Manager of Legal Operations

Strategic Procurement is a department within Financial Administration (FAD) at Harvard University that assists the University community in obtaining the best quality and value for the goods and services purchased from third party vendor relationships by leveraging vendor spend and relationships across the University in support of identifying and reducing total costs;

sourcing and procuring quality goods and services in support of superior service and growth; and establishing business partnerships and contracts with preferred vendors and contract vendors.

Within Strategic Procurement, the Office of Contracting Services assists staff from across Harvard with reviewing and managing contracts.

The Manager of Legal Operations oversees the staff, processes, and technologies that perform general administrative and contract management duties and functions within the Office of Contracting Services.

The Manager of Legal Operations will serve as the main liaison between the Office of Contracting Services and the Buy-to-Pay Program Team by assisting and collaborating as necessary for the continued improvement of Harvard’s centralized Contract Management System.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities :

• Build an administrative support team for the Office of Contracting Services by evaluating the needs of the Contracting Services team and hiring as the budget allows
• Oversee;and support the contract management function for University clients who sign up for our fee-based service by adding contracts and associated documents to the contract management system, routing those contracts for approval and signature, and maintaining a searchable contract repositoryquarterly billing procedure, including communicating with clients, collaborating with team to finalize quarterly data, sending invoices, and journaling interdepartmental transfers in University financial systemsand assist the Contracting Services team with SharePoint site development and maintenance;

website updates, monthly and quarterly newsletters, updates to contract review intake form, and template management, delegate these tasks as appropriate

• Define, implement, and refine effective and efficient contract lifecycle management processes and best practices
• Develop and maintain playbooks to ensure accurate and consistent use of contract management tools
• Audit the contract management system on an ad hoc basis for accurate contract entry by University partners and notify and advise those departments on the results when necessary to assist them with updating those contracts to adhere to contract management guidelines
• Run monthly Contract Management Services reports, and manage and analyze team metrics as needed to assist management with the budget and other matters
• Advise clients on how to utilize the procure-to-pay system for purchasing from their contracts as needed
• Interface with schools, units, and departments to understand their contracting needs and assist with implementing these requirements
• Review and evaluate AI and other contracting tools and technologies that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the legal services and operations teams
• Work closely with the Strategic Procurement B2P team to align contract management goals and look for synergies and opportunities to utilize the existing contract management tool, Contracts+, fully through the team’s optimization project
• Schedule, plan, and assist with team training sessions, as well as editing of training materials as needed; assist other team members with administrative duties associated with the Harvard Training Portal
• Collaborate with management on various projects to evaluate procedures and processes, develop improvement strategies, and draft policies that create team efficiency and decrease contracting risk
• Run semester-long externship program for legal externs to gain transactional experience
• Assist with other administrative duties as needed by the Office of Contracting Services
30+ days ago