Commercial Operations Lead

Company Description

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.

Job Description

The Commercial Operations Lead 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 ide