Director, Contracts

SUMMARY:

The Director of Contracts is the department head for Contracts and owns the end-to-end life-cycle of all study-level contracts — customer, site, and vendor — including the associated study budgets and Investigator grants. This role sets and drives Elligo’s contracting process, ensures accurate and complete tracking of contractual inventory, and directs contract and budget prioritization in support of study start-up timelines and revenue targets, as directed by the Chief Financial Officer. The Director leads the day-to-day operations of the Contracts team and serves as the primary point of escalation, quality control, and financial sign-off for contracting and budgeting across all business lines.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Serves as the department head for Contracts, defining, managing, and continuously improving Elligo’s process for development, negotiation, and execution of all study-level contracts.
• Partners with Business Development, Operations, Finance, and Legal to keep the contracting life-cycle efficient and effective, supporting complex contractual negotiations with customers and sites as required.
• Serves as the primary internal and external liaison for contracting and budgeting inquiries across all business lines, communicating negotiation progress and status to internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversees prioritization of the contracting and budgeting pipeline to align with study start-up timelines and revenue targets identified by the CFO.
• Directly supports — and, where needed, personally leads — negotiation and execution of study-level contracts, including change orders and amendments, ensuring accuracy and quality of contractual instruments and associated budgets.
• Collaborates with Operations and Finance to ensure budgets and contractual terms meet financial objectives and maintain cash neutrality for the organization.
• Supports Legal with review of finance terms in master-level agreements, ensuring an appropriate financial posture is maintained across the business.
• Serves as finance approver and signatory for contractual and budget instruments within delegated authority.
• Establishes and maintains study-level contract and budget templates, providing continuity of terms across all business lines.
• Ensures contract and revenue information is accurately captured and maintained in business-approved systems (including Salesforce and SharePoint), and improves those systems and processes to increase visibility into contractual inventory and pipeline status for business stakeholders.
• Develops and maintains metrics and dashboards to give executive leadership visibility into contracting and budgeting performance.
• Supports third-party vendor management, reviewing budget quotations and overseeing vendor contracts.
• Hires, develops, and leads a cohesive, highly skilled Contracts team; ensures the team is trained on contractually significant elements of clinical research protocols, review of clinical trial agreements, and preparation of Work Orders, Amendments, Change Orders, and Third-Party Vendor Agreements, and on negotiating Investigator grant budgets based on protocol and study operational requirements.
• Identifies challenges in the contract life-cycle process, responds to escalations, and proactively drives effective solutions.
• Harmonizes legacy processes across business lines, streamlining contractual terms and maximizing efficiencies to deliver a single, end-to-end contracting solution.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

This Director of Contracts manages the duties of two or more full-time employees or their equivalent.

Supervisory duties include but are not limited to:

• Holistic accountability for the team’s productivity, utilization, and compliance, including professional development, performance evaluations, training, and coaching.
• Assessing individual and collective team performance, identifying areas needing improvement, and addressing sub-standard performance with constructive feedback and development plans.
• Setting and communicating departmental goals for performance and deadlines, aligned with company plans, vision, and departmental objectives.
• Ensuring business goals, deadlines, and performance standards are met according to established benchmarks and company policy.
• Ensuring adherence to legal and company policies and procedures, partnering with Talent Services to undertake disciplinary actions as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Subject matter expert in contract negotiation, with a strong focus on finance terms and ensuring cash neutrality for the organization.

Excellent organizational and prioritization skills: ability to accomplish multiple tasks within agreed-upon timeframes through effective prioritization in a fast-paced environment.

Clear and concise written and oral communication skills, including the ability to present ideas and recommendations clearly and effectively to stakeholders at all levels.

High attention to detail, ensuring top-quality contractual documents and financial accuracy.

Ability to work across functional groups and different levels of employees throughout Elligo to achieve business results effectively and professionally.

Self-motivated; able to work independently, respond to department requests, and collaborate with others to identify quality solutions.

Proactive and timely follow-up skills: able to organize department timelines and follow up on internal and external stakeholder needs.

Proven track record of building and maintaining solid relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field.

10+ years of experience directly related to contract management in the clinical research industry, including preparing contracts and budgets for clinical trials.

5+ years of direct managerial experience required.

Excellent negotiation and drafting skills.

Demonstrated strong proficiency with word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software (MS Office applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and with Salesforce and SharePoint.

Advanced Excel experience.

Proven ability developing budgets for clinical trials, including Investigator Grants.

ENVIRONMENT:

This is a remote position operating in a home-office environment.

Approximately 5% of travel may be required to support the position’s responsibilities.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee may:

work at a desk using a computer for prolonged periods;

regularly communicate via e-mail, telephone, chat, and webcam (remote sessions such as MS Teams or Zoom), and exchange accurate and timely information;

frequently sit/stand/walk, grasp lightly/fine manipulation of objects;

occasionally reach/work above shoulders, twist/bend/stoop/squat, grasp forcefully, lift/carry/push/pull objects that weigh up to 20 pounds.

ADDITIONAL:

Elligo Health Research is a dynamic organization in a rapidly changing industry. Accordingly, the responsibilities associated with this job may change from time to time in accordance with business needs. More specifically, the incumbent may be required to perform additional and/or different responsibilities from those set forth above.

The above declarations are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the duties and responsibilities of the job described, nor are they intended to be such a listing of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Rather, they are designed only to describe the general nature of the job.

The incumbent must be flexible as there may be workweeks that require more than 40 hours to ensure the position’s expectations and responsibilities are met.

Elligo Health Research is committed to a policy of equal employment and will not discriminate against an applicant or associate based on his or her age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, color, creed, religion, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, handicap, military or veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other category protected under federal, state, or local law, regulation, or ordinance.