Paralegal V – Commercial Contracts (Contracts Manager)

Applied Materials•Santa Clara, CA

16h

About The Position

Applied Materials is seeking an experienced Paralegal V – Commercial Contracts to provide 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 develops scalable playbooks, workflows, resources, and responsible AI-enabled contracting solutions for a global, matrixed environment. The role has no formal people-management responsibility and requires travel about 10% of the time. Relocation is available.

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.
Sound judgment when handling confidential and privileged information, and use of technology and AI tools in accordance with Legal, privacy, security, and records-management requirements.
Ability to communicate effectively with customers, counsel, sales leaders, account teams, subject-matter experts, and other stakeholders across regions.
Ability to operate independently with minimal supervision, proactively identify risks and process improvements, and balance legal risk, business objectives, customer relationships, and efficiency.

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, 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.
Lead customer negotiations, identify legal and commercial risks, propose practical alternatives, and escalate material deviations, novel issues, or matters outside established parameters with decision-ready recommendations.
Apply U.S. Government contracting knowledge, including FAR and DFARS requirements, 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 improve contract templates, clause libraries, negotiation playbooks, job aids, training, and responsible AI-enabled contracting resources and workflows.
Partner with internal stakeholders and coordinate with outside counsel and vendors as needed.