Vice President, Enterprise Contracts

DEPARTMENT:Legal

REPORTS TO: Chief Legal Officer

LOCATION:Dallas-Fort Worth / Hybrid

At Bright Path, we believe every child deserves the best start in life. That starts with exceptional people.

As one of North America's fastest-growing providers of early childhood education, we're expanding through new center openings and strategic acquisitions while investing in the people who make our mission possible.

The Vice President, Enterprise Contracts serves as the Company's enterprise leader for contracting strategy, governance, and lifecycle operations. This role is responsible for overseeing the full lifecycle management of commercial, government, real estate, and strategic agreements while driving enterprise-wide contracting standards, process improvement initiatives, risk management, and operational excellence across a growing multi-site organization. The role will also provide significant acquisition/integration support and serve as the Legal team representative on key cross-functional projects.

As a senior member of the Legal team, the Vice President will partner closely with Shared Services, Operations, Finance, Real Estate, Marketing, Growth, HR, IT, and field leadership to ensure efficient, compliant, and scalable contracting practices.

The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in complex contract negotiation, government contracting, real estate and leasing matters, enterprise governance, and large-scale project execution. This individual will play a critical role in protecting the Company's interests, supporting growth initiatives, and enhancing operational effectiveness across the enterprise.

• Serve as the Company's senior leader for enterprise contract governance, contracting strategy, and lifecycle operations.
• Advise executive leadership regarding contractual rights, obligations, business risks, compliance requirements, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Develop and implement enterprise-wide contracting standards, approval processes, policies, procedures, templates, playbooks, and governance frameworks.
• Perform complex contract analysis and provide practical, fact-based recommendations that appropriately balance legal, operational, financial, and business objectives.
• Analyze, interpret, and resolve complex contractual issues involving vendors, customers, landlords, government entities, acquisition targets, and strategic partners.
• Establish performance metrics, reporting frameworks, and key performance indicators to measure contracting effectiveness and support executive decision-making.
• Build a culture of accountability, compliance, and operational excellence across the contracting function.

• Lead Legal's role in the review, negotiation, drafting, administration, and interpretation of a broad range of agreements, including:
  • Vendor and supplier agreements
  • Technology and software agreements
  • Professional services agreements
  • Real estate leases and occupancy agreements
  • Construction, facilities, and maintenance agreements
  • Transportation and fleet agreements
  • Government and public-sector contracts
  • Strategic partnership agreements
  • Data privacy and information security agreements
• Independently negotiate complex contractual arrangements while appropriately escalating legal, financial, operational, and compliance risks.
• Manage contract obligations, renewals, amendments, notices, assignments, and contract closeout activities.
• Ensure contractual commitments and business requirements are clearly documented, tracked, and fulfilled throughout the contract lifecycle.

• Support the negotiation, administration, and compliance obligations associated with federal, state, and local government contracts, grants, subsidy programs, and public-sector partnerships.
• Advise business stakeholders on government procurement requirements, contractual risks, regulatory obligations, and compliance expectations.
• Support proposal review, contract administration, and ongoing contract performance activities associated with government-funded programs.
• Maintain familiarity with applicable government contracting frameworks, procurement regulations, and compliance requirements.
• Coordinate with Legal, Finance, Operations, and other business leaders to ensure compliance with contractual and regulatory obligations.

• Support the negotiation of certain leases, amendments,…