Contracts Manager

dentsu•Southfield, MI

9d•$72,000 - $120,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The US Media Practice Area at dentsu seeks a detail-oriented, proactive, and service-minded Contract Manager to provide both administrative and legal support to a fast-paced team focused on complex commercial work in media, advertising, data, and technology. This role is dedicated to the US Media Practice Area and will support contract lifecycle management, operational excellence initiatives, governance and compliance programs, and day-to-day legal operations. The successful candidate will be energized by solving operational challenges at scale, partnering closely with attorneys and business teams, and leveraging technology and process discipline to enable a connected, consistent, and compliant legal function.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and/or paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved program preferred, or equivalent practical experience supporting commercial legal teams.
A keen interest in the media, advertising, data, and technology sectors is essential.
A minimum of 3-5 years experience supporting commercial transactions and legal operations in a corporate or law firm environment, ideally involving marketing, media, advertising, data, intellectual property, privacy, or technology.
Demonstrated ability to review contract terms against templates/playbooks, manage concurrent workflows, and exercise sound judgment under time pressure.
Proficiency with contract lifecycle management and matter management tools (preferably LawVu or comparable CLM systems) and comfort with legal technology, analytics, and reporting.
Exceptional attention to detail, organization, and follow-through; a client-service mindset and the ability to collaborate effectively across teams and jurisdictions; and excellent written and verbal communication skills, including with senior stakeholders.
Familiarity with approval matrices and RACI/DOA frameworks.
Experience supporting legal holds, records retention, and policy deployment.
Exposure to technology and digital product governance and related training coordination.
Experience partnering with commercial and operations teams in a matrixed environment

Responsibilities

Contracting and Commercial Operations Support Support the drafting, review, and administration of a wide range of commercial agreements and related documentation, working from templates and playbooks and coordinating cross-functional input as needed.
Manage contract intake, version control, signature processes, and archival in accordance with legal team protocols.
Prepare initial markups using guidance, escalate issues appropriately, and assist with redline reconciliation and document comparison.
Support team lawyers in negotiating and executing legal agreements and the review of contractual terms.
Maintain and apply contract approval matrices, delegations of authority, and RACI frameworks for the US Media PA Legal Technology and Knowledge Enablement Serve as point of contact for matter and contract workflows in the team’s CLM and matter management tools.
Create, maintain, and close matters; ensure complete and accurate metadata; and generate regular reports for contracts and matters.
Support adoption, usage goals, and performance reporting aligned to Legal & Compliance metrics.
Perform legal research and contribute to knowledge sharing and process improvements, including showcasing legal technology use cases that drive efficiency and measurable impact, cite checking, and preparation of summaries and issue spotters for attorney review.
Governance, Integrity, and Policy Deployment Assist with the publication, communication, and tracking of Legal & Compliance policies and related awareness campaigns.
Support leadership communications that reinforce a culture of compliance and model ethics and integrity across the function.
Emerging Technology and Digital Governance Support Provide coordination and documentation support for responsible technology and digital governance initiatives.
Assist with communications, training logistics, and template publication; help track approvals, guidance updates, and regulatory developments.
Help implement best practices in compliance, contract management, intellectual property, data privacy, within the US Media PA.
Administrative Support and Document Management Perform general administrative duties, including meeting notes, status trackers, team communications, and processing invoices.
Ensure that matter files are kept up to date with correspondence and documents; support document comparison and version control; and assist with deck building and proofreading for internal and external audiences.