Senior Manager - Contracts Lifecycle Management

Harbor’s Corporate Legal Solutions practice group is the leading provider of legal technology professional services for corporate law departments. This world-class team possesses a deep understanding of technology application for optimal client return. Our services provide clients with the insights and skills needed to review, understand, implement, and successfully deploy technology and supporting business processes to achieve their goals. Our partnerships with leading legal technology providers allow clients to benefit from our product-specific expertise and gain new market perspectives along the way. 

Harbor is seeking a Senior Manager to join our dynamic Contracts team. Our team is at the forefront of innovation and delivery for our corporate legal department clients, with deep experience in assessing contracting processes and technology, developing technology roadmaps, system selection and implementation, data migration, and change management. We work with leading CLM, Contract Intelligence, and AI vendors allowing clients to benefit from our product-specific expertise and market perspective. We serve both as advisors and as experienced, scalable hands-on resources, collaborating with our clients to contain risk and cost through operational improvement, efficient data management, and technology usage.   

We are seeking someone who has a wide range of CLM and contracting AI technology assessment, design planning and implementation experience. We will rely on you to lead/co-lead the initiation, execution, and delivery for a variety of technology projects and initiatives. You will oversee and mentor associate-level individuals, providing guidance, instruction, and oversight in driving the completion of deliverables and commitments. You will embody core Harbor values by providing an excellent customer experience, developing current and future client relationships through service delivery that exceeds client expectations. You will participate in business development and marketing activities to support the continued growth of the team and Harbor.  

This role’s primary focus is CLM readiness and technology planning, system selection, and implementation.  More specifically, this role will be assisting corporate legal departments build or enhance their legal operations function by deploying technology, refining contracting processes, and integrating generative AI processes and principles. 

Job Duties and Responsibilities: 

Client and Project Management 

• Leverage subject matter expertise to assess contracting processes & technology to provide objective guidance and recommendations on solutions to implement in support of client system evaluation processes. 
• Serve as the lead project manager for implementation projects, including creating and maintaining project schedules and work/staffing plans, managing the project budget and scope, forecasting resourcing, providing routine status updates, scheduling workshops, and managing client billables and invoicing. 
• Facilitate workshops with client stakeholders to gather, document, and prioritize business and technical requirements, including business process modeling, integration, security, migration, and reporting; provide subject matter expertise on industry best practices and tool capabilities. 
• Advise clients on how to best integrate their existing technologies together to enhance their overarching legal operations function; design technology-enabled processes and system integrations to create innovative yet practical solution frameworks. 
• Directly contribute to and oversee all process mapping, data analysis, drafting of project deliverables, and configuration of solutions. 
• Oversee system configuration and testing to ensure solution setup meets design specifications and customer business process goals. 
• Map data between any source system(s) and/or data repositories and the new technology solution; support migration and migration validation processes. 
• Define and orchestrate the change management strategy and effort needed to ensure enduring change, strong user adoption, and a seamless implementation experience. 
• Develop training curriculum and materials, as well as lead end-user and system administration training in partnership with technology providers. 

Business, Team, and Company Development 

• Participate in business development activities such as qualifying opportunities, proposal presentations, and statement of work development. 
• Develop relationships with vendors and other partners to develop creative offerings. 
• Cultivate new relationships at current clients and coach junior staff to become lead contacts.
• Contribute to the ongoing growth of Harbor’s reputation for thought leadership and problem-solving.
• Actively develop ideas and contribute to practice growth/evolution and company-wide strategic initiatives. 
• Encourage collaboration, and model firm values to impact and ensure team behavior.
• Continuously improve our practice by enhancing methodologies, practice aids, project delivery approaches and tools. 
• Actively manage, develop, coach and/or mentor others, guiding junior team members in all facets of client execution and project management.
• Identify opportunities to continually enhance internal project methodologies and templates. 
• Support engagement financials and practice operations. 

Experience, Education and Other Qualifications: 

• 8+ years of relevant experience in the legal or consulting industry (e.g., in-house legal department, law firm, legal software provider, consulting firm) 
• 8+ years of experience in legal technology assessments, requirements gathering, system design, configuration, implementation, testing, and deployment, with proven experience implementing contracting tools.  
• Experience with Agiloft, Ironclad, Malbek, Luminance, Ivo, and similar systems is preferred; this experience should include related data migration and integration workstreams. 
• Demonstrated understanding of the AI contract technology landscape, including legal-specific platforms (e.g., Harvey, Legora) and point solutions supporting contract drafting, review, negotiation, obligation management, and associated workflows.
• 8+ years of experience in a customer facing role delivering projects and overseeing other resources to the completion of their tasks. 
• Four- year degree in Finance, Business, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Science, Economics, Statistics, Accounting, Data & Analytics, and the like, or equivalent combination of experience and education. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of, and experience in the following areas of focus: 

• IT implementation methodologies, including waterfall, agile and iterative. 
• Able to elicit requirements from requirements owners and recommend improvements to processes (strong client interview skills are a must). 
• IT Project management, including development and management of project plans and a familiarity of corporate IT methodology frameworks. 
• Use cases for contract management and AI solutions. 
• Configuration of industry leading CLM and contract intelligence solutions. 
• Integration and migration requirements gathering and methodology. 
• Experience and/or understanding of professional services partnerships and business models
• Experience leading technology implementation projects across workstreams and through all stages of a project lifecycle. 
• Proven track record of successful project implementations and development of junior talent. 
• Experience independently managing multiple engagements and clients simultaneously. 
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills (written and spoken). 
• Exceptional analytical, problem solving and research skills; proficient in process and data mapping. 
• Confidence and professionalism during client interactions, demonstrating sound judgement and attitude when interacting with client and internal stakeholders. 
• Excels in a cooperative team environment; takes initiative to forward team operational efficiency through improved methodologies. 
• Able to ideate and create client deliverables with minimal oversight from senior leadership. 
• Proven ability to develop and maintain relationships with peers, software vendors, other suppliers, management, and client contacts. 
• Positive, enthusiastic attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit. 
• Eagerness to quickly learn and develop new subject matter expertise and business skills. 
• Demonstrates accountability and commitment. 
• Strong organizational skills and an ability to prioritize tasks. 
• Maintains high standards for work product with keen attention to detail. 
• Advanced computer skills (primarily Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Visio); familiarity with use of Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint as collaboration tools. 
• Have permanent US work authorization