Research Operations Specialist – Contracts, Vendors & Spend

Job not on LinkedIn

🔥 40 minutes ago

🇺🇸 United States – Remote

💵 $100 - $114 / hour

⏱ Part Time

🟠 Senior

🔴 Lead

⚙️ Operations

👻 Ghost score 0%

What it means: how likely this posting is sitting open without active hiring.How to read it: 60% or higher means we think this is a ghost. Lower scores are less of a worry.How we score it: age, reposts, open roles vs team size, how fast jobs close, and whether pay is listed.Fine print: an estimate from public data, not a judgment of the company. Real jobs can score high, so treat it as a hint, not a fact.

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Maleda Tech

WebsiteLinkedInAll Job Openings

11 - 50 employees

💼 Consulting

📦 Logistics

🎯 Recruiter

Consulting • Logistics • Recruitment

Maleda Tech is a global contingent workforce solutions provider offering Employer of Record (EOR) services, Managed Service Provider (MSP) programs, Vendor Management System (VMS) implementation, staff augmentation, recruiting, strategic sourcing, tail spend management, and legal/contract operations. They position themselves as a personalized, boutique partner focused on risk compliance and efficient hiring, with an emphasis on diversity (committed to recruiting at least 85% of employees from diverse backgrounds). The company also runs immersive training and mentorship programs to build candidate pipelines and has operations in the Bay Area (California, US) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).

📋 Description

• Guide contracts from project request through signed agreement, including scoping, statements of work, approvals, and kickoff • Represent researchers in scoping and negotiation • Translate study needs into clear commercial terms and reduce unnecessary back-and-forth • Partner with Finance and research leads on budgets and forecasts • Track spend, prepare quarterly forecasts, and conduct monthly budget reviews • Maintain current visibility into active contracts, onboarding, and approvals • Keep researchers informed about status and next steps • Manage spend requests in Zip and Oracle, including purchase orders, change orders, invoices, and requisitions • Onboard and offboard vendors and tools, including supplier questionnaires, NDAs, risk and privacy reviews, legal routing, tool access, and integrations • Coordinate master service agreements, statements of work, NDAs, and renewals with Legal and Procurement • Adapt to legal, procurement, and data requirements in international markets, including EMEA and China • Maintain the contract repository, retainer trackers, and master supplier list • Track renewals at 30, 60, and 90 days • Support transitions to retainer-based vendor and agency models • Support vendor evaluation and consolidation, including review of data-use, model-training, and data-processing terms for AI tools • Serve as primary contact with Legal, Privacy, Security, Procurement, Sourcing, Finance, and Accounts Payable • Anticipate and resolve review bottlenecks, set timeline expectations, and escalate stalled reviews • Maintain operating data in Airtable • Support knowledge management across the shared drive, research repository, and team tools

🎯 Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in procurement, contract administration, or vendor operations; 10+ years is ideal • Strong contract-reading judgment, including identifying gaps or risks and knowing when to involve Legal • Experience with contracting and procurement across global markets, including differing legal, privacy, and procurement requirements by region • Hands-on experience with procure-to-pay systems, ideally Zip and Oracle • Comparable platform experience, such as Coupa, with ability to learn new systems quickly • Systems-minded approach covering the full lifecycle from intake to contract to spend • Exceptional organization and attention to detail • Clear, proactive communication with researchers, finance partners, and vendors • Legal or contracts-focused background, such as paralegal or contract management experience (preferred) • Experience working in or alongside research teams, particularly UX research, market research, or consumer insights (preferred) • Hands-on Airtable experience, including automations (preferred) • Experience with Salesforce and DocuSign (preferred) • Day-to-day use of AI tools, ideally including building automations, agents, or AI-assisted workflows (preferred) • Must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship

🏖️ Benefits

• Medical benefits • Dental benefits • Vision benefits • 401(k)