Paralegal V – Commercial Contracts (Contracts Manager)

Applied Materials • Washington, DC

1d • $140,000 - $192,500

About The Position

Applied Materials is seeking an experienced Paralegal V – Commercial Contracts to lead frontline contracts and account support for commercial customers, acquisition integrations, U.S. Government customers and prime contractors, and at least one key managed North American customer. Under attorney supervision, this senior individual contributor independently drafts, negotiates, and manages complex customer agreements and builds scalable playbooks, workflows, resources, and responsible AI-enabled contracting solutions in a global, matrixed environment. The role has no formal people-management responsibility and includes travel of approximately 10%.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 8–12+ years of progressively responsible experience as a contracts manager, senior paralegal, or similar contracting professional, with substantial responsibility for drafting and negotiating complex customer agreements.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead customer negotiations, manage complex and non-routine agreements, exercise sound judgment, and escalate appropriately to attorneys or subject-matter experts.
• Significant experience negotiating with or on behalf of U.S. Government contractors and deep working knowledge of FAR, DFARS, government-contract flowdowns, and federal subcontracting practices.
• Exceptional drafting, issue-spotting, negotiation, organizational, and communication skills, including the ability to translate complex risks into practical business recommendations.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment with confidential and privileged information.
• Ability to operate independently with minimal supervision.

Nice To Haves

• Paralegal certificate or equivalent legal training.
• Experience supporting technology, capital equipment, manufacturing, or semiconductor businesses and negotiating equipment, services, software, data, and intellectual property terms.
• Experience supporting customer contracts across jurisdictions and working effectively across time zones and cultures.
• Experience building and implementing contract playbooks, clause libraries, templates, training, knowledge resources, and scalable contracting processes.
• Hands-on experience with CLM, e-signature, contract analytics, and AI-assisted drafting or review tools, including responsible use, testing, governance, and continuous improvement.
• Experience working with sales, supply chain, and/or procurement organizations.
• Exposure to regulated commercial environments or export-controlled businesses.

Responsibilities

• Independently draft, review, and negotiate complex customer agreements, including equipment and service sales agreements, software and cloud agreements, purchase-order terms, complex commercial pricing and incentive agreements, NDAs, SOWs, JDAs, amendments, and related technology transactions.
• Lead frontline contracts and account support for commercial customers, acquisition integrations, U.S. Government customers and prime contractors, and at least one key managed North American customer, coordinating with supervising attorneys and subject-matter experts as needed.
• Lead negotiations with customers and their counsel; identify legal and commercial risks, propose practical alternatives, and escalate material deviations, novel issues, or matters outside established parameters with concise, decision-ready recommendations.
• Apply knowledge of U.S. Government contracting, including FAR and DFARS requirements, mandatory and risk-based flowdowns, representations and certifications, compliance obligations, intellectual property and data rights, audit and recordkeeping requirements, and prime and subcontractor practices.
• Manage the end-to-end contract lifecycle, including intake, drafting, negotiation, approvals, execution, and post-execution obligations.
• Serve as the Legal point of contact for designated business and account teams.
• Lead or support contracting programs and process improvements, including template and workflow optimization.
• Develop and continuously improve contract templates, clause libraries, negotiation playbooks, job aids, training, and responsible AI-enabled contracting resources and workflows.
• Partner directly with internal stakeholders and coordinate with outside counsel and vendors as needed.
• Use technology and AI tools in accordance with Legal, privacy, security, and records-management requirements.
• Communicate effectively with customers, counsel, sales leaders, account teams, subject-matter experts, and other stakeholders across regions.
• Proactively identify risks and process improvement opportunities, balancing legal risk, business objectives, customer relationships, and efficiency.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package
• Candidates may be eligible for participation in a bonus program and a stock award program, as applicable.
• Relocation eligible

What This Job Offers

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