Legal and Contracts Operations Manager

Striveworks • Austin, TX

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

This role takes ownership of the execution life cycle for company legal operations, public sector contracts, and federal compliance. Operating as a critical individual contributor, you will have primary responsibility for the systematic triage, review, evaluation, and management of a broad range of agreement types—including customer contracts and subcontracts, teaming and partnership agreements, software license agreements, vendor agreements, and NDAs. You will turn complex contractual and regulatory requirements into clear, practical instructions for our operational teams, directly enabling excellent execution, protecting the company’s intellectual property, and managing risk. You will have primary responsibility for maintaining databases, optimizing tracking workflows, and building out a scalable internal legal function. You will collaborate heavily across teams—including business development, engineering, security, IT, and company leadership—to ensure that the company operates and expands responsibly and efficiently.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree and 3–7 years of professional experience in a corporate legal department or with a technology company or defense contractor focusing on legal operations, paralegal duties, or contract management.
• Direct experience executing initial document triage and comprehensive review of commercial and public sector agreements.
• Experience handling basic agreement term negotiations directly with counterparties.
• Proficiency analyzing, logging, and tracking Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and DFARS clauses, with a clear understanding of how to translate clause requirements into concrete internal actions.
• Experience implementing or administering process improvements for contract life cycle management.
• Exceptional attention to detail, document drafting skills, professional maturity, and excellent communication capabilities.
• A process-oriented mindset and a highly diligent approach to managing sensitive information.
• Eligibility and willingness to obtain and maintain a Secret US security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• A formal Paralegal Certificate from an ABA-approved program or a Certified Legal Operations Professional (CLOP) designation.
• Tech sector fluency, specifically with reviewing software licensing frameworks, End User License Agreements (EULAs), and third-party AI tool usage terms.
• Experience with export control frameworks, such as tracking Export Administration Regulations (EAR), International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), or managing export compliance gates.
• Baseline administrative exposure to patent processing.
• Experience with employment law.
• Experience establishing and maturing a legal function within a growth-stage startup.
• Direct experience selecting and implementing a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform.
• Exposure to verifying or cross-mapping company practices against advanced compliance frameworks like NIST SP 800-171 or CMMC 2.0.
• Familiarity with Department of Defense (DOD) contracts and defense industry regulatory frameworks, including the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM).

Responsibilities

• Systematic triage, review, evaluation, and management of a broad range of agreement types (customer contracts and subcontracts, teaming and partnership agreements, software license agreements, vendor agreements, and NDAs).
• Translating complex contractual and regulatory requirements into clear, practical instructions for operational teams.
• Maintaining databases, optimizing tracking workflows, and building out a scalable internal legal function.
• Collaborating across business development, engineering, security, IT, and company leadership.

Benefits

• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Voluntary life, long-term disability, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance
• HSA and FSA (including dependent care FSA) plans
• 401(k) plan
• Unlimited PTO
• Paid parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level