Contracts & Compliance Manager

About Us  
CMB is a full-service custom market research and strategy firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. As a Top 25 Insights & Analytics company, we’re known for our relentless business-decision focus and cutting-edge creativity. Our passion is helping the world’s leading brands engage, innovate, and grow. We leverage the best of advanced analytics, consumer psychology, and market strategy to tackle game-changing initiatives and business challenges for our clients.  
  
What about our culture?  Simply put, our people are our power.  At CMB, we’re proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work, a recognition that reflects the diverse, inclusive, and collaborative environment our team creates every day. We bring together bright perspectives and curious minds who challenge assumptions, share ideas, and push one another to be better. 

Innovation is deeply embedded in how we work. That commitment has earned us recognition as one of the GRIT Top 50 Most Innovative Companies, and it shows up daily in how we approach research, insights, and client impact. At CMB, you’ll have meaningful opportunities to achieve your full potential — from learning new skills and expanding your expertise to advancing your career in an environment where you are supported, valued, and encouraged to innovate. 
Our benefits say a lot about how much we value our employees: we offer a fully paid sabbatical, an annual wellness stipend, paid time off to volunteer, generous medical plans, a 401k match, and more. Every employee also gets to enjoy an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).  
ESOP?  Yes, we are 100% employee owned! An ESOP is a qualified retirement plan, similar to a 401k, but you don’t have to make any financial contributions to participate in the rewards. When we each work hard to provide exceptional service and deliverables to our clients, the positive performance of the company increases the value of our stock and enables the accumulation of wealth for all our employee-owners.  
  
About the Position  
Are you ready to continue your career by collaborating with the world’s leading brands? The Contracts & Compliance Manager is responsible for managing all client and vendor contracts and compliance for the company. This role collaborates closely with internal team members, clients and vendors, and colleagues  at our parent company, ITA Group, to ensure sound contractual practices, adherence, and risk mitigation. This person is also responsible for leading and driving compliance programs designed to comply with laws, regulations, business standards, and contractual commitments. This position reports into the COO/CFO and will preferably be hybrid in our Boston, MA location. 
  
About You  
Your expertise in contracts and compliance is unmatched, and you are a go-to-resource with clients, vendors, and internal stakeholders. People say that you are an outstanding collaborator both internally and externally, and that they look forward to working with you. You are a customer service-oriented problem solver with a “can-do” attitude when challenges arise. You have an exceptional ability to independently influence senior level account executives and proven success in negotiating with Fortune 500 clients. Your success is due, in part, to your passion for tackling problems head-on, your flexibility and creativity, along with your approachability and resolution focused mindset. These are just a few of the reasons you’re excited about bringing your experience to work for our successful custom market research and strategy firm!   

About Your Background  
You’ve worked hard to get to where you are and are ready to own this function to support our organization. Here’s what you’ll be doing and the qualifications we are looking for:  

Responsibilities and Expectations  
Essential Duties  

• Manage all client MSA and NDA contract reviews and compliance requests, including edits and negotiation. 

• Support the Sales and Account Management team when negotiating individual project SOWs.  

• Advise internal team members on contract and compliance requirements, policies, and processes. 

• Update and maintain client requirements exception reporting summarizing terms & conditions that CMB needs to adhere to. 

• Partner with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., Account Management, Client Services, Information Security, IT) to operationalize all client contractual requirements. 

• Oversee and ensure written documentation for all clients, projects, and committed revenues. 

• Manage vendor onboarding and MSA processes with internal vendor owners and outside providers. 

• Manage approved vendor list for internal stakeholders to reference when engaging with outside providers. 

• Develop and deploy processes to track contract compliance across internal functions and with vendors to ensure adherence to policies, processes, standards, and regulations and to mitigate risk. 

• Manage vendor offboarding process (companies and individual contractors) when CMB no longer requires their services. 

• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop new contracts with outside partners and vendors, as needed. 

• Partner with Information Security on vendor risk assessments and mitigations strategies. 

• Analyze new laws, regulations, and contract trends for potential impact on business operations.  

• Identify, develop, and implement continuous improvements to contracts and compliance agreements, policies, and processes. 

• Work on other responsibilities and special projects related to contracts and compliance, as assigned. 

 Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree; JD preferred 

• Minimum of three years of experience leading and driving contracts management and compliance processes in a professional services environment. 

• Highly effective multi-tasker and ability to work with multiple stakeholders simultaneously in a matrixed setting. 

• Exceptional project management skills, attention to detail, and ability to drive bodies of work from start to successful completion. 

• Strong relationship building and diplomacy skills with a customer service mindset. 

• Effective communicator, collaborator, and influencer. 

• Outstanding negotiations and expectation management skills. 

• Creative thinker and problem solver with a can- do attitude when managing challenging situations. 

• Leverages technology, including AI, for efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability. 

• Knowledge of compliance best practices and information security standards.