Contracts Manager

Job Summary: 

As our Contracts Manager, you'll drive end-to-end contract operations by drafting, negotiating, and managing customer, vendor, and partner agreements with precision, scalability, and legal compliance. You'll collaborate cross-functionally to optimize workflows, centralize and prioritize work withing our Legal Operations group, lay the foundations for a CLM system, and enhance the efficiency of our Contract lifecycle.

Responsibilities (including, but not limited to):

Administer Customer Contracts

• Draft and maintain templates for customer-facing agreements (including MSAs, Oder Forms, SOWs, and NDAs) with a focus on clarity, precision, and efficiency. 
• Create and update schedules and addenda to customer contracts, including Data Processing Agreements (DPAs), Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Apply responsive variations in terms and contract structure by region and business unit as necessary.
• Implement and maintain contract terms parameters and clause libraries for consistency and scalability.
• Review and negotiate redlines to customer agreements within established parameters, providing timely turnaround to customer counterparts.
• Work directly with Product and Service Delivery team leads to maintain accurately detailed descriptions of services referenced in customer agreements.
• Work with the Sales Operations team to streamline the workflow for customer contract extension and execution, optimizing to reduce friction and increase quality. 
• Contribute to the requirements gathering and design of  a customer contract management system (CLM) to track contract status, key terms, and renewal dates.

Manage Vendors & Partner Contracts

• Draft and maintain agreement templates for various modes of engagement with partners, including channel, referral, and agent agreements.
• Review, analyze and negotiate vendor/partner agreement terms in line with corporate standards and thresholds.
• Work with the Director of Procurement to ensure accurate and scalable vendor CLM systems and practices.
• Centrally organize key terms of partnership agreements to provide accurate, referenceable information to internal partnership stakeholders.
• Collaborate with various internal teams to ensure appropriate operationalization and tracking of partner agreement obligations and activities.

Maintain Contract Workflows and Provide Guidance

• Collaborate cross-functionally with department leaders to establish efficient workflows and proper systems integration for commercial contract needs within the business.
• Develop and refine playbooks and standards to be applied to various agreement templates, ensuring alignment and consistency within the Legal Ops group
• Coordinate with outside counsel for escalated matters, complex scenarios, statute interpretation, and affirmation of playbooks and parameters.
• Provide guidance to the business on the effect and interpretation of operating provisions within various contracts.
• Ensure all contracts comply with applicable legal, regulatory, and corporate guidelines and are appropriately tailored to business risk thresholds.

• Work with external brokers to facilitate insurance requests made in connection with the obligations in a relevant contract

• Triage and prioritize contract-based requests while coordinating work within the Legal Ops function
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive tasks and optimize contract workflows using AI and legal tech tools.

Support Corporate Legal Operations

• Maintain relationships with registered agents for statutory representation of Company entities and take action when needed for service of process or jurisdictional filings
• Coordinate with outside counsel on the setup and registration of corporate entities, assisting with the preparation of filings, board resolutions, and other supportive documents.
• Assist the GRC team on matters related to the company’s industry certifications and compliance by providing bridge letters and confirmatory documents, and generating required notices by drafting communications or posting materials to customer portals.

• Drive firm-wide adherence to corporate governance structures for signatures and approvals on deviations from established contracting standards.

Skills:

• Proven experience managing high volumes of a wide variety of contracts in a fast-paced setting, independently drafting new/updated agreements, and applying sound judgement to ambiguous or novel scenarios.
• Strong knowledge of contract law and negotiation strategy with ability to turn a complex commercial concept into contractual language.
• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) software (e.g., Ironclad).
• Advanced understanding of service-level terms and provisions that are commonly leveraged in technology service provider agreements.
• Strong ability to collaborate with technical colleagues to extract technical concepts and ensure they are appropriately translated to contract provisions.
• Demonstrated ability to streamline processes, drive adoption of new tools & processes, and collaborate across teams.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and organizational skills.
• Detail oriented, able to write and edit with precision.
• Analytical mindset with a focus on continuous improvement and operational efficiency.

Qualifications: 

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in contract management in a B2B technology services organization (software or IT services preferred).
• Bachelor's degree required
• JD or paralegal certification a plus but not required.
• Ability to work standard schedule of 8am-5pm CST 

The Benefits of Working for Abacus

• Exposure to a diverse array of technologies.
• Internal opportunities for career advancement.
• Part of a team of experienced professionals who aim to deliver exceptional service.
• Competitive compensation.
• Robust benefits package: medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401k, and PTO.
• Opportunities to further education through online courses.