Contracts & Procurement Manager

About the role

Join our winning team, honored on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers! The Helper Bees (THB) empowers older adult citizens and their families by providing easy access to quality, affordable in-home care providers. We define our culture through five Core Values:

• Quickly iterate through solutions – We move at a fast pace which requires quick iterations to find a path to a repeatable solution
• Seek ways to create immediate impact – Be thoughtful and proactive in how you make an impact on your team; actively look for ways to make a fast, positive impact
• Bee the teammate you want to work with – We work as a team, help each other and encourage each other
• Ask questions, answer questions – You can't iterate through solutions if you don't ask the right questions; when you know the answer, being a good teammate means chiming in to get others up to speed
• Take the time to celebrate wins – It's easy for a heads-down team to forget accomplishments; we make it a priority to celebrate wins, big or small

The Contracts & Procurement Manager owns the review, negotiation, and consistency of customer contracts, vendor agreements, and NDAs across The Helper Bees. This role protects margin, manages contractual risk, supports deal velocity, and serves as the single point of accountability for how contracts are handled. We sell to health plans and long-term care insurance carriers; what we agree to determines what Operations must deliver, what our vendors are held to, and what we can commit to next. Today those terms are negotiated one deal at a time with no shared position—your job is to change that. You will partner closely with Sales, Operations, Implementation, Finance, and Security, and will know when a question is genuinely non-standard and needs outside counsel rather than a judgment call. Both halves of this role matter: a contract that costs more than it earns is a failure, and one that sits unsigned for three months is also a failure. This is hands-on work—no analyst, no contract lifecycle management system, no team under you. Moving a deal through a large health plan means asking questions across teams and chasing the answers yourself; it is as much project management as negotiation.

Responsibilities

• Own the close-to-signature stretch: Take agreements from Sales once the deal is won and drive them to execution; manage redline rounds with the carrier’s procurement and legal teams, track versions, keep the timeline visible, and know when a delay needs escalation on their side or ours
• Clear the gates to signature: Large health plans won’t execute until their vendor risk review clears, we’re registered in their supplier system, and they have insurance certificates naming them as additional insured; track those requirements and keep them moving, working with Security on their risk and questionnaire process, Finance on tax and payment documentation, and our broker on certificates of insurance; learn each carrier’s process so the second deal moves faster than the first
• Hand off cleanly: Our Implementation team owns everything from signed contract to go-live; ensure they inherit a documented set of commitments rather than having to reconstruct what was promised
• Negotiate commercial terms: Pricing structures, payment terms, service levels, renewal and termination provisions, and performance credits; before committing to anything operational, bring Operations and Implementation into the conversation to confirm delivery is feasible
• Own our standard positions: Document what we accept, what we push back on, and where our walk-away line sits across recurring terms; apply it consistently so later rounds stop re-litigating the same clauses
• Vendor agreements and BAAs: Run our side of vendor contracting end to end—negotiate new agreements, review terms, and pay particular attention to whether what we’re getting downstream supports what we’ve committed to upstream; own business associate agreement coverage in both directions
• Vendor renewals and spend: Own the renewal calendar so we’re negotiating months ahead of a deadline rather than days after one; track what we’re paying, what we’re actually using, and where we’re carrying seats or tiers we don’t need; come to renewals with usage data and a position, not a signature
• Contract operations: Own the contract repository and obligation tracker across both client and vendor agreements; ensure we can answer what we committed to, what we’re owed, and when it comes due without anyone digging through email
• Escalation judgment: Know the difference between a term you can resolve and one that needs a lawyer; when something is genuinely non-standard, flag it and get outside counsel involved rather than guessing

Performance Metrics

• Reduced contract cycle time
• Improved consistency of contract terms
• Vendor renewals negotiated 60+ days before expiration

Required Skills/Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to negotiate directly with enterprise counterparties and hold a position under pressure
• Comfort operating inside large-organization procurement processes without getting stalled by them
• Sound judgment about when a question is above your line
• Comfort using AI tools in your day-to-day work, and a genuine curiosity about how emerging technology applies to your role
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to interact professionally with employees at all levels
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Strong organizational skills with excellent attention to detail
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality with sensitive client, contract, and company information
• Ability to problem-solve
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team
• Must be 18 years of age or older

Education And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required
• 5+ years in contracts, procurement, vendor management, or deal operations, including enterprise B2B agreements, required
• Healthcare industry experience (health plan, payer, provider, or healthcare services company), required
• Experience negotiating with or working inside a large health plan or carrier procurement organization, required
• Working familiarity with HIPAA and business associate agreements, required
• Experience owning contracts independently rather than supporting a legal or procurement team, required
• Experience on the buying side of enterprise procurement, preferred
• CPSM, CPCM, CCCM, paralegal certificate, or similar credential, preferred
• Working knowledge of Medicare Advantage and Medicaid program requirements, preferred

Physical Requirements

• Hybrid role requiring in-office presence multiple times each week and during special events as needed
• Remote work allowed at approved U.S. locations with reliable internet and a designated professional work environment
• Ability to remain at your designated workstation for the duration of the workday
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery (phone, VoIP)
• Ability to communicate information and ideas clearly to others
• Ability to exchange accurate information in these situations
• Ability to observe details at close range (typically on a computer screen)