Contract Specialist

Context :

The Commercial Portfolio Organization (CPO) at client is dedicated to delivering marketing, public relations, and operational support to ensure the promotion of our life-saving and life-enhancing products to customers and patients.

Part of the CPO’s normal business operations is to procure services from various vendors and advertising agencies. The creation, approval, and lifecycle management of these vendor contracts is essential to ensuring our teams work compliantly with service providers.

At client, contracts are categorized into two categories :

Full-Service Contracts :

These contracts involve vendors who are not yet preferred partners at client and require processing by Commercial and Corporate Services (CCS) after submission from the business accountable.

Self-Service Contracts :

These contracts involve preferred vendors where work is deemed lower-risk and contracts are processed using templates owned by CCS.

Position Overview :

The Commercial Contracts Associate is responsible for expeditiously and compliantly managing and processing contracts within the CPO.

The Commercial Contracts Associate will primarily process self-service contracts, while also being expected to process full-service contracts on an as-needed basis.

The Associate is expected to be an expert in the process of supporting both full-service and self-service contracts and provide support across the organization when questions arise.

Given the high volume of contracts, this role optimizes business processes within the CPO by :

Enhancing Business Efficiency : Facilitating faster contract turnarounds, allowing project leads to focus on strategy and execution rather than time-consuming administrative tasks.

Driving Operational Excellence :

Serving as a dedicated resource with expertise in specific project and contract types, and acting as the single point of contact between CPO teams and the CCS for training, process improvements, and template enhancements.

Delivering Technical Expertise :

Being a super user of our contracting solution (MyBuy) and providing support across the organization for contract processing and management.

Supporting Compliance & Standardization :

Ensuring consistent use of templates and practices, identifying and escalating trends quickly to CCS, experimenting with new practices efficiently, and reducing business risks.

Providing input as to how Purchase Orders (POs) should be structured to ensure the appropriate business flexibility and efficiency in invoicing.

Responsibilities :

The Commercial Contracts Associate will :

Act as the single point of contact for all contract-related queries, amendments, POs, vendor classification, etc. within the CPO.

Advise project owners on project eligibility for the self-service program.

Process self-service requests, ensuring :

Vendor eligibility for self-service.

Accuracy and appropriate use of self-service templates (type, terms, and conditions).

Compliance with the vendor’s Master Service Agreement terms.

Proper management of the approval process in the contract management tool (e.g., MyBuy).

Full and compliant execution of contracts

Process prioritized full-service contract requests to expedite execution.

Contribute to streamlined Health Care Provider (HCP) self-service contracting processes.

Ensure timely review and approval of contracts and ensure the on-time issuance of POs.

Flag issues or delays to stakeholders and resolve them by ensuring contract workflows are completed on time or submitting tickets to IT for system issues.

Partner with CCS to ensure operational excellence and continual optimization of contracting practices and efforts within the CPO.

Conduct educational sessions to train project owners on the contracting process and MyBuy.

Partner with Finance to ensure PO structure is optimized for our more complex contracts with AORs and media agencies and serves a quality check to drive accuracy in reporting vis a vis FACT coding.

Required Capabilities :

Ability to work within established procedures autonomously while keeping management informed.

Identify challenges and relevant issues in the contracting process and make sound decisions to drive results and resolution.

Strong written and verbal communication skills to keep business stakeholders informed.

Resource stewardship; utilize time and resources efficiently to create the most impact.

Strong business process improvement skills; ability to gain and apply knowledge of project management processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques, and adapt them to the organization.

Strong prioritization skills that align tasks and work to the highest impact against business objectives.

Is a self-starter with strong problem-solving capabilities, interpersonal skills, and the Ability to partner and influence others.

Approaches unique contracting situations with creativity and discipline to drive solutions while mitigating risks.

Flexibility to work occasionally with Global Procurement and Contract teams outside of the Pacific Standard Time Zones, specifically in Europe and South America.

Qualifications :

Bachelor’s degree required.

Preferred experience in contract management, healthcare law / compliance, or as a paralegal.

Occasional business travel by air or car.

Intermediate knowledge of Mac operating systems, contracting systems, online / cloud systems (e.g., Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Sheets), and Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari).

Self-starter; uses creativity and resourcefulness to problem-solve unique challenges to mitigate risks with contract deployment.

Demonstrated working knowledge of Microsoft Office programs (MS Word, MS Excel).

A basic understanding of accounting and billing to support the development of optimal PO structure is a bonus.