Lead Vendor Contracts Specialist (AI)

Location: Hybrid — 3 days per week in the Hudson Yards, NYC office and 2 days working from home; remote candidates may be considered if their experience is aligned. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship.

Salary: $103,450–$169,960 base pay per year, with potential eligibility for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Company

hirify.global is an insurance company with a Corporate Initiatives & Transactions team within its Law Department.

What you will do

• Draft, negotiate, and close significant vendor agreements, including MSAs, SOWs, SaaS, cloud and technology, outsourcing and managed services, hotel and events, professional services, recruiting, and consulting contracts.
• Own an assigned portfolio of vendor agreements from intake through execution, applying standard positions and pre-approved fallbacks.
• Collaborate with sourcing and procurement on vendor transactions, outsourcing arrangements, and strategic third-party relationships while balancing risk, speed, and business objectives.
• Deliver complete first-pass markups and issue lists within agreed turnaround times using AI-enabled tools, and track open issues, approvals, signatures, and contract-system entry.
• Coordinate Privacy, Information Security, Third-Party Risk, and Procurement reviews.
• Partner with Legal Operations and IT on process improvements, automation, and modernization of vendor contracting.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience drafting and negotiating commercial, technology, or outsourcing contracts in a legal, contracts, or procurement function.
• Experience in financial services, insurance, or another regulated industry, together with vendor contracting experience.
• Ability to make sound, timely decisions within defined parameters and escalate novel, high-risk, or out-of-policy issues appropriately.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to interact with clients and management.
• Ability to handle confidential information with sensitivity and integrity.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of and experience in AI initiatives.
• Familiarity with AI applications such as Harvey and Microsoft Copilot, and interest in applying them to contract review, drafting, and negotiation.
• Experience in sourcing and procurement.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative Law Department environment guided by high ethical standards and the principles that people count, the right thing should be done, and high standards should be maintained.
• Support and flexibility for professional and personal goals.
• Skill-building, leadership development, and philanthropic opportunities.
• Contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources for eligible full-time employees.
• Guardian is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and employees.

Hiring process

• Guardian may use AI tools for preliminary application screening, but hiring decisions are made by Guardian colleagues.
• Applicants may opt out of AI-assisted screening and request an alternative process within ten business days of applying.