Associate Senior Counsel-Procurement Law

The Associate Senior Counsel – Procurement Law Team position provides enterprise wide support and guidance for global commercial contracting activities, with an emphasis on health, wellness and digital related contracts and international matters.  The position will work closely with Legal, Compliance, and business colleagues and will report directly to the Associate Chief Counsel Enterprise Corporate Law.

The position requires an ability to negotiate and draft contract terms across a wide area of contracts, ensure that contracts meet compliance/governance requirements and work with clients at all level on a daily basis.  Candidates must have knowledge and expertise in contract drafting, compliance, risk evaluation and management of third-party relationships and disputes. 

The role will involve the following:  

• Contract Drafting and Negotiations:  Lead in drafting and negotiating contract terms, templates and guidelines for contracting, including standard alternative clauses
• Understanding of Privacy Laws:  Deep understanding of the intersection of global privacy laws in healthcare, pharmacy and health digital services related industries
• International Contracting:  Ability and experience in work with international Legal colleagues on contracting and related issues
• Collaboration:  Work collaboratively with clients, Legal colleagues and matrix partners to advance contracting work
• Innovation and Intellectual Property:  Strong focus on working on contracts involving innovations and associated intellectual property issues
• Risk Management and Compliance:  Identification, evaluation and reporting on potential risk risks in connection with commercial contracting; meeting with senior management concerning key risk issues

• Training, Education and Presentations:  Ability to develop and provide training to all levels of the organization; strong presentation skills, including the ability to present to senior management

Responsibilities:

• Negotiate various types of licensing and services transactions with domestic and international suppliers with a focus on limiting Cigna’s liability, protecting Cigna’s confidentiality and intellectual property rights and protecting Cigna members’ and employees’ privacy rights.
• Negotiate resolutions to disputed vendor license and contract matters consistent with Cigna’s objectives.
• Maintain and update a set of approved contract templates for use by Cigna Global Procurement operations
• Create and present training materials on contracting and related matters to the Global Procurement team and other contracting staff, product development professionals
• Routinely look for creative interpretations or application of law
• Effectively matrix with critical business partners, including Compliance, Privacy, Information Technology, operations and Corporate/Business Development
• Manage outside counsel on discrete matters as may be required
• Share knowledge and skills in areas of subject matter expertise with other Cigna legal counsel as requested, in keeping with our collaborative environment.
• Lead discussions of stakeholders to gather information and input to achieve goals
• Working with Legal, Compliance and business clients in developing, implementing, and coordinating contracting and governance strategies
• Proactively identify risks of non-compliance applicable to third-party contracts

Required Skills

• J.D., bar membership with minimum 8+ years’ experience
• Exceptional integrity, critical thinking, and ability to lead
• Prior in-house experience preferred
• Strong preference for deep experience in  healthcare and digital services contracts, including cloud agreements
• Strong knowledge of regulatory environment affecting business, including HIPAA and related health care and pharmacy regulations
• Demonstrated contract drafting experience
• Comfortable working with ambiguity.  Flexible with the ability to adapt to change quickly and lead others through the change management process
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to tailor written and verbal communication across a variety of audiences, including demonstrated ability to provide leadership level reporting
• Proven track record of program management, including effective leadership and on time execution of strategic and tactical objective
• Demonstrated ability to work independently while managing multiple projects and priorities
• Demonstrated ability to identify issues, explain impacts and propose solutions for process improvement
• A highly collaborative self-starter with strong worth ethic, sense of urgency and a willingness to learn new areas and regulatory