Manager Strategic Contracting Operations

Surescripts

39d • Hybrid

About The Position

Surescripts serves the nation through simpler, trusted health intelligence sharing, in order to increase patient safety, lower costs and ensure quality care. We deliver insights at critical points of care for better decisions — from streamlining prior authorizations to delivering comprehensive medication histories to facilitating messages between providers. Job Summary: The Manager, Strategic Contracting Operations serves as a Life Sciences–focused contracting leader, partnering with Sales, Account Management, Legal, and Finance to execute the end-to-end contracting process for pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers. This position plays a critical role in enabling efficient, scalable growth in the Life Sciences market by ensuring contracting practices align with the expectations, operating norms, and regulatory environment of large pharma manufacturers. This includes supporting timely deal execution, consistent application of standard terms, and a high-quality customer experience across all customer agreements. The role will function as a central contracting hub: streamlining execution, supporting deal velocity, reducing rework, and enabling predictable outcomes for both customers and internal stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• 8+ years of experience working within or opposite pharma procurement organizations, with familiarity across common contracting constructs and market-standard terms
• Executive presence and gravitas: credible and effective communicator with senior decision-makers at large pharma customers as well as internal leaders.
• Highly structured, calm, and composed; able to bring clarity and discipline to complex or ambiguous contracting scenarios
• Comfortable exercising judgment and maintaining forward momentum in complex, time-sensitive commercial environments
• Detail-obsessed and rigorous in documentation, version control, and compliance adherence.
• Commercially savvy – understands how contract structures impact revenue, risk, and customer success.
• Process-builder who thrives in environments evolving to systematic, standardized contracting practices.
• Demonstrated ability to quarterback complex, multi-party contracting processes with speed, rigor, and attention to detail.
• Proven success drafting, negotiating, and structuring agreements involving healthcare data / analytics, data rights and usage, RWD / RWE offerings, technology or interoperability services, licensing, and commercial service arrangements.
• Proficiency with CPQ and contract lifecycle management systems
• Strong understanding of regulatory, compliance, and data-governance frameworks (HIPAA, GxP, 21 CFR Part 11, data-sharing restrictions).

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with payer or provider organizations, especially where contracting intersects with data exchange, medication access, or clinical workflow adoption.
• Familiarity with market dynamics and procurement processes across health plans, PBMs, and IDNs.
• Direct experience supporting commercial operations, HEOR/analytics, medical affairs, or market access teams.

Responsibilities

• Customer-Facing Contracting & Procurement Engagement Lead contracting activities for new business, upsell/cross-sell, renewals, and data rights agreements, interfacing directly with customer procurement, legal, compliance, and commercial operations teams.
• Manage drafting, redlining, negotiation, and execution of complex agreements, particularly for pharma data, analytics, RWD/RWE, interoperability, API-based services, and technology-enabled commercial solutions.
• Apply commercial judgment and market awareness to support productive negotiations, balancing appropriate risk management with responsiveness to customer context and industry norms.
• Maintain efficient forward momentum across negotiations by proactively driving clarity, alignment, and disciplined process management.
• Ensure contract terms protect Surescripts while aligning with customer objectives, regulatory requirements, and long-term partnership goals.
• Quote Development & Deal Structuring Support Advise Sales and Account Management during quote development to ensure alignment between commercial intent and Surescripts’ standard business terms, pricing guidelines, and approved contracting constructs.
• Support clear articulation of pricing structures, data rights, usage permissions, and implementation scope to enable efficient contract drafting and review.
• Ensure all deal inputs are complete, compliant, and consistent before the contract request enters Legal review.
• Contracting Playbook Leadership & Standardization Maintain, update, and enforce the contracting playbook, partnering closely with Legal, Sales, Account management, and the Director of Sales Operations.
• Ensure the playbook reflects the needs of Surescripts’ customers, with clearly defined templates, fallback positions, and negotiation guidelines that support consistent execution across customer types and deal structures.
• Identify and lead process enhancements that improve cycle time, reduce rework, and increase contracting throughput.
• Internal Coordination & Escalation Lead day-to-day coordination with Legal, engaging as appropriate to navigate non-standard terms, regulatory considerations, and complex negotiations.
• Prepare complete, accurate, and context-rich instructions for Legal, including commercial intent, billing models, data usage requirements, and relevant customer considerations.
• Coordinate with Finance on risk management and escalation decisions related to new terms, pricing structures, and complex or strategic agreements.
• Support informed, timely decision-making by clearly outlining options, trade-offs, and recommended paths forward.
• Consolidate SME input from Privacy, Information Security, Product, Finance, and Commercialization, and communicate clearly back to Legal and Sales.
• Ensure comprehensive documentation of contract decisions, approval pathways, and risk mitigation actions.
• Disseminate updates on new terms, templates, and legal requirements to Sales and the broader organization.
• Team Management (Player-Coach Role) Provide direction, coaching, quality review, and professional development for the Contracting Lead.
• Allocate workloads appropriately across standard and custom contracting tasks, ensuring high-value deals receive priority.
• Serve as the escalation point for the Contracting Lead on customer redlines, contract interpretation, prioritization challenges, and internal alignment, reinforcing consistent application of contracting standards and best practices.
• Model best practices in communication cadence, negotiation support, documentation rigor, and stakeholder management.
• Systems, Documentation & Operational Excellence Meet agreed-upon SLAs on turnaround times, and set appropriate expectations with Sales and Account Management and customers.
• Manage contracting workflows in Salesforce CPQ and CLM (e.g., DocuSign CLM), ensuring accuracy of contract metadata, version history, and audit trails.
• Partner with Sales Operations and other stakeholders to support ongoing enhancements that enable standardized contract generation, reporting, and scalability.
• Ensure contract–quote–billing alignment and coordinate with Billing/RevOps to ensure timely revenue activation.

Benefits

• comprehensive healthcare (including infertility coverage)
• generous paid time off including paid childbirth and parental leave and mental health days
• pet insurance
• 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees