Job Description
The Sales Operations Commercial Specialist is a business-facing role embedded within the Sales Operations department and aligned to the Sales organization. This position serves as the primary operational liaison between Sales, the Legal Department, and external stakeholders on matters involving commercial contracting, negotiation support, and deal facilitation. While a paralegal background is preferred, the role is designed for a commercially oriented professional who thrives in a fast-paced sales environment and can independently manage contract workflows, coordinate cross-functional input, and support the Sales team in closing deals efficiently and compliantly.
This role maintains a dotted-line relationship to the Legal Department to ensure alignment on contract standards, risk thresholds, and legal requirements.
Duties and Responsibilities
Commercial Contracting & Negotiation Support
- Serve as the first point of contact within Sales Operations for incoming customer contracts, NDAs, master service agreements, and other commercial documents.
- Review, redline, and negotiate standard commercial contract terms on behalf of the Sales team, escalating non-standard or high-risk provisions to Legal as appropriate.
- Support Sales leadership and account managers in preparing for and conducting commercial negotiations with customers and channel partners.
- Maintain and manage a library of pre-approved contract templates, standard clauses, and fallback positions developed in coordination with Legal.
- Partner with the Legal Department to develop and maintain contracting processes and contract lifecycle management systems.
- Track contract status and timelines across the Sales pipeline to ensure deals are not delayed by contracting bottlenecks.
Legal Liaison & Compliance
- Act as the primary interface between the Sales Operations team and the Corporate Legal Department on commercial and contractual matters.
- Coordinate with the Legal Department to obtain timely review and approval on contracts that exceed defined authority thresholds or involve non-standard terms.
- Assist in the preparation and execution of formal contract documents.
- Support Sales compliance with company policies, export controls, and applicable regulatory requirements; flag potential issues proactively.
- Participate in legal awareness initiatives as they relate to commercial activities, including monitoring of relevant contract provisions concerning intellectual property, confidentiality, export controls, etc..
Stakeholder Coordination & Deal Facilitation
- Coordinate cross-functional input from Finance, Operations, Engineering, and Legal to support deal structuring and customer commitments.
- Serve as an internal project manager for complex or multi-party sales transactions, ensuring all stakeholders meet required milestones.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with Sales leadership, account managers, and regional teams to understand pipeline needs and proactively support deal velocity.
- Engage directly with customer procurement and legal counterparts when appropriate to advance contract negotiations.
Operations, Reporting & Administration
- Maintain accurate, up-to-date records of all active contracts, renewals, expirations, and associated obligations using the Company’s CRM and contract lifecycle management systems.
- Generate regular and ad hoc reports on contract activity, cycle times, deal status, and risk exposure for Sales Operations leadership.
- Monitor and track commercial terms, pricing agreements, and obligations post-signature to ensure ongoing compliance.
- Identify process improvements to streamline the contracting workflow and reduce time-to-close across the Sales organization.
- Assist CLO and Legal Department team members with para-professional and administrative tasks as needed, consistent with the role’s dotted-line reporting relationship.
Qualifications
Education & Credentials
- BS/BA degree required; paralegal certificate or equivalent legal training strongly preferred.
- PA Notary Public (or willingness to obtain immediately upon hire).
Experience
- 3+ years of experience in a commercial contracts, sales operations, legal operations, or related business role.
- Demonstrated experience reviewing, redlining, and negotiating commercial contracts in a corporate or law firm environment.
- Familiarity with common commercial contract structures including standard commercial terms, MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, and supply agreements.
- Experience supporting or collaborating with a Sales organization is strongly preferred.
Skills & Competencies
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to understand business objectives and translate them into contractual requirements.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to communicate legal and commercial concepts clearly to non-legal audiences.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel (data manipulation, reporting, and visualization); familiarity with CRM platforms and contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools a plus.
- High degree of organizational skill and ability to manage multiple active deals and priorities simultaneously.
- Ability to build trusted relationships at all levels of the organization, from account managers to C-suite stakeholders, as well as with external customers and counsel.
- Extreme attention to detail with strong problem-identification and solution-recommendation capabilities.
- Minimal domestic and international travel as required.
Victaulic is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EOE/M/F/Vets/Disabled) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, gender, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic data, or other legally protected status. (Background checks may be required as part of our pre-employment process).
