Paralegal
Summit Therapeutics· Biotechnology· Oct 21, 2026 · 6d ago
Palo Alto, CA (US)
In office
Full-time
Senior
$90K–$120K est.
6+ years exp
Job description
About Summit:
Summit Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical oncology company with a mission focused on improving quality of life, increasing potential duration of life, and resolving serious unmet medical needs. At Summit, we believe in building a team of world class professionals who are passionate about this mission, and it is our people who drive this mission to reality. Summit’s core values include integrity, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, collaboration, and our commitment to people. Our employees are truly the heart and soul of our culture, and they are invaluable in shaping our journey toward excellence.
Summit’s team is inspired to touch and help change lives through Summit’s clinical studies in the field of oncology. Summit has multiple global Phase 3 clinical studies, including:
Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
HARMONi: Phase 3 clinical study which was intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to placebo plus chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who were previously treated with a 3rd generation EGFR TKI.
HARMONi-3: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.
HARMONi-7: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab monotherapy compared to pembrolizumab monotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.
Colorectal Cancer (CRC)
HARMONi-GI3: Phase 3 clinical study intended to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy compared with bevacizumab plus chemotherapy.
Ivonescimab is an investigational therapy not presently approved by any regulatory authority other than China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Summit is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and has additional offices in California, New Jersey, the UK, and Ireland.
Overview of Role:
Summit is looking for an experienced, technology-minded Legal Operations Paralegal to help shape how our legal department works. Reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer, you will lead efforts to make our legal operations more efficient. Your main focus will be administering, optimizing, and championing our Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system.
This role combines hands-on paralegal work with operational leadership. You will be the go-to expert on how contracts move through the business, train colleagues across departments, and support a broad range of legal matters, including contracting, litigation, securities, intellectual property prosecution and litigation, compliance, and other general matters. If you enjoy improving processes, adopting new technology, and working with teams across the company, this role offers real visibility and impact.
This role is based at our Palo Alto office and will work onsite Monday–Thursday, with the option to work remotely on Friday. Additional remote days may be considered.
Key Responsibilities:
Legal Operations and CLM Administration
Lead efforts to improve legal operations, with a primary focus on administering, optimizing, and maintaining the company's CLM system.
Configure and refine CLM workflows, templates, clause libraries, approval routing, and reporting to support efficient contracting.
Find opportunities to streamline legal processes, reduce turnaround times, and improve data quality and visibility across the contract portfolio.
Keep accurate contract records, metadata, and repositories so that obligations, renewals, and key dates are tracked reliably.
CLM Subject Matter Expert and Trainer
Serve as the internal subject matter expert for the CLM system across all departments.
Onboard new users and deliver training sessions, both live and recorded, tailored to different business teams.
Answer end-user questions, troubleshoot issues, and create user guides, FAQs, and best-practice resources.
Work with the CLM vendor on system updates, enhancements, and issue resolution.
Due Diligence Support
Support due diligence efforts in connection with corporate transactions, financings, partnerships, and other strategic initiatives as they arise.
Organize and manage data rooms, track diligence requests, and summarize key contract terms and findings.
Litigation Support
Assist with litigation matters, including discovery, document collection, document review, and production as the need arises.
Coordinate with outside counsel on case logistics, deadlines, and document management.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Work day to day with the Chief Legal Officer, in-house patent and transactional attorneys, and outside counsel to resolve legal issues and meet operational needs.
Partner closely with Research & Development, Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Business Development, Procurement, and Finance, as well as third-party vendors, to support the business.
Build strong relationships with business stakeholders to understand their needs and make the legal department a responsive, effective partner.
Contract Drafting, Review, and Management
Review, draft, and manage a range of agreements, under supervision of an attorney, such as NDAs, SoWs, and amendments, applying a strong command of contract language and in-house legal processes.
Manage contracts through their full lifