Real Estate Contracts Manager

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco is seeking a Real Estate Contracts Manager to own the lifecycle of standard real estate agreements and related systems.

You will partner with Legal, Real Estate, Site Acquisition, and Site Development to ensure reliable site-contract execution, obligation management, and risk visibility, escalating nonstandard matters to counsel.

We value proactive problem solvers who thrive on process improvement and can work in our in-house legal team.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of real estate experience with leases and administration.
• Ability to draft, negotiate, and manage routine real estate agreements.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management, document-management, or lease-administration tools.
• Strong organizational and risk assessment capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Manage standard real estate agreements from intake through drafting, negotiation, approvals, signature, filing, obligation tracking, amendment, renewal, and closeout.
• Draft, redline, and negotiate routine leases, amendments, access agreements, licenses, notices, assignments, LOIs, term sheets, and site-related agreements within attorney-approved guidelines.
• Independently resolve routine contracting issues and elevate nonstandard terms, material risk, or matters outside approved playbooks to attorneys.
• Build and maintain templates, clause libraries, fallback positions, approval workflows, intake forms, signature processes, and escalation matrices.
• Serve as the day-to-day contact for landlords, brokers, property managers, outside counsel, vendors, and internal teams on routine contract matters.
• Maintain an accurate, searchable repository and report contract status, deadlines, open issues, cycle times, recurring negotiation points, and outside-counsel usage.
• Improve CLM, document-management, and lease-administration workflows, including metadata, permissions, dashboards, reporting, and user adoption.

Skills

Real estate contracts

Lease negotiation

Contract lifecycle management

Cross-functional collaboration

Project management

Communication

Tools

CLM software

Job description

About Zipline

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.

About You And The Role

Zipline builds and operates autonomous delivery systems that move essential goods where and when they are needed. Real estate agreements enable the sites from which that system operates; clear, well-managed contracts help teams secure, develop, and operate those sites responsibly. As Real Estate Contracts Manager, you will own the day-to-day lifecycle of routine real estate agreements and the systems behind them. You will partner with Legal, Real Estate, Site Acquisition, and Site Development to enable reliable site-contract execution, accurate obligation management, and visibility into deadlines and risk, escalating nonstandard matters to counsel. You’ll be a core member of a strong, friendly, passionate, in-house legal function and will report to Zipline’s Deputy General Counsel–Head of Commercial. If you're energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate and radically improve processes, and motivated by work that truly matters, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Manage standard real estate agreements from intake through drafting, negotiation, approvals, signature, filing, obligation tracking, amendment, renewal, and closeout.
• Draft, redline, and negotiate routine leases, amendments, access agreements, licenses, consents, notices, assignments, LOIs, term sheets, and site-related agreements within attorney-approved guidelines.
• Independently resolve routine contracting issues and elevate nonstandard terms, material risk, or matters outside approved playbooks to attorneys.
• Build and maintain templates, clause libraries, fallback positions, approval workflows, intake forms, signature processes, and escalation matrices.
• Serve as the day-to-day contact for landlords, brokers, property managers, outside counsel, vendors, and internal teams on routine contract matters.
• Maintain an accurate, searchable repository and report contract status, deadlines, open issues, cycle times, recurring negotiation points, and outside-counsel usage.
• Improve CLM, document-management, and lease-administration workflows, including metadata, permissions, dashboards, reporting, and user adoption.

What You'll Bring

• At least 8 years of relevant real estate industry experience, including direct experience with leasing contracts and lease administration.
• Ability to draft, negotiate, and administer routine real estate agreements, including leases, amendments, access agreements, licenses, and related documents.
• Experience using contract lifecycle management, document-management, or lease-administration tools to maintain reliable contract data and workflows.
• Sound judgment about when to apply approved positions independently and when to elevate legal, commercial, or operational risk.
• Strong organization and project-management skills across competing deadlines, approvals, documentation, and stakeholder requests.
• Clear, practical communication and the ability to build productive relationships with cross-functional teams and external real estate partners.
• Ability to work full-time in person from Zipline’s South San Francisco headquarters.
• At least 8 years of relevant experience in the real estate industry.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer 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 or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Must be eligible to work in the United States.