Legal and Contracts Operations Specialist

Aleut Federal•Reston, VA

4d•$85,000 - $100,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Legal and Contracts Operations Specialist is an experienced, hands-on individual contributor providing broad paralegal and legal operations support across Aleut Federal and affiliated entities. The role is a central resource for outside counsel administration, legal spend management, matter tracking, corporate governance, entity records, contract and transaction support, claims and disputes, legal research, and legal file management. A principal focus is managing outside counsel engagement documentation, matter budgets, invoice review, accruals, spend reporting, payment coordination, and supporting records so Legal and business leadership can understand commitments, forecast costs, and make informed decisions. The position also provides flexible support for complex or time-sensitive legal and contractual matters under the direction of the General Counsel, another licensed attorney, or designated Legal leadership. It requires independent judgment in managing assignments, identifying issues, protecting confidential and privileged information, and escalating matters requiring attorney review. The role does not provide independent legal advice. Work is generally performed indoors in a professional office or home-office environment. This is a hybrid position, with work performed remotely or onsite according to business needs. Occasional travel may be required for company meetings, outside counsel meetings, hearings, closings, training, or professional development. Salary range is $85,000 to $100,000. Resumes will be accepted until December 11, 2026, or until the position is filled.

Requirements

Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience as a corporate paralegal, senior paralegal, legal operations specialist, or comparable legal support professional.
Direct experience managing outside counsel invoices, matter budgets, accruals, spend reporting, and billing guideline compliance.
Experience with corporate governance, entity maintenance, board or officer actions, annual filings, and corporate record books.
Experience supporting contract review, drafting, redlining, execution, and post-signature obligation tracking.
Ability to build reliable legal intake, matter-tracking, calendaring, approval, reporting, and file-management processes.
Strong command of outside counsel engagement terms, invoice review, accruals, budgets, forecasting, variance analysis, and spend reporting.
Ability to maintain entity records and coordinate recurring filings, approvals, resolutions, minutes, and organizational actions.
Ability to research, draft, redline, compare, organize, and track legal and contractual materials under attorney direction.
Ability to manage multiple matters, deadlines, stakeholders, and workstreams from intake through closure.
Ability to identify material issues, distinguish administrative work from attorney judgment, and escalate promptly.
Ability to reconcile financial and matter data, identify inconsistencies, analyze trends, and produce decision-ready reporting.
Must be able to remain in a stationary position for prolonged periods, perform repetitive tasks or motions for prolonged periods, and communicate and exchange information effectively in person and electronically.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in paralegal studies, legal studies, business administration, or a related field preferred; an associate degree or paralegal certificate combined with significant directly relevant experience may substitute for a bachelor's degree.
Paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved or otherwise recognized program preferred.
Continuing education in corporate governance, legal operations, contract administration, e-billing, litigation support, or records management is beneficial.
Experience supporting an in-house legal department or serving as the primary paralegal or legal operations resource for a multi-entity organization strongly preferred.
Experience supporting claims, disputes, investigations, litigation, legal holds, discovery, or insurance matters preferred.
Experience supporting acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, due diligence, closing activities, or other corporate transactions is beneficial.
Experience in a federal contractor, regulated company, Alaska Native Corporation, or other complex multi-entity enterprise preferred but not required.
Experience with legal e-billing or matter-management systems, SharePoint, contract repositories, electronic signature platforms, and advanced Microsoft Excel strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Coordinate legal matter intake, triage, assignment, tracking, documentation, and closure across multiple entities and business units; maintain matter inventories, calendars, reports, and dashboards.
Establish and maintain matter-opening and matter-closing procedures, documentation standards, file structures, approval requirements, and naming conventions.
Coordinate legal support requests, gather facts and documents, clarify business deadlines, route work to appropriate resources, and coordinate meetings, approvals, signatures, and follow-up.
Administer outside counsel engagements, including engagement letters, conflict-clearance documentation, matter numbers, billing contacts, approved staffing and rates, budgets, billing guidelines, scope changes, and closeout.
