Contract Lifecycle Manager

Overview

McGuireWoods is hiring a Richmond-based Contract Lifecycle Manager to help with the firm's move from manual contract tracking to a more centralized, automated CLM platform, and to serve as the firm’s administrator for the platform. Working alongside a cross-functional project team, this role will participate in vendor evaluation/RFP, design the contract data cleanup and migration strategy, and after CLM implementation will serve as the firm’s platform administrator and will manage contract intake, create and maintain workflows and reporting dashboards, track renewal milestones for department leads, and provide data for client audit requests. The ideal candidate likes designing new systems and takes pride in the steady work of keeping them accurate, adopted, and useful year after year.

McGuireWoods, one of the world’s leading law firms, has provided legal solutions to corporate, individual and nonprofit clients since 1834. Along with excellent benefits, McGuireWoods offers most employees a hybrid remote option allowing flexibility and work-life balance. Our Applicant Disclosures describe your rights. Our Privacy Statement describes how we will process and safeguard your personal data.

Responsibilities

CLM Implementation (Build)

• Front the firm's transition from manual contract tracking to a centralized CLM platform in partnership with IT and Procurement.
• Act as the functional subject matter expert during vendor evaluation, software demonstrations, and the RFP process.
• Audit legacy contracts across all departments and build a phased migration strategy in partnership with the project team.
• Work alongside the project team to establish metadata standards to capture key fields, including renewal dates, termination windows, and financial commitments.
• Create process map for future contract intake, review, and approval workflows across business units and department heads.
• Engage department leaders directly to gather scattered agreements and drive firm-wide system adoption.

Ongoing Administration (Run)

• Serve as the primary, long-term system administrator, managing user permissions, workflow configuration, automated alerts, and system upgrades.
• Handle day-to-day contract intake and logging and enforce metadata standards so records stay complete and accurate.
• Run regular data quality audits and fix gaps, duplicates, and missing records.
• Create and maintain custom reporting dashboards for department heads to track contract status, expirations, and obligations, and spend.
• Monitor renewal and termination deadlines and make sure stakeholders receive timely notice.
• Compile documentation to respond to client audit requests as requested.
• Provide ongoing user training, onboarding, and support, and maintain user guides and process documentation.
• Serve as the main point of contact with the CLM vendor for support issues, enhancements, and new releases.
• Find and implement ongoing improvements to workflows, reporting, and automation as firm needs change.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in contract administration, legal operations, procurement, or paralegal work.
• Prior experience in a law firm environment is highly preferred; working knowledge of contract terminology, commercial terms, and legal structures is required.
• Proven track record moving manual contract processes (spreadsheets/shared drives) to an automated CLM system or taking part in software RFPs/implementations.
• Hands-on experience administering a CLM or similar enterprise system after go-live (e.g., user management, workflow configuration, reporting, vendor support) is strongly preferred.
• Strong skill in auditing unstructured contract data and using advanced Excel for data cleanup and reporting.
• Detail-oriented and process-driven, with a commitment to sustained data integrity and consistent day-to-day operations.
• Comfortable training and supporting end users at all levels, including partners and department heads.
• High emotional intelligence, with the ability to build consensus, follow up on deliverables, and drive adoption across departments without relying on top-down authority.
• Individual contributor role (no direct reports) requiring strong autonomy, organization, and self-direction.

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