Commercial Operations Lead - J.S. Held LLC

J.S. Held is a global consulting firm that combines technical, scientific, financial, and strategic expertise to advise clients seeking to realize value and mitigate risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high stakes matters demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, proven experience, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets.

The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services, products, and data that enable clients to navigate complex, contentious, and often catastrophic situations.

The Director of Commercial Operations coordinates and optimizes the company’s key client and vendor contractual agreements, including Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Statement of Work (SOWs), and Third-Party Agreements, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and compliance requirements. This role oversees the entire contract life-cycle, from negotiation (e.g., pricing and terms) to execution, leveraging the contract management system to centralize data, enhance transparency, track deadlines, and improve collaboration, while using standardized contract templates provided by legal or client-specific templates when necessary.

Reporting to the Operations Chief of Staff, the Director collaborates with Division & Practice Leadership, Operations & Project Set-up Team, Business Development, Legal & Compliance, Finance, and IT. This role also collaborates with the CLO, COO and CFO to ensure contract management efforts support the company’s broader commercial strategies and financial objectives.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Contract Management and Compliance:

• Oversee the creation, negotiation, and execution of the organization’s contractual agreements, leveraging JSH's standardized contract templates to ensure governance, accountability, and adherence to deadlines.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to contractual obligations, ensuring the company avoids unnecessary exposure to liabilities.
• Ensure contracts align with company policies, business goals, and evolving legal and regulatory requirements.
• Facilitate collaboration with Legal, Leadership, Finance, Operations, Practice Leadership, and Business Development to align commercial objectives and processes with organizational goals.
• Utilize the company’s contract management system (CMS), Agiloft, to streamline workflows, centralize data, and automate tracking.
• Serve as the primary contact for the lifecycle of the contract management process, ensuring timely resolution of decisions and issues and cross-functional alignment.
• Provide training to stakeholders on contract standards, negotiation tactics, and compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with the legal team to update business or financial clauses in contracts based on feedback from relevant teams. Ensure updates align with organizational policies and compliance requirements and maintain clear communication with stakeholders for timely and accurate revisions.
• Collaborate with the IT and Project Coordination teams to ensure requested financial and performance metrics are compatible with company system capabilities. Follow through with these teams once contracts are executed to ensure all terms and conditions are updated in corporate systems.

Client Relationship Management:

• Partner with the Business Development team to ensure contracts align with client expectations and service delivery standards.
• Collaborate with client-facing teams to address issues arising from contract terms and performance.

Negotiations:

• Support negotiations for key agreements, in partnership with Business Development and collaboration with internal stakeholders to achieve optimal outcomes and ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Create and maintain enterprise-wide negotiation guidelines in collaboration with the Finance and Operations teams, and the Business Development Team. This includes setting clear protocols, ensuring contract consistency, aligning with goals and compliance, and providing training and support.
• Provide guidance on acceptable terms and conditions, ensuring consistency in contract standards.
• Ensure negotiated terms are accurately reflected in final agreements and maintain comprehensive records to enhance visibility.

Commercial Strategy:

• Define and implement efficient, scalable, and compliant contract lifecycle strategies that align with commercial and financial goals.
• Align contracts with pricing and rate schedules, discounting, revenue strategies, invoice processing, and payment terms in collaboration with and under the direction of Operations and Finance.
• Monitor and analyze contract performance to identify areas for improvement.

Pricing Strategy, Profitability Analysis, and Performance Monitoring:

• Define and implement pricing strategies with Operations, Finance and Business Development. Leverage dashboards and reports for insights on contract performance, profitability KPIs, renewals, milestones, etc.
• Track KPIs, update leadership, monitor project margins with Finance, and implement improvements. Integrate contract data into reporting platforms.
• Provide feedback to IT to enhance the contract management system’s functionality, set performance benchmarks, and evaluate agreements on revenue, customer satisfaction, and efficiency.

Service Delivery:

• Monitor and ensure contract performance standards are met, addressing issues promptly to sustain client satisfaction.
• Drive process improvements to enhance contract management efficiency while ensuring seamless service delivery.

Collaboration on Strategic Initiatives:

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives for contract management tools, processes, and systems.
• Implement best practices to enhance efficiency and scalability, adapting to evolving business needs.
• Support mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships by providing contract review and alignment with due diligence processes.

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, or a related field.
• Minimum of 7+ years of experience in contract management, commercial operations, or a similar role, preferably within the consulting or professional services industry.
• Demonstrated experience managing and negotiating high-value and complex contract agreements.
• Proven experience in financial analysis, pricing strategy development, and profitability tracking.

SKILLS

• Exceptional leadership and strategic thinking abilities to influence cross-functional teams and drive initiatives.
• Strong understanding of contract management principles and negotiations tactics, and risk management strategies.
• Advanced analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• Excellent communication, as well as project and stakeholder management skills.
• Proficiency in contract management software (e.g., Agiloft), financial modeling tools, and Microsoft Office Suite.  
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and manage competing priorities effectively.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL JOB QUALIFICATIONS

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer. 

Some of the Benefits We Have Include

J.S. Held understands all our employees are people and sometimes life needs flexibility. We work to always provide an environment that best supports and suits our team’s needs.

• Our flexible work environment allows employees to work remotely, when needed
• Flexible Time Off policy
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401k Match
• Commuter Benefit

A reasonable estimate of the salary range for this role is $90,000 - $125,000. Any offered salary range is based on a wide array of factors including but not limited to skillset, experience, training, location, scope of role, management responsibility, etc.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have read the J.S. Held Online Privacy Notice and hereby freely and unambiguously give informed consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of your personal information as required and described therein. California residents can click here to learn more about the personal information we collect and here to learn about additional privacy rights that may be available.

Please explore what we’re all about at www.jsheld.com.

EEO and Job Accommodations

We embrace diversity and our commitment to building a team and environment that fosters professional and personal enrichment is unwavering. We are greater when we are equal!

J.S. Held is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request for a reasonable accommodation, please email jobs@jsheld.com and include “Applicant Accommodation” within the subject line with your request and contact information.

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All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.