Contracts Manager

Zello; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity with upside

Sabbatical after five years

Flexible schedules

Generous time off

Ping-pong table and snacks

Job summary

Zello, a voice-first communication platform, is seeking a contracts professional to own the end-to-end contract lifecycle for customers and vendors. You will review, redline, and negotiate NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, and related exhibits, while deciding when outside counsel is needed and building scalable templates and playbooks.

You will also manage vendor relationships, due diligence, renewals, and terminations, and support GDPR data requests and the company's compliance stack with Drata and KnowBe4.

Qualifications

• 3+ years owning commercial contracts in-house, independently redlining and closing NDAs, DPAs, and MSAs.
• Highly organized with meticulous tracking of open redlines, obligations, and renewal dates.
• Enjoys attention to detail, including complex DPAs with conflicting definitions of personal data.
• Background in law or prep for LSAT or collaboration with attorneys is a plus.
• Experience with AI-assisted drafting and improving contracting processes.
• Interest in GRC and process improvement for contract operations.
• Strong written and verbal communication with Sales, CS, Engineering, and outside counsel.

Responsibilities

• Own the customer contract lifecycle: review, redline, negotiate NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, AI data-processing addendums, BAAs, amendments, and security exhibits.
• Decide when to involve outside counsel and handle routine matters independently.
• Build contracting infrastructure: playbooks, templates, and escalation processes to route routine deals efficiently.
• Own the vendor lifecycle: intake, due diligence, tiering, approval, renewal, and termination.
• Manage data subject requests and legal notices in line with GDPR and related product notices.
• Support administration of compliance tools (Drata, KnowBe4) and run policy lifecycle and access reviews.
• Leverage AI for repetitive tasks like review, drafting, and obligation tracking.

Skills

Commercial contracts

Redlining

Vendor management

AI-assisted drafting

Clear communication

Tools

Drata

KnowBe4

Job description

About Zello

Zello is a voice-first communication platform, powered by our industry-leading push-to-talk technology, to improve collaboration and productivity for desk-less workers. With over 175+ million users, we’re the #1 rated push-to-talk app in the world, delivering 9 billion (yes, with a B) messages a month.

At Zello, our company values are at the heart of what we do everyday. We’re proud to serve the frontline, we’re privileged to connect people in times of crisis across the globe, and we’re honored to support first responders.

And this is where you come in.

Zello powers instant, push-to-talk communication for frontline workers, and every enterprise deal we sign rests on a contract someone reviewed carefully. This role owns customer and vendor contracting end-to-end - NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, AI data-processing addendums, and security exhibits - with outside counsel reserved for what is genuinely novel. Embedded in the role is support for Zello's governance, risk, and compliance program, which rewards exactly the traits a strong contracts manager already has: structure, discipline, and a clean paper trail. No GRC background required; we will teach it.

What you'll do

• Own the customer contract lifecycle: review, redline, and negotiate NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, AI data-processing addendums, BAAs, amendments, and security exhibits from first draft to signature.

• Decide when an issue is genuinely novel enough to loop in outside counsel - and handle everything else yourself.

• Build the contracting infrastructure: playbooks, fallback positions, template libraries, and the escalation bar that keeps routine deals out of anyone else's inbox.

• Own the vendor lifecycle: intake, due diligence, tiering, approval, renewal, and termination.

• Run data subject requests in support of GDPR) and subpoena/legal-request intake end-to-end,and track the contractual notification commitments tied to Zello products and AI data changes to support compliance with respective requirements.

• Support the administration of Zello's compliance stack - Drata, KnowBe4 - and run the policy lifecycle (drafting, review cadence, attestation) and periodic access reviews.

• Use AI on the repetitive parts of this work - first-pass review, questionnaire drafting, clause comparison, obligation tracking - and keep improving how you use it.

Who you are

• You have 3+ years owning commercial contracts in-house, and you've independently redlined and closed NDAs, DPAs, and MSAs without an attorney walking you through them.

• You are organized to a degree other people find slightly excessive. Every open redline, obligation, and renewal date is tracked, and nothing falls off.

• You are at home in the detail. A DPA with three conflicting definitions of “Personal Data” is a puzzle you enjoy, not a chore you dread.

• Law was a real consideration for you at some point - you may have prepped for the LSAT, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with attorneys, or come close to applying - and you concluded the operating side of legal is where you do your best work.

• You are already using AI in your work, or you are impatient to. You don't need to know how the models work; you need to believe the first draft should come from a machine and your judgment should be spent on what matters.

• GRC is new to you and that reads as interesting rather than intimidating. You've noticed it runs on the same things contracting does - structure, evidence, follow-through - and you want the surface area.

• You spot a manual or error-prone process before anyone points it out, and you fix it - building a clause library instead of redlining from scratch every time.

• You communicate clearly and concisely with Sales, Customer Success, Engineering, and outside counsel, without over-explaining or leaving people guessing.

This role is not

• An attorney role - no JD or bar admission is required or expected. Outside counsel handles the genuinely novel; you handle the rest.

• A management role - there are no direct reports.

• A GRC or security engineering role - you own the compliance program's operational rigor, not the underlying technical controls (IAM, SIEM, pen testing), and you do not need a GRC background walking in.

• A redline-only role - contracting is the core, but vendor management and the compliance program's operational cadence come with it.

We hire for potential, passion for our mission, and a knack for solving difficult problems over checking every qualification box. We have competitive pay, equity with significant upside, and intentionally design our benefits to encourage healthy and well-balanced employees, flexible schedules and time off. We even offer a sabbatical after every five years of service so you’re able to pursue and enjoy what matters most to you. And of course, we wouldn’t be a technology company without a ping-pong table and free snacks in our break room. Join us!

Zello provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

All Zello personnel are required to comply with defined security, privacy, and compliance requirements applicable to their role along with requirements that are applicable to all Zello personnel.