ESSC Strategic Agreement Manager

General Motors • Warren, MI

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Agreements Manager serves as a key bridge between Legal, Business, and Procurement, providing expert guidance on complex commercial agreements, compliance, and risk. This role drives end-to-end governance of strategic agreements—from structuring and negotiation through approval, execution, monitoring, and renewal—ensuring business objectives are achieved while appropriately managing legal, regulatory, and commercial risk.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Business, Finance, Supply Chain, or related field
• 5+ years of experience in contracts, commercial/legal, strategic sourcing, or business development roles involving complex agreements.
• Demonstrated experience in structuring, negotiating, and managing strategic or enterprise-level agreements.
• Strong working knowledge of contract law, commercial terms, risk allocation, and compliance frameworks.
• Proven track record of influencing cross-functional stakeholders and senior leaders in a matrixed, global environment.

Nice To Haves

• 5+ years experience: Business & Legal Acumen: Ability to connect legal language to business impact and strategic objectives.
• 2+ years experience: Risk & Compliance Mindset: Strong analytical skills for risk identification, quantification, and mitigation.
• 5+ years experience: Negotiation & Influence: Skilled negotiator with the ability to reach durable, win-win solutions under time and stakeholder pressure.
• 2+ years experience: Conflict Resolution: Calm, structured approach to resolving disputes and performance issues.
• Communication: Clear written and verbal communicator; able to simplify complexity for diverse audiences, including executives.
• Collaboration: Effective at working across Legal, Purchasing, Finance, Engineering, Operations, and external partners.
• Organization & Detail: Strong documentation skills, and follow-through; able to manage multiple agreements and priorities simultaneously.
• Change Leadership & Training: Comfortable leading trainings, workshops, and adoption of new processes or standards.

Responsibilities

• Translate legal, contractual, and regulatory requirements into clear, actionable guidance for business and technical leaders.
• Advise leadership on deal structures, commercial models, and strategic options, highlighting legal and risk implications.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, Accounting, Treasury, Tax, and other stakeholders to align agreements with corporate policies and strategic priorities.
• Establish, maintain, and continuously improve governance frameworks for strategic agreements (playbooks, checklists, approval paths, templates).
• Ensure compliance with internal policies (e.g., Delegation of Authority, sourcing and approval processes) and applicable laws/regulations.
• Lead or support internal reviews and audits of contract practices, documentation, and approvals; close gaps through corrective actions.
• Proactively assess and articulate risk exposure across key dimensions (commercial, operational, legal, regulatory, IP, data/privacy, ESG, reputational).
• Develop and negotiate risk-mitigation strategies (indemnities, limitations of liability, SLAs, KPIs, step-in rights, exit and transition mechanisms, governance bodies).
• Maintain a clear view of portfolio-level risks across major agreements and escalate strategic issues to leadership with recommended actions.
• Serve as lead or co-lead negotiator (or negotiation strategist) on complex and/or high-value agreements.
• Prepare negotiation strategies, term sheets, and fallback positions in partnership with Legal and business owners.
• Manage and resolve commercial disputes, performance issues, and contractual conflicts, driving constructive, business-focused outcomes while protecting company interests.
• Oversee contract lifecycle management for strategic agreements (intake, drafting, redlines, approvals, execution, archiving, amendments, renewals, termination).
• Define and track key contract obligations, milestones, and performance metrics; ensure owners are assigned and accountable.
• Implement monitoring and reporting mechanisms (dashboards, periodic reviews) for status, compliance, performance, and upcoming decision points.
• Design and deliver training and education for business, engineering, and purchasing teams on contracts, risk, compliance, and negotiation best practices.
• Develop guides, playbooks, and standard toolkits (e.g., clause libraries, negotiation scripts, checklists) to scale strategic agreement capabilities across the organization.
• Mentor junior staff and peer stakeholders on contract literacy, issue-spotting, and escalation paths.
• Lead or coordinate the end-to-end approval process for strategic agreements, ensuring required stakeholders and governance bodies are properly engaged.
• Prepare and present executive-ready materials (deal summaries, risk assessments, recommendation memos) to decision-making forums.
• Support special strategic initiatives (e.g., new partnership models, new market entries, transformational programs) by designing and implementing appropriate contract and governance structures.

Benefits

• From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

What This Job Offers

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