Director Contracts Attorney – Jersey City

• We are looking for a dynamic commercial contract attorney who is a quick thinker and strong manager to own all aspects of initial contract redlining and review completed by the contracts team within the Corporate Procurement Services department.
• This hire will lead a team of paralegals and partner closely with our General Counsel’s office to review, revise, and improve our 3rd party vendor contracts across the enterprise, including master agreements, proofs of concept, SOWs, NDAs, and other related documents, demonstrating guidance and templates provided by Legal.
• Proven experience and comfort handling high volumes of contract review under tight timelines required.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Draft, review, redline, and negotiate procurement contracts in compliance with legal-set policies and guidelines and raising to SMEs and Legal as appropriate
• Own the contract management process and effectively manage pipeline, including managing contract lifecycle, renewals, amendments, notices, and terminations, as well as proper storage and organization of contracts
• Training and development of contracts team to ensure consistent handling of contracting matters, updating policies and procedures owned by Corporate Procurement Services, where necessary, to achieve standard processes
• Collaborate with Category Managers, Purchasing Operations and other SMEs involved in procurement process in order to proactively identify and implement operational improvements and improve cycle times
• Collaborate with legal, compliance, and risk teams as required by specific regulatory requirements applicable to third party contracts, to support regulatory compliance efforts, mitigate risks, and protect the institution’s interests
• Support contract administration and risk acceptance documentation, ensuring all deviations from legal and SME-set standards are duly approved, documented, and communicated to relevant collaborators
• Partner with business and technology colleagues to ensure defined SLAs and key performance metrics are included in contracts. Assess those metrics on contract performance, compliance, and risks, providing insights to procurement and firm leadership
• Mitigates risk by following established procedures, spotting key errors and demonstrating strong ethical behavior.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of 10 years of related experience
• J.D. from an ABA accredited law school along with admission to New York or New Jersey Bar
• Strong experience working with and training non-lawyer documentation / contracts negotiation teams
• Experience with high volumes of contracts on different kinds of templates / forms
• Experience working as an attorney in regulated industries
• Track record of improving processes, procedures, and mitigating risks in contracting