Manager - Government Contracts

The Manager- Government Contracts oversees the unified SLED (State, Local, and Education) and FED (Federal) Contracts Team, providing strategic direction, operational leadership, and subject-matter expertise across all public-sector contracting activities. This role is responsible for managing the full lifecycle of our National Cooperative Contracts and GSA Schedules, ensuring compliance, optimizing contract utilization, and supporting internal stakeholders in navigating contract requirements. The Team Leader serves as the primary liaison between the Contracts Team, Government Team, legal, and field organization to ensure consistent understanding and proper use of all contract vehicles. Responsibilities: * Engages senior management in strategic initiatives to ensure understanding of leadership team and corporate objectives. * Keeps senior-level management informed of department goals, objectives, initiatives, progress, and challenges. * Develops government contract function relative to compliance and business development. * Drafts, reviews, and negotiates complex government contracts potentially valued at $20M+ for sale and purchase of goods and services. * Analyzes government procurement methods and requirements at federal, state, and local levels, including federal acquisition regulation (FAR) and federal supplements. * Provides direction, recommendations, and makes sound decisions on business matters that affect profitability, mitigation of government contractual risks, and performance during procurement process. * Ensures timely response to customer and supplier requests in support of business opportunities, including conducting meetings with internal and external customer and supplier personnel to identify, mitigate, or resolve business challenges. * Develops and implements contracting policies and procedures and applies independent judgment and foresight to continuously adapt such contracting practices to ensure changes to business strategies do not result in breakdown of practices or hinder flow of business. * Interfaces with, and serves as liaison to sales, operations, finance, pricing, and others cross-functional departments. * Acts as focal point for government contract audits, including direct interface with auditors. * Acts as liaison to other functional departments and senior management team. * Manages employment actions, including hiring, promoting, mentoring, training, performance reviews, planning merit increases, and succession planning for government contract management team. * Lead, mentor, and develop the combined SLED and FED Contracts Team, fostering a high-performance, collaborative environment. * Oversee day-to-day operations related to contract administration, compliance, reporting, and process improvement. * Establish and maintain standardized procedures for contract management across all public-sector contract vehicles. * Ensure timely and accurate updates to contract documentation, pricing, terms, and internal resources. * Manage the full portfolio of National Cooperative Contracts and GSA Schedules, including renewals, modifications, extensions, and compliance requirements. * Interpret contract terms, conditions, and regulatory requirements to ensure proper application across the organization. * Monitor contract performance, usage trends, and opportunities for expansion or optimization. * Serve as the internal expert on the rules, restrictions, and best-use scenarios for each contract vehicle. * Partner closely with the Government Team to align contract strategy with overall public-sector business objectives. * Provide guidance to field sales teams on appropriate contract selection, eligibility, pricing structures, and compliance obligations. * Deliver training, resources, and ongoing support to ensure consistent understanding of contract rules and proper usage across the organization. * Act as a key point of escalation for contract-related questions, exceptions, or interpretation issues. * Ensure all contract activities adhere to federal, state, and local procurement regulations, as well as internal policies. * Identify and mitigate risks related to contract execution, pricing, or compliance. * Maintain audit-ready documentation and support internal or external audit activities as needed. * Evaluate emerging trends in public-sector procurement and recommend strategic adjustments to contract offerings or processes. * Drive initiatives to improve contract accessibility, efficiency, and value for internal and external stakeholders. * Contribute to long-term planning for contract portfolio growth and alignment with organizational goals. Qualifications: * Bachelor's Degree is required. * 10 years of progressive managing government contracts experience is required. * 2 years of managing professional staff is required; 5 years preferred. * Expertise with federal acquisition regulations (FARS) and defense federal acquisition regulations (DFARS) regulations is required. * Thorough knowledge of federal, state, and local procurement practices is required. * Knowledge of government contract formation, development, implementation, execution, and administration is required. * Ability to manage, lead, and generate government RFPs is required. * Ability to work effectively, independently, or collaboratively with a team is required. * Strong business decision making and analytical skills is required. * Ability to communicate complicated government contracting concepts to employees, customers, and suppliers is required. * Strong presentation skills with ability to present ideas clearly is required. * Exhibiting initiative, creativity, credibility and accountability is required. * Managing GSA contracts is preferred. #LI-BW1