Legal Career Center

The Center for Technology Licensing is Cornell University’s technology transfer office. They manage Cornell technologies from Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell Tech, and Cornell AgriTech in Geneva. CTL’s mission is to bring the University’s scientific discoveries, technological innovations, and medical advances to the marketplace for societal benefit and to foster new venture creation and growth to support economic development within New York State and across the nation. 

Cornell has exclusively retained Gardner Innovation Search Partners to find a Contract Manager to join their team.

The Contract Manager will be an integral part of CTL’s Contract and Finance team. The Contract Manager will report to the Director of Contract and Finance and manage other contract team members to support agreements for IP management and licensing functions for the office.

The Contract Manager will manage a small contract team, including senior and junior contract administrators.  Duties include managing team performance for all contract related matters at CTL, including but not limited to: assigning and monitoring workload for different types of agreements, establishing and improving processes for accurate contract recording and efficient compliance follow up, and supporting licensing pipeline expansion. Prepare or oversee the preparation of reports on contracts to support Center leadership for analysis of licensing performance, trend and history, and to provide numbers as part of Center metrics. Lead the effort to improve project management tools, database and process to support licensing pipeline. Lead the interactions with the Finance, Business Development, and Intellectual Property teams. Collaborate intimately with finance team in contract compliance, financial terms and revenue payments. Work closely with IP service team for IP recording and process. Collaborate with Business Development and Licensing teams to understand evolving needs and priorities in licensing.  Facilitate BD & Licensing directors and officers in finalization license and other agreements and provide feedback and recommendations on compliance solutions for terms . Under the guidance of the Director of Contract and Finance, oversee the monitoring of active agreements to ensure the licensees meet the performance standards, and manage the correspondence to notify licensees of license agreement of breaches, expirations and terminations. Partner with Director of Contract and Finance in the oversight of documenting, recording and reporting of documents related to equity, debt and other financing transactions.

Requirements

Required Education/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree, with 3-5 years’ experience in contract management, preferably in university or legal environment, or equivalent combination
• Experience in management of personnel and collaboration with multiple teams and functions.

Technical Skills

• Strong background in contract management.
• Solid understanding in license agreement and other related agreements.
• Experience in high volume environment and fast-paced customer service organizations
• Excellent skills in database management and data processing.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Interpersonal Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills to support people with different background and priorities
• Flexibility and capacity to adapt to changing needs and priorities
• Managerial experience to integrate and motivate team
• Excellent judgment and discretion, especially pertaining to sensitive and confidential information.
• Ability to multi-task, balance responsibilities, and meet multiple deadlines, outstanding organization skills

Read more, including how to apply, here: https://gardnerisp.com/contract-manager-cornell-university-center-for-technology-licensing/