Sr Site Contracts Specialist/Contract Navigator - US Home-based/Remote

Syneos Health, Inc.; California; Remote; USD 56,000 - 96,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car/allowance

Health benefits

401k match

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Commissions/Bonus

Paid time off

Sick time

Job summary

Syneos Health in California is seeking a Contract Navigator to support end-to-end contracting for internal stakeholders and external parties, including professionals, institutions, and vendors. You will provide strategic guidance, coordinate cross-functional activities, and ensure contracts comply with policies, legal requirements, and ethical standards.

Success requires sharp critical thinking, sound judgment, and the ability to influence without direct authority across a matrix organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in science, business, law, operations, or related field.
• Five+ years in a regulated contract-intensive CRO environment or similar.
• Ability to think critically and analyze complex information.
• Experience in a matrix, cross-functional environment with shared accountability.

Responsibilities

• Guide stakeholders through contracting to reduce burden and accelerate execution.
• Manage contract activities from intake to completion with cross-functional teams.
• Evaluate requests, identify risks, and recommend paths forward.
• Exercise independent judgment on high-priority or time-sensitive matters.
• Coordinate with internal and external parties during contract development and negotiation.

Skills

Critical thinking

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Influencing

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Contract management systems

Job description

Syneos Health is a leading fully-integrated life sciences services organization built to accelerate customer success. We partner with innovators at every point across the drug development and commercialization continuum, helping them navigate complexity, anticipate change and accelerate progress.

Our Clinical Solutions team members act with a drug development mindset, applying their years of experience and deep expertise to truly understand customer needs and represent those in the solutions we shape.

Whether you join us in a Functional Service Provider partnership or a Full-Service environment, you'll collaborate with passionate problem solvers, innovating as a team to help our customers achieve their goals. We are agile and driven to deliver - for one another, our customers, and, most importantly, for those in need.

Discover what your 25,000 future colleagues already know:

Why Syneos Health

• We are passionate about developing our people, through career development and progression; supportive and engaged line management; technical and therapeutic area training; peer recognition and total rewards program.
• We are committed to building an inclusive culture - where you can authentically be yourself. Central to this is our purpose - Driven to Deliver - which captures the passion of our colleagues to show up each day and shape solutions that have the ability to dramatically impact someone's life.
• We are continuously building the company we all want to work for and our customers want to work with. Why? Because we know that when we bring together smart colleagues from across the world, we can shape the future of healthcare, driving impact for customers and defining the pace of patient progress.

Job Responsibilities

Position Overview

The Contract Navigator is an individual contributor and subject-matter resource responsible for supporting the end-to-end contracting process for internal stakeholders and external parties, including professionals, institutions, and vendors. The role provides strategic and operational guidance, coordinates cross-functional activities, and helps ensure contracts are executed efficiently, accurately, and in accordance with applicable policies, legal requirements, and ethical standards.

Success requires strong critical thinking, sound judgment, and the ability to assess complex or incomplete information, identify risks and dependencies, and develop practical solutions with limited oversight. The role operates in a matrix environment and requires effective collaboration across business, procurement, contracting, legal, finance, compliance, and other partner functions. The individual must be able to influence without direct authority, balance competing priorities, and maintain accountability across multiple stakeholders.

Core Responsibilities

• Guide stakeholders through the contracting process to reduce administrative burden and accelerate project execution.
• Manage contract-related activities from intake through completion, including coordination, tracking, documentation, and issue resolution.
• Apply critical thinking to evaluate requests, clarify business needs, identify risks and gaps, and recommend appropriate paths forward.
• Exercise independent judgment and discretion when addressing complex, high-priority, or time-sensitive matters.
• Build and maintain productive relationships across a matrix organization, aligning stakeholders with different priorities, responsibilities, and decision-making authority.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner who can influence outcomes without direct authority and promote timely, transparent, and informed decisions.
• Coordinate with internal partner functions and external parties during contract development and negotiation, including discussion of business terms and financial considerations.
• Implement applicable strategies, standards, processes, and controls in alignment with business needs and operational objectives.
• Maintain visibility into contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and related activities so stakeholders can monitor project status, risks, and next steps.
• Proactively identify and resolve process, purchase order, invoice, and vendor issues, escalating when appropriate.
• Identify improvement opportunities, remove barriers, share best practices, and help develop scalable tools and processes.
• Promote customer focus, enterprise thinking, cross-functional collaboration, compliance, ethics, safety, and responsible risk management.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in science, business, law, operations, or a related field; a legal or paralegal credential is preferred.
• Five or more years of relevant experience in a regulated, contract-intensive, or similarly complex CRO environment working with site contracts, CDAs, HCP, Vendor Agreements, and/or other types of contracts.
• Demonstrated ability to think critically, analyze complex information, anticipate downstream impacts, and make well-reasoned recommendations.
• Experience working effectively in a matrix environment with cross-functional teams and shared accountability.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work independently, and deliver accurate results within established timelines.
• Demonstrated compliance aptitude, including the ability to interpret and apply policies, procedures, legal requirements, and ethical standards; recognize potential compliance risks; and elevate concerns appropriately.
• Experience with contract processes, purchasing, invoicing, vendor management, or related systems and tools is preferred.

At Syneos Health, we believe in providing an environment and culture in which Our People can thrive, develop and advance. We reward and recognize our people by providing valuable benefits and a quality-of-life balance. The benefits for this position may include a company car or car allowance, Health benefits to include Medical, Dental and Vision, Company match 401k, eligibility to participate in Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Eligibility to earn commissions/bonus based on company and individual performance, and flexible paid time off (PTO) and sick time. Because certain states and municipalities have regulated paid sick time requirements, eligibility for paid sick time may vary depending on where you work. Syneos complies with all applicable federal, state, and municipal paid sick time requirements.

Salary Range:

$56,400.00 - $95,900.00

The base salary range represents the anticipated low and high of the Syneos Health range for this position. Actual salary will vary based on various factors such as the candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.

Get to know Syneos Health

Over the past 5 years, we have worked with 94% of all Novel FDA Approved Drugs, 95% of EMA Authorized Products and over 200 Studies across 73,000 Sites and 675,000+ Trial patients.

No matter what your role is, you'll take the initiative and challenge the status quo with us in a highly competitive and ever-changing environment. Learn more about Syneos Health.

http://www.syneoshealth.com

Additional Information

Tasks, duties, and responsibilities as listed in this job description are not exhaustive. The Company, at its sole discretion and with no prior notice, may assign other tasks, duties, and job responsibilities. Equivalent experience, skills, and/or education will also be considered so qualifications of incumbents may differ from those listed in the Job Description. The Company, at its sole discretion, will determine what constitutes as equivalent to the qualifications described above. Further, nothing contained herein should be construed to create an employment contract. Occasionally, required skills/experiences for jobs are expressed in brief terms. Any language contained herein is intended to fully comply with all obligations imposed by the legislation of each country in which it operates, including the implementation of the EU Equality Directive, in relation to the recruitment and employment of its employees. The Company is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the provision of reasonable accommodations, when appropriate, to assist employees or applicants to perform the essential functions of the job.