The Economist Group - Contracts Manager
Requirements
• This role is suited to a legally trained professional with equivalent practical exposure. Candidates may be recently qualified lawyers, law graduates with relevant in house or commercial contracts experience, or contract professionals with demonstrable legal training and hands on contract review experience. A strong understanding of commercial contracts, particularly subscription based agreements, event sponsorship arrangements, and vendor or services agreements, is essential. • The ideal candidate will demonstrate excellent legal comprehension, the ability to assess risk proportionately, and confidence in handling routine negotiations independently. Exceptional written communication skills are required, with the ability to respond clearly, politely, and decisively under tight deadlines. Strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and the capacity to manage competing priorities are critical. • Candidates must be comfortable operating in a high volume environment, show resilience under pressure, and exercise sound judgment when dealing with urgent or escalated matters. A proactive, solution-oriented mindset and a high degree of professionalism are essential. • Working Arrangements • The majority of our roles operate on a hybrid working pattern, with 3+ days office attendance required. • AI usage for your application • We are an innovative organisation that encourages the use of technology. We recognise that candidates may utilise AI tools to support with their job application process. However, it is essential that all information you provide truthfully and accurately reflects your own experience, skills, and qualifications.
Responsibilities
• Legal Contracts Inbox • The role holder will manage and oversee the central legal contracts inbox, ensuring all incoming requests from sales, commercial, and internal stakeholders are acknowledged promptly, assessed accurately, and handled in line with internal processes and service expectations. This includes exercising judgment to determine the nature of each request, its urgency, legal complexity, and risk profile, and deciding whether the matter can be addressed directly, requires negotiation, or how to be escalated to legal colleagues. • Review and negotiate agreements • In addition to triage and intake management, the Legal Contracts Manager will independently review, advise on, and negotiate a defined range of junior to mid level complexity agreements. These include subscription order forms, standard template event sponsorship agreements, and service provider or vendor agreements. The role requires the ability to provide clear, commercially aware responses to sales teams, explain legal positions succinctly, and engage in negotiations within approved parameters, escalating only where necessary. • Excellent communication skills demonstrating professionalism under pressure • The position operates in a fast paced, high pressure environment. The Legal Contracts Manager must respond to urgent and sometimes pressurised communications with calm authority, professionalism, and efficiency, maintaining strong internal relationships while safeguarding legal standards and risk thresholds. Timeliness, accuracy, and tone are critical success factors. • Legal operations • Legal operations • Legal drive: The role also carries responsibility for managing and maintaining the legal team’s central digital filing system, ensuring contracts and related documentation are accurately stored, indexed, and retrievable in accordance with internal governance standards. The Legal Contracts Manager will oversee day to day legal administrative tasks and, under supervision, contribute to the ongoing maintenance and updating of the contracts manual and related guidance materials. • Sales support in submitting contracts before legal review: In addition, the Legal Contracts Manager will actively support sales and commercial stakeholders in the preparation and drafting of agreements at the point of intake. This includes working with sales to ensure that all commercial terms, pricing, scope of work, deliverables, timelines, and key assumptions are clearly articulated, internally aligned, and accurately reflected in the relevant contractual documentation before the matter is assigned for legal review. The role is responsible for identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or unresolved commercial points at an early stage, and coordinating with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that agreements are commercially complete, coherent, and review-ready, thereby enabling efficient and focused legal review by the wider legal team.
Benefits
• Our benefits package is designed to support your wellbeing, growth, and work-life balance. It includes a highly competitive pension or 401(k) plan, private health insurance, and 24/7 access to counselling and wellbeing resources through our Employee Assistance Program. • We also offer a range of lifestyle benefits, including our Work From Anywhere program, which allows you to work from any location where you have the legal right to do so for up to 25 days per year. In addition, we provide generous annual and parental leave, as well as dedicated days off for volunteering and even for moving home. • You will also be given free access to all The Economist content, including an online subscription, our range of apps, podcasts and more.
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