Review outside counsel invoices for accuracy, coding, approved rates and timekeepers, staffing, duplicate or unsupported charges, billing practices, and compliance with engagement terms; document exceptions and coordinate corrections and approvals.
Coordinate with Accounts Payable, Finance, Procurement, business owners, and outside counsel to resolve vendor, coding, approval, tax, purchase-order, and payment issues.
Track invoiced, approved, paid, unpaid, committed, unbilled, and accrued amounts; obtain accruals and cost-to-complete estimates; support financial close; monitor budgets and forecast spend; investigate variances and escalate concerns.
Prepare outside counsel spend dashboards, forecasts, variance analyses, trend reports, and management summaries; support rate negotiations, alternative fee arrangements, panel reviews, and vendor performance assessments.
Maintain audit-ready records of engagements, approvals, invoices, reductions, payments, accruals, budgets, and related correspondence.
Maintain corporate records for Aleut Federal and assigned subsidiaries, including formation and governing documents, ownership records, resolutions, consents, minutes, officer and director information, and organizational charts.
Prepare draft board, shareholder, member, manager, and officer actions under approved forms and attorney direction; coordinate review, approvals, signatures, records, meeting materials, calendars, action logs, and follow-up.
Track and coordinate entity filings and maintenance, including annual reports, foreign qualifications, certificates of good standing, registered-agent matters, assumed names, and business licenses; maintain an entity database.
Support entity formations, mergers, conversions, dissolutions, reorganizations, officer or ownership changes, and other corporate actions under attorney direction; coordinate notarization, apostille, legalization, certified copies, and document execution as needed.
Provide advanced paralegal and legal operations support for contractual, corporate, employment, regulatory, dispute, and transactional matters under attorney or Legal leadership direction.
Support review and administration of higher-risk business agreements; conduct factual and legal research; prepare issue summaries, chronologies, comparison charts, drafts, redlines, notices, correspondence, and ancillary documents for attorney review.
Identify deviations from approved templates, contracting positions, and delegated authority; maintain approved legal positions, negotiated exceptions, fallback language, clause libraries, templates, and playbooks.
Track contractual notices, consent requirements, renewal and termination dates, cure periods, settlement obligations, document requests, and other post-signature commitments assigned to Legal.
Support reorganizations, acquisitions, divestitures, novations, due diligence, data-room administration, closing checklists, signature collection, and post-closing obligations.
Coordinate administrative support for claims, demand letters, subpoenas, disputes, investigations, employment and insurance matters, litigation, administrative proceedings, and government inquiries.
Collect and organize relevant facts and records; prepare chronologies, witness and custodian lists, document indexes, issue summaries, damages support, and status reports.
Coordinate legal holds and preservation notices with counsel, Information Technology, Human Resources, and records owners; support document collection, review, production, discovery, depositions, hearings, mediation, arbitration, and trial preparation.
Track response deadlines, settlement obligations, insurance notifications, reserves, outside counsel activities, and required business actions through closure; coordinate with stakeholders while protecting privilege.
Maintain organized, complete, secure electronic and physical legal files in accordance with company requirements, retention schedules, legal holds, and access restrictions.
Apply consistent file naming, document classification, metadata, version control, and final-execution standards in approved systems; protect privileged, confidential, personally identifiable, and other sensitive information.
Maintain executed agreements, legal opinions, settlement documents, corporate records, engagement letters, invoices, and other critical records; coordinate file transfer, archiving, and closure.
Support authorized audits, due diligence requests, discovery obligations, and records inquiries by locating and validating responsive materials.
Develop and maintain Legal procedures, guides, intake forms, checklists, templates, approval workflows, and service standards; identify opportunities to simplify intake, automate tracking, improve data quality, and strengthen cost controls.
Develop metrics for matter volume, cycle time, outside counsel spend, budget performance, workload, deadline performance, and service delivery.
Provide internal guidance and training on legal intake, document preservation, privilege, signature routing, entity records, outside counsel billing documentation, and approved templates.
Promote timely collaboration among Legal, Contracts, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, Operations, and executive leadership; perform other Legal function duties and special projects as assigned.