PeopleGrove is looking for a detail-oriented and commercially savvy professional to manage contract negotiations with our higher education partners and support key finance operations. Reporting to the Controller, this role owns the end-to-end negotiation process for new sales agreements, renewals, and RFP responses serving as the primary point of contact for partner institutions throughout the contracting lifecycle. Beyond contracts, this person will also lend support to billing plans and collections as needed, giving them meaningful visibility into how deal terms translate into revenue outcomes.
This is a highly cross-functional role that sits at the intersection of sales, legal, and finance. The ideal candidate is comfortable negotiating directly with higher ed procurement and legal offices, can make sound, independent judgment calls on contract terms within established guardrails, and brings the same rigor to billing and collections support when called upon.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead contract negotiations with higher education partners across new sales agreements, renewals, and RFP responses
- Manage the full contract lifecycle: drafting, redlining, negotiation, internal approval, execution, and renewal tracking
- Turn around redlines promptly, balancing legal and business risk against deal velocity
- Make independent, pragmatic decisions on contract terms within established risk tolerances, escalating only when truly necessary
- Serve as the primary liaison with partner institutions' procurement and legal offices, guiding contracts through their internal approval processes
- Build and maintain a system for tracking key contract data (renewal dates, terms, obligations, risk flags) to support proactive account and revenue management
- Partner with the Controller and Finance team to ensure contract terms align with billing, revenue recognition, and budgeting needs
- Support billing plan setup and collections efforts as needed, helping ensure contract terms are accurately reflected downstream
- Maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, and negotiation workflows over time
- Identify process bottlenecks in the contract-to-cash workflow and recommend improvements
Qualifications Required
- Proven experience negotiating and managing contracts end-to-end, ideally in a B2B, SaaS, or higher education context
- Experience working with institutional procurement and/or legal review processes (higher education experience strongly preferred but not required)
- Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to track and report on contract data across a portfolio
- Comfort making pragmatic business judgment calls on contract terms rather than defaulting to escalation
- Exposure to billing, invoicing, or collections processes, or a strong interest in developing this skill set
- Experience with Salesforce (or similar CRM), especially for contract tracking and reporting
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to negotiate confidently with both legal and non-legal stakeholders
- A collaborative, low-ego approach - this role succeeds by removing friction, not adding process for its own sake
- Ability to manage a high volume of concurrent negotiations without losing track of details
Perks & Benefits
- Competitive salary + annual bonus
- Flexible PTO and hybrid/remote work options
- Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) with generous company match + financial planning resources
- Company-paid life and disability insurance
- Collaborative, purpose-driven culture
About us
PeopleGrove empowers colleges and universities to deliver meaningful engagement and hands-on learning that drives measurable outcomes for students, alumni, programs, and institutions. From mentorship and career readiness to clinical placements and competency management, PeopleGrove helps institutions improve student preparedness, meet accreditation standards, and prove program effectiveness. The platform supports over 500 institutions and 750+ academic programs, including 98% of key clinical programs in the United States.
Learn how PeopleGrove is shaping the future through a comprehensive suite of solutions across the entire learner lifecycle– from student and alumni engagement to clinical experiential education, mentorship, and career readiness. Visit us at www.peoplegrove.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Skills Required
- Proven experience negotiating and managing contracts end-to-end
- Experience in B2B, SaaS, or higher education contract contexts
- Experience working with institutional procurement and/or legal review processes
- Higher education experience
- Strong project management and organizational skills
- Comfort making pragmatic business judgment calls on contract terms
- Exposure to billing, invoicing, or collections processes or strong interest to develop this skill
- Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM for contract tracking and reporting
- Excellent written and verbal communication and negotiation skills with legal and non-legal stakeholders
- Collaborative, low-ego approach focused on removing friction
- Ability to manage a high volume of concurrent negotiations without losing detail
What We Do
As higher education’s first Career Access Platform™, PeopleGrove is a smart career network that recommends Mentorship, Networking, Career Exploration, and the Job Connections that together effectively build the social capital learners need to succeed. Unlike other student success tools and alumni engagement software, PeopleGrove is lifelong career support that’s smart, personal, and helpful even to those without a network, experience, or clear starting point. Established in 2015, PeopleGrove set out to build the most helpful network ever created because we believe career fulfillment is a right every single person should have. To date, we've helped millions of learners on their career journeys: - 1+ million connections - 96% retention rate - 20+ million users - 60% of US News Top 100 Universities - 5/5 average rating from user interactions - 450+ customers served PeopleGrove is proudly part of The Riverside Company portfolio of companies. With their partnership, we are a transformational organization that prides itself on building an environment where curiosity is rewarded and the unknown is embraced. Places to go. People to be.
