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Senior Manager of Legal, Contracts & Administration

South San Francisco, California, United States

About Us 

Kardigan is a heart health company working to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable and no longer the leading cause of death in the world. It is our mission to develop multiple targeted treatments in parallel that bring people with cardiovascular diseases to the cures they deserve. 

At Kardigan, we are motivated by our values which guide how we work, interact, and achieve our goals. Driven by patients and their families, we are deeply committed to improving the lives of patients and prioritizing their needs above all else. We believe in being authentic—leading with truth to bring out the best in others by creating an environment where every person knows they will be fully accepted. With an eagerness to learn, we encourage the highest levels of curiosity and are open to changing our minds. We are committed to winning as a team with urgency, excellence, and intention, and support each other no matter what role we play or where we sit. Lastly, we strive to enable the impossible because patients are counting on us. We are not afraid to take risks to unlock innovation and advance scientific discoveries.   

These values are the foundation of our work, empowering us to make a real difference, every day.  

 

Position Title: Senior Manager of Legal, Contracts and Administration 

Department: Legal 

Reports To: VP, Corporate Law 

 

Job Overview 

Kardigan is seeking an experienced Senior Manager of Legal, Contracts and Administration. In this hybrid role, Senior Manager of Legal, Contracts and Administration will help oversee the life cycle of contracts and provide support on various administrative matters as needed by the legal team. Kardigan seeks an exceptional candidate with a strong background as a contract administrator who can collaborate cross-functionally and communicate clearly and effectively. Attention to detail is a MUST in this role. You will join our fast-paced legal team, reporting to our Vice President, Corporate Law. This is a highly visible position within Kardigan as you will provide training to employees and support the provision of services across the company. 

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

Contracts Management 

  • Process all contract requests through the company’s internal process from initial request intake to execution and track the status of contracts in process. 
  • Lead the evaluation and implementation of a contracts management tool and serve as an administrator for the tool (e.g. maintain users, update user roles and workflows). 
  • Prepare, review and negotiate a range of contracts, including CDAs, Consulting Agreements, and MSAs. 
  • Track key contractual obligations and deadlines. 
  • Maintain a library of form agreements and contracts repository. 
  • Lead weekly interdepartmental contracts update meetings with contracts negotiators and business stakeholders. Develop and prepare contracts management key performance metrics and generate periodic reports. 

Legal Document Management 

  • Develop and manage a repository for various documents for the legal team to ensure accurate and complete record keeping. 
  • Manage and support maintaining virtual data rooms and legal collaboration sites. 
  • Coordinate and manage signature routing for documents for the legal team. 
  • Draft, maintain, and assist with revising documents for legal processes, guidelines and SOPs (e.g. contracts review process and communication review process). 
  • Prepare or assist in preparing redacted documents. 

Legal Administration 

  • Support legal team members with calendar management, travel arrangements, expense report submissions, and other administrative and logistical tasks. 
  • Prepare meeting agendas for and take meeting minutes or notes during meetings. 
  • Track action items for the legal team and assist in any action items as requested. 
  • Manage registrations for legal conferences and subscriptions for legal resources. 

Intracompany Partnership Management 

  • Serve as the legal liaison for internal partners on general legal processes and operations. 
  • Interface with teams across the company to gauge and anticipate legal needs and to provide guidance, as appropriate. 
  • Develop and maintain training programs and lead training for legal processes, legal operations or other legal and compliance related training (e.g. legal on-boarding and orientation training for new hires, refresher training for all employees, contracts/CLM training, compliance training). 
  • Develop and manage communication plans to provide various legal updates (e.g. updates to legal processes and performance stats) to internal partners. 
  • Support other activities that promote or enhance the legal team’s efficiency, visibility, and interactions with partners within the company. 

General 

  • Provide day-to-day support to the legal team. 
  • Assist and support with any special projects and initiatives. 
  • Perform other duties as directed by the manager. 

 

Qualifications and Preferred Skills 

  • At least 10 years of relevant experience with a minimum of 7 years of contract administration and executive administration experience. 
  • Experience in the life sciences/biotech/pharma sector. 
  • Meticulous attention to detail. 
  • Excellent problem-solving capabilities. 
  • Strong organizational and planning skills, ability to manage changing priorities and workflow, and the ability to effectively advance multiple simultaneous projects. 
  • Strong interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to communicate and collaborate with individuals at all levels inside and outside of the organization in a positive and effective manner. 
  • Ability to identify risks and communicate those risks to appropriate legal or other internal decision-makers for discussion and resolution. 
  • Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, rapidly growing workplace, with a keen interest in providing a consistently high level of service. 
  • Able to work independently while exercising initiative and good judgment. 
  • Motivated and enthusiastic. 
  • Experience working with various legal and financial tools (e.g. contract lifecycle management systems, e-signature platforms, collaboration platforms, virtual data rooms, expense/expenditure management tools). 
  • Strong knowledge of commercial contract terms and best practices. 
  • Bachelor’s degree preferred. 

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