over a complete file. Our Construction Project Manager certifies what's actually been built.

Final accounts. Reconciling each trade from original contract sum through variations to the settled final figure. This is the most demanding part of the role, and the most satisfying when it closes clean.

Invoices, payments and records. The payment cycle from invoice receipt through to executed transfer and filed documentation, plus keeping the cost and cash-flow records current as things happen, not weeks later.

Company administration. Beyond the projects, the company itself needs looking after: recurring bills and subscriptions, insurance renewals, office administration, and the paperwork for the two rental apartments we manage. It's a small stream compared to the project work, but it needs the same reliability.

What this role is not

We're being explicit, because it matters:

• Not a site role. Our Construction Project Managers run the sites.
• Not a procurement role. Trade selection, tender evaluation and price negotiation belong to our Procurement Manager. Your work starts at contract award.
• Not a decision-making role. You prepare decisions, flag what needs attention, and make sure nothing arrives at our desk incomplete. The commercial calls are ours.
• Not a runner role. No collecting tiles, no courier coordination.

If you're looking for a stepping stone into project management, this isn't it. If you want to become genuinely excellent at construction contract administration — a skill that's rare in Hungary and valuable everywhere — this is a very good place to do it.

Who we're looking for

You're precise by instinct, not by effort. You'd rather spend twenty minutes finding why a figure is off by 40,000 forints than let it pass. You're comfortable with numbers — not modelling them, but reconciling them, and noticing when they don't add up.

You finish things. Documents don't sit half-filed on your desk; a task isn't done until every step of it is done. You're organised enough that we'll never need to remind you, and honest enough to flag a problem the moment you see it rather than hoping it resolves itself.

You can hold your ground politely: chasing a signature for the fourth time, or telling a subcontractor their insurance has expired, doesn't make you uncomfortable.

Requirements:

• Ideally 5 years' relevant experience in procurement, tendering, contract administration or financial document handling — the industry matters less than the discipline.
• Comfortable in digital systems (we use Notion and Google Drive).
• Strong Hungarian and English, written and spoken.

Bonus: construction or property experience is helpful, not required. We'll teach you the trade-specific logic; we can't teach diligence.

How to apply

No cover letter. Send your CV or LinkedIn, plus answers to these four. Short is fine; specific is mandatory.

1. Pick the most complicated thing you've ever been responsible for keeping track of. A project, a set of accounts, an inventory, anything. Describe how it actually worked: what the pieces were, where it broke, what you did about it. We want the details, not the summary.
2. You're chasing a signed contract from a subcontractor who's already on site working. He's ignored three emails. Our project manager wants him to keep working because we're behind schedule. Company policy says no signed contract, no site access. What do you do, and what do you do if he still doesn't sign?
3. Two numbers should match and they don't: the contract says 4,850,000, the final invoice says 5,120,000. Nobody knows why. Walk us through exactly what you'd do, step by step, until you either find the reason or prove there isn't one.
4. Tell us about something you got wrong at work that cost real money or real time. What happened, and what did you change afterwards?