Sr. Contract Associate, R&D Business Operations

Pay 40-50/h depending on experience

About the Opportunity:

The R&D Business Operations group within Strategic Management & Business Operations, is the center of excellence for providing industry best practice operational support for the conduct of the company's global trials, including vendor and site contract management, strategic vendor oversight, and financial spend analysis and management.? The group utilizes rigorous processes, procedures, and tools to ensure financial discipline and transparency in vendor and trial site spend, by managing the development, negotiation and execution of vendor and site budgets and contracts, and managing the financial and resource projections across projects and trials.

The Sr. Contract Associate is responsible for executing the vendor contracting strategy, which includes analyzing vendor bids, negotiating budgets and contracting terms in alignment with the vendor service category, drafting and/or reviewing and managing the execution of the vendor Statement of Work (SOW), and ongoing management of the vendor contract and related purchase order throughout the contract lifecycle.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Vendor Contract Management
• Facilitate the contracting process thru to execution of the entire contract, including all exhibits.
o Draft self-authored contracts and the QC of documents for non-self-authored contracts
o Update scope and/or budget, including business/payment terms
o Include any unique business terms to be added/negotiated
• Facilitate the review and approval of the contract including internal review, vendor review, vendor final negotiations within specified legal parameters, and escalation of any approval issues
• Ensure SOWs, COs, NDAs, consulting agreements and other assigned contracts that originate in R&D are efficiently managed through the Legal contract review and financial approval systems and entered into the department tracking system.
o Collaborate with Legal and other identified business areas, as appropriate, to ensure contracts are progressed on a timely basis
o Proactively communicate with key stakeholders on the status of contract review and approval
o Assist stakeholders with tracking of terms, PO funding, scope, and necessary changes

• Partner with service owners, Finance, GSP, Legal and Business Operations team members through the duration of the vendor contract to:
o Understand impact of identified changes on: study scope, vendor scope, budget and forecasts
o Understand accruals and forecast updates associated with contracted services
o Identify contract documentation requirements (e.g., CNF or CO) or whether a new category of services requiring a new vendor is required
o Request and receive Change Order proposals from vendor(s)
o Negotiate vendor scope/budget, including business/payment terms
o Communicate CO expectations to ensure all parties are made aware of any contract, budget and relationship impacts
o Prepare and speak to vendor contracting updates in study team meetings
o Resolve any contract execution, PO funding, and vendor payment issues as they arise
o Support contract close-out, as per department processes

Required Skills:
• Proficiency in document preparation (Word, PowerPoint, Excel);
• Excellent organization and time-management skills; must be able to demonstrate agility in prioritizing assigned work
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; must be able to communicate effectively with outside parties and serve as a liaison among department personnel and business partners, and proactively communicate relevant issues and deadlines;
• Must be detail-oriented, self-motivated, a quick learner, and have a strong work ethic

Preferred:
• 2 - 5 years of relevant experience working in the pharmaceutical industry (including CROs)
• Relevant technical experience working with contracts and business operations
• Experience in the following applications:
o MS SharePoint, Teams, Excel, and Power BI
o Ariba - Nice to have
o Icertis - Nice to have

Education:
• BA/BS in finance, accounting, legal, health sciences, or related degree.