Contracting Operations Manager

Chiesi FarmaceuticiA • Cary, NC

22h • Hybrid

About The Position

Chiesi USA Based in Parma, Italy, Chiesi is an international research-focused biopharmaceutical group with 90 years’ experience, operating in 31 countries. More than 8,000 employees across the group are united by a singular purpose: promoting a healthier world for our people, patients, and the planet. This is what drives us as we research, develop, and market innovative drugs across our main therapeutic areas. Discover more here. At Chiesi we are thinking generations ahead, driving sustainable innovation with purpose. This fosters a culture of reliability, transparency, and ethical behaviour at every level. As a Benefit Corporation and a certified B Corp, we have embedded sustainability in our bylaws and continuously measure our impact. Diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity are at the heart of who we are. We believe our differences make us stronger. We are a vibrant ecosystem of passionate, talented individuals united by strong values, each bringing unique perspectives that help us to continuously challenge the status quo for the better. Who we are looking for This is what you will do This role will lead the establishment and continuous improvement of a centralized Contracts Operations function within Legal, supporting Chiesi USA's matrix/shared-services operating model. The Contracts Operations Lead will be the single point of contact for day-to-day contracting needs across the US business, owning intake, triage, orchestration, and continuous improvement of end-to-end contract operations. This is both a hands-on and build-from-scratch role, with a near-term scope of managing all of the company’s contracting operations, ensuring consistency, clarity, and coordination of a core competency for the organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Proven success designing and running end-to-end contracting processes in a matrix environment; strong project/program management skills
• Deep working knowledge of common biopharma contract types (MSAs/SOWs, HCP agreements/consulting, NDAs, marketing vendors, SaaS/tech) and related risk controls
• CLM expertise at an administrator/configurator level (preferably with Sirion or similar): workflow design, clause library, templates, metadata, DocuSign integration, user provisioning, and reporting
• Strong data orientation; ability to define SLAs and build dashboards (Excel/Power BI/Tableau; basic SQL a plus)
• Experience managing and leading others required
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to translate legal/compliance needs into clear processes and enablement materials
• Excellent organizational skills
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment and meet aggressive deadlines
• Demonstration of discretion and ability to maintain confidential information
• Ability to focus and multi-task
• Ability to work with minimal day-to-day supervision and to work closely with legal and business personnel at all levels

Nice To Haves

• Five+ years of contract negotiation, process and lifecycle management
• Paralegal certification and/or Lean/Six Sigma credentials

Responsibilities

• Act as the single point of contact for all US contract requests, establishing a shared intake channel, classifying requests, and orchestrating the end-to-end workflow.
• Establish detailed knowledge of and demonstrates control over internal processes and systems for the management, review and approval of all contracts with third parties.
• Review (and manage review from internal stakeholders) and negotiate contracts to effectively and efficiently achieve the business objective.
• Draft, negotiate, review and coordinate approval for all ordinary course of business contracts such as confidentiality agreements, master service agreements, speaker agreements, consulting agreements, etc.
• Work with internal stakeholders to deliver bespoke amendments to account for revised needs.
• Manage the company’s library of templates to ensure templates meet the needs of the business and are routinely updated to reflect market provisions.
• Develop and maintain a "fallback playbook" with approved clause positions, deviation matrices, and escalation paths for common contract terms.
• Evaluate, re-design, and/or improve the company’s contracting standard operating procedures to account for the new contract operations function and the current contract lifecycle management tool.
• Routinely solicit feedback from internal stakeholders to continuously improve contract processing and user experience.
• Adapt contract process to account for changes in the business, acquisitions and new systems.
• Serve as the primary administrator and subject-matter expert for the contract lifecycle management system.
• Lead implementation and launch of new contract lifecycle management system.
• Organize and lead administrator trainings for legal, compliance and procurement teams.
• Organize and lead user trainings for all relevant internal stakeholders.
• Routinely solicit feedback from internal stakeholders to continuously improve functionality of contract lifecycle management system and user experience.
• Work with vendor and global and local IT teams to ensure functionality of contract lifecycle management system is fit for purpose to the US organization.
• Manage contract storage and organization, including by working with internal stakeholders to monitor contract terms and/or the need for terminations and renewals/extensions.
• Lead contract operations function from inception to deployment.
• Identify bottlenecks and propose process, tooling, and policy improvements; present options and decisions to the cross-functional steering group.
• Build the business case to expand to an operations team; onboard and lead future Operations Managers; coordinate with paralegal support.
• Establish service level agreements and develop dashboards/reports to provide visibility into contract operations performance.
• Improve repository governance (naming conventions, metadata completeness, searchability) and reduce expired/duplicate/fragmented agreements.

Benefits

• We provide top-class benefits, including comprehensive healthcare programs, work-life balance initiatives, and robust relocation support.
• Our salary package is competitive, comprising a basic salary, performance bonuses, and benefits benchmarked against the external market.
• Additionally, we offer flexible working arrangements, remote work options, and tax assistance services for foreign colleagues, all designed to help you thrive.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager