Senior Contracts Manager, Corporate and IP Paralegal
Senti Biosciences
Legal
South San Francisco, CA, USA
Posted on Feb 4, 2025
Senti is seeking a Senior Contracts Manager, Corporate and IP Paralegal. Reporting to the SVP of Legal Affairs, the individual will be responsible for managing the company’s contracts process, all corporate paralegal and IP paralegal matters; providing management support for the administrative operations of the legal department; evaluating, implementing, and managing various processes and improvements based on best practices and business needs to enhance productivity of the legal team and to ensure delivery of high quality legal services to its corporate clients; performing other work under the supervision of attorneys, including coordinating and managing projects and matters across various legal practices for the legal team as required.
Responsibilities
- Management of Contracts and Legal Documents
- ● Prepare, review and negotiate a broad range of contracts, including confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, services agreements, clinical trial agreements
- ● Develop and maintain form agreements
- ● Create, maintain, file legal documents, correspondence, and files in support of corporate policies or in response to regulatory or governmental requests or requirements, including board and committee minutes and materials, and SEC filings
- Management of Legal Processes
- ● Evaluate, recommend, and lead the implementation of changes to legal processes, as appropriate, that align with the corporate objectives and that are aimed at enhancing productivity and efficiency of the legal operations and legal services to client
- ● Evaluate, recommend, and maintain key performance indicators as metrics to establish performance standards and to ensure that the established standards are met by the legal team
- Management of technology solutions/systems tools
- ● Manage appropriate contracts with vendors to maintain and support the technology solutions/systems tools used by the legal team; periodically evaluate systems used by the legal team to determine whether changes in the systems are merited based on cost, operations requirements, and improved efficiency
- ● Serve as the systems administrator for one or more technology solutions/systems tools utilized by the legal team
- ● Project manage implementation of new systems tools or updates as required
- ● Serve as the legal liaison with IT (internal and consultants) to ensure continued operation of the technology solutions/systems tools
- Management of Client Services
- ● Serve as the primary legal contact for the corporate clients on matters relating generally to legal processes
- ● Manage and maintain training programs for employees relating to legal operations, including legal on-boarding training for new-employees and periodic refresher training for all employees, to ensure that corporate clients are knowledgeable about legal requirements and processes
- ● Handle other activities that promote or enhance legal team’s visibility and image within the company
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree and Paralegal Certificate, or JD
- Minimum of 10+ years’ experience in contracts negotiations, corporate paralegal and IP paralegal practice
- Experience at a law firm and/or in-house at publicly traded biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies a plus
- Motivated and extremely detail oriented, especially when managing sensitive legal information
- Ability to support and work closely with a high functioning team, but also successfully work independently without direction in a fast-pace, high volume environment
- Strong organization and planning skills
- Ability to work and coordinate effectively with broad cross-functional clients and teams, including R&D, Tech Ops, BD, and G&A
- Flexible in adapting to changing priorities and be able to handle several tasks at one time
- Excellent communication and organizational skills, and ability to meet deadlines
- Proficient with computer applications and software, including MS Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook), Google Docs, Slack, Box and contracts lifecycle management systems
- Review and edit written materials to ensure that prepared materials accurately and clearly present the information documented
- Knowledge of operations of a legal department and legal terminology
- Willingness to learn and assume new responsibilities over time
- Life Science industry/setting experience a plus
Salary and Benefits
- Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual target bonus and equity
- The base salary range for this role is $155,000-$170,000. Starting pay is determined by multiple job-related factors including a candidate’s skills, education and experience level, benchmark, and internal parity
- Significant growth opportunity as the company expands
- Empathetic, supportive and collaborative colleagues and work environments