Contracts Manager

Nextens; Dayton (OH); On-site; USD 72,000 - 119,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Benefits

401(k) match

Wellbeing program

Disability/Life Insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, through LNSSI, seeks a Contracts Manager to lead development, negotiation, and management of government contracts for data/services. You will evaluate compliance, advise on rights and obligations, and guide negotiations with internal and external customers.

Collaboration across Sales, Legal, Finance, and Operations is essential for timely execution. The role requires strong commercial judgment, ability to handle high-value negotiations, and clear communication of risks

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; JD preferred.
• 3+ years of experience contracting and managing government contracts.
• Ability to independently negotiate, draft, execute, and manage complex contracts.
• Understanding of workflows, policies, and risk evaluation in contracting.
• US citizenship and ability to obtain clearance.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate contract compliance and advise stakeholders on rights, obligations, risks, and actions.
• Negotiate, draft, execute, and manage contracts per team guidelines and approvals.
• Partner with Sales, Legal, Finance, Operations to balance customer objectives with business priorities.
• Develop negotiation strategies and secure required approvals for timely execution.
• Communicate risks and trade-offs clearly to internal and external stakeholders.
• Identify exceptions to standard language per defined processes.
• Manage workload to meet deadlines with accuracy and quality.

Skills

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Contract drafting

Risk assessment

Commercial judgment

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent

Job description

Are you ready to support complex contracting that helps drive real customer and business outcomes?

Do you excel at negotiating agreements, advising stakeholders, and translating commercial strategy into clear contractual execution?

About the Business

LexisNexis Risk Solutions is the essential partner in the assessment of risk. Within our Government vertical, our solutions assist government agencies and law enforcement to drive insights from complex data sets, improving operation efficiency, increasing program integrity, discovering, and recovering revenue, and making timely and informed decisions to enhance investigations. You can learn more about LexisNexis Risk at https://risk.lexisnexis.com/government.

About Our Team

This role supports LexisNexis Special Services Inc. (LNSSI), a specialized part of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government vertical. LNSSI supports government agencies and law enforcement through advanced data, analytics, and technology solutions that help verify identities, detect and prevent fraud, and support investigations.

Our legal and contracting team partners closely with Sales, Account Management, Legal, Finance, Operations, and other internal stakeholders to support the purchase and delivery of data and services. We work in a collaborative, customer-focused environment where sound judgment, disciplined process execution, and clear communication are essential to helping the business move opportunities forward responsibly.

The team is responsible for negotiating, drafting, reviewing, and executing federal, state, and local contracts while helping stakeholders understand contractual rights, obligations, risks, approvals, and process requirements. We are focused on balancing customer objectives with business priorities, supporting revenue goals, and delivering a consistent contracting experience for internal and external customers.

About the Role

The Contracts Manager plays a key role in supporting the development, negotiation, execution, and ongoing management of government contracts related to the purchase and delivery of data and services. This role is responsible for evaluating contractual compliance, advising internal stakeholders on contractual rights and obligations, and leading negotiations with both internal and external customers.

You will partner cross-functionally to develop negotiation strategies, communicate risks and trade-offs, secure required approvals, and support timely contract execution. The ideal candidate brings strong commercial judgment, advanced negotiation skills, the ability to solve complex problems independently, and the confidence to serve as a trusted resource for stakeholders, customers, and less experienced team members.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate contract compliance and advise internal stakeholders on contractual rights, obligations, risks, and required actions.
• Independently negotiate, draft, execute, and manage contracts in alignment with team guidelines, workflows, and approval processes.
• Partner with Sales, Account Management, Legal, Finance, Operations, and other stakeholders to develop negotiation strategies that balance customer objectives with business priorities.
• Build and manage strong internal and external relationships through timely communication, clear expectation setting, and professional stakeholder engagement.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to influence commercial strategy, secure required approvals, resolve issues, and support contract execution.
• Clearly articulate contractual risks, trade-offs, options, and exceptions to support informed decision-making by business stakeholders.
• Identify, escalation, and document exceptions to standard contracting language in accordance with defined processes.
• Manage workload and priorities effectively to meet deadlines while delivering accurate, high-quality work.
• Drive process improvements by developing and maintaining documentation, educating team members, and supporting consistent contracting practices.
• Support business goals by contributing to strategic initiatives aimed at achieving or exceeding revenue targets.
• Perform all other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent legal experience preferred.
• 3+ years of experience contracting, negotiating, drafting, and managing federal, state, and local government contracts.
• Demonstrated ability to independently negotiate, draft, execute, and manage complex commercial contracts and service orders.
• Strong understanding of contracting workflows, policies, approval processes, exception management, and commercial risk evaluation.
• Ability to manage complex, high-value negotiations and contribute to commercial strategy.
• Proven ability to clearly communicate contractual risks, options, and recommendations to internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to lead projects or key initiatives, contribute to team development, and support process improvement efforts.
• US citizenship and ability to obtain clearance required.
• Demonstrated proficiency in leveraging AI-enabled tools and technologies to support contract management activities, including contract review, drafting, analysis, workflow efficiency, and process improvement.
• Commercial judgment and disciplined decision-making.
• Negotiation, influence, and stakeholder management.
• Clear communication and professional relationship building.
• Problem-solving, critical thinking, and sound risk assessment.
• Time management, prioritization, and adaptability.
• Customer-focused mindset with the ability to provide support and guidance to internal and external customers, together with knowledge of federal, state, and local government procurement laws, regulations, and contracting requirements.

Additional Requirements

Physical and/or logical access to criminal justice information is an essential function of this role. The successful candidate will be required to pass both the standard company background check for all employees and an enhanced criminal background check conducted by the Company’s state and local law enforcement partners conducted in compliance with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (“CJIS”) security policy. Employees in this role may also be subject to ongoing criminal background checks as required by the Company’s state and local law enforcement partners. Candidates and/or employees who are not certified by state and local law enforcement to access criminal justice information will not be able to perform the essential functions of this role. Employees who subsequently fail to obtain or maintain CJIS compliance may be reassigned or terminated.

Working for You

We know that your wellbeing and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Health Benefits: Comprehensive, multi-carrier program for medical, dental and vision benefits
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with match and an Employee Share Purchase Plan
• Wellbeing: Wellness platform with incentives, Headspace app subscription, Employee Assistance and Time-off Programs
• Short-and-Long Term Disability, Life and Accidental Death Insurance, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity
• Family Benefits, including bonding and family care leaves, adoption and surrogacy benefits
• Health Savings, Health Care, Dependent Care and Commuter Spending Accounts
• In addition to annual Paid Time Off, we offer up to two days of paid leave each to participate in Employee Resource Groups and to volunteer with your charity of choice

U.S. National Base Pay Range: $71,600 - $119,400. Geographic differentials may apply in some locations to better reflect local market rates.This job is eligible for an annual incentive bonus.

We know your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. We are delighted to offer country specific benefits. Click here to access benefits specific to your location.

We are an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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