Contract Specialist

Role: Contract Specialist
Department: Legal
Reports To: Chief Financial Officer, with day-to-day direction from General Counsel
Location: Herndon, Virginia (US) – Hybrid (minimum 3 days on site per week). Occasional travel to the UK, less than 20%
This is NOT a remote position. 

Role Overview 
As Assured continues to grow, the volume of contracts with customers, partners, and vendors is growing too, and so is the demand on General Counsel’s time.
The Contract Specialist will be the first point of contact for review of all contracts. This role triages incoming requests from sales, operations, and other teams. The Contract Specialist will, under the direction of the General Counsel, resolve routine matters using standardized, pre-approved language and current templates and escalate matters, as necessary, to the General Counsel.
The Contract Specialist will be responsible for maintaining Assured’s contract template repository and approved-language library, keeping them current and making sure the business uses the correct versions.  The Contract Specialist will work closely with the legal teams in the US and UK as well as with the CFO.
The role is based in our Herndon, VA office and requires a minimum of three (3) days per week on site.
Key Responsibilities

Contract Intake & Triage

• Serve as the first point of contact for contract review requests from sales, operations, and other internal teams.
• Establish and maintain a uniform method for submitting contracts for review, along with internal SLAs for turnaround times.
• Triage incoming requests by type, risk, and urgency, and route them appropriately.
• Confirm that each request uses the correct, current template. Identify expired or superseded versions and replace them.

Contract Review & Markup

• Review customer, partner, and vendor agreements, including NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, service descriptions, and SLAs, against Assured’s templates and approved-language library.
• Prepare redlines and tracked-changes markups using approved fallback positions.
• Compare successive drafts of contracts under negotiation and summarize the changes between versions.
• Perform a first review of Data Processing Agreements, Business Associate Agreements, and other compliance-related documents against approved positions.

Escalation to General Counsel

• Independently resolve routine matters that fall within pre-approved positions.
• Escalate matters, as necessary, to General Counsel and other decision makers, such as non-standard liability, indemnity, IP, data protection, and termination terms.
• Act as the escalation point for non-legal staff on standard contract questions.

Template Repository & Approved-Language Library

• Own and maintain Assured’s repository of contract templates, including version control, retirement of outdated templates, and communication of updates to the business.
• Maintain a library of approved clauses and fallback positions.
• Track recurring negotiation issues and recommend template or playbook updates.

Contract Administration & Reporting

• Validate executed contracts before they are entered into the contract database prior to execution, including checking signatures, dates, and final versions.
• Manage execution of contracts through e-signature platforms such as DocuSign and Adobe Sign.
• Maintain awareness of key contract dates, including renewals, expirations, and notice periods, in coordination with Client Services.
• Report to General Counsel and the CFO on contract status, volumes, turnaround times, and recurring issues.

Qualifications
Experience

• 2+ years of experience in contract review or contract management, either at a law firm specializing in technology or in-house at a technology company.
• Experience reviewing enterprise agreements, including licensing agreements, NDAs, master services agreements, partner agreements and compliance-related documents such as Business Associate Agreements and Data Processing Agreements.
• Demonstrated experience owning and maintaining a legal document or template repository, including version control.
• Experience at a Managed Services Provider or in the data protection or cloud services industry and working on government contracts is a plus.

Technical Skills

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Word, including tracked changes, document comparison, and redlining, and in Microsoft Excel.
• Proficiency with e-signature platforms such as DocuSign and Adobe Sign.
• Comfortable working with web-based document and contract management platforms.

Core Skills

• Sound judgment in reviewing legal and business terms, and in recognizing when an issue requires escalation to General Counsel or other senior leaders.
• Working knowledge of US contract principles.  Some familiarity with data privacy requirements, including UK and EU GDPR is a plus.
• Understanding of enterprise contracting workflows, from intake through execution.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain contract issues clearly to non-legal colleagues.
• Strong organizational and process management skills, with high attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience working with global legal teams.
• Experience working with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA.
• Experience building or improving contract intake processes, playbooks, or template libraries.
• Experience supporting sales organizations in a fast paced rapidly growing environment. 

Working with Compliance & InfoSec

Assured maintains SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 certifications and continues to expand its compliance program as customer and regulatory needs evolve. The Contract Specialist will support the Compliance team by:

• Responding to annual audit and evidence requests for legal documentation, including contracts, NDAs, BAAs, DPAs, partner agreements, and insurance documentation.
• Performing a first-pass review of Governance and Regulatory Control (GRC) team requests that have legal implications before they are escalated to General Counsel.
• Keeping contract records organized and audit-ready so that evidence can be produced promptly.

At Assured Data Protection we value diversity and inclusivity. We offer perks such as flex holidays, robust 401k plan, and flexible working practices to allow our employees to show up as their whole selves. We are an equal-opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.
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