Contracts Manager

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Santen is a specialized pharmaceutical company with a 130-year heritage focused exclusively on ophthalmology. With sales in over 60 countries, Santen’s 4,000 global employees work to deliver life-changing therapies that make hope a reality for people facing vision impairment and loss. Santen Inc., located in Emeryville, CA (North America HQ), contributes important research & development and commercialization efforts. This office is home to about half of our 350-total staff in North America, including our Toronto, Canada site and our recent acquisitions of Eyevance Pharmaceuticals (Fort Worth, TX) and InnFocus (Miami, FL).

We are in search of a Contracts Manager to support contracting for Santen’s growing North America business operations. 

ABOUT THE POSITION:

This is an exciting opportunity to join our growing legal department and help refine our contracting process to deliver best-in-class service to our clients. The Contracts Manager position is responsible for supporting contracting within Santen’s Legal Department. Duties include review, management, and negotiation of contracts, conducting training for the business unit on the contracting process, and other special projects as requested by the Director of Legal and the Contracts Counsel.   This position reports to the Contracts Counsel and works in collaboration with other Legal and Compliance Operations team members to collaborate throughout the organization. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Independently manage a wide variety of contracts within Santen’s Contracts Management System (Coupa) during the entire contract lifecycle, including confidentiality, consulting, services, SOWs, license, SAS, clinical study, R&D, HCP, and other operational agreements. 
• Directly work with business stakeholders to assist in contractual and legal matters and provide guidance on Santen’s policies and procedures related to contracting.
• Draft and review agreements in a timely manner, working with business partners to obtain relevant information and provide guidance on contractual issues. Work to efficiently negotiate and finalize agreements. 
• Assist in identifying, developing, and defining operational process improvements to increase contracting efficiency.
• Assist the Director of Legal and Contracts Counsel in other projects and administrative matters as needed.  
• Assist with updates to standard contract templates, and training documents to optimize the contracts workflow. 
• Organize and conduct routine Contracts trainings of business teams to ensure internal compliance with legal processes.

 QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5+ years of contracts related experience with a minimum of 3 years in contracts management in an in-house or law firm setting. 
• Bachelor’s Degree, A.B.A Paralegal Certification strongly preferred.  J.D. preferred. 
• While a J.D. and other formal education are preferred, this role is open to candidates with and without formal education who have a comparable depth and breadth of legal contracts management training and experience.  
• Prior contracting experience in a fast-paced, high-volume, high-touch, in-house biotech or life sciences setting is strongly preferred. 
• Demonstrated ability to win the confidence of clients and to clearly explain complex legal matters to stakeholders. 
• Demonstrated ability to draft, negotiate and complete agreements with minimal supervision.   Solid understanding of contract issues and terms and the ability to independently identify issues and risks that require escalation to the Contracts Counsel.
• Experience engaging directly with external vendors in support of company legal counsel.
• Strong ability to work collaboratively and efficiently, including utilizing negotiation and persuasion skills to achieve objectives with individuals outside of the organization and collaborate with others within the legal department, as well as internal facing client functions.
• Demonstrated client service orientation: ability to recognize and respond quickly to urgent situations, exercising sound judgement in escalating critical matters as appropriate.
• High attention to detail, strong work ethic, ability to take initiative, and excellent time management and follow-through skills to manage a high volume of agreements while maintaining an excellent work product in a fast-paced environment.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills, including presentation capabilities.
• Hands-on decision-making acumen working with internal systems such as SAP, Coupa, or Concur highly desirable.
• Advanced proficiency with MS Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement: Santen requires anyone working on-site or visiting company offices to confirm they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious accommodation is timely requested and approved. Please reach out if you have questions or concerns about this policy and how it may apply to your candidacy for a role with Santen.

For more information about our company and the work experience, please visit www.santenusa.com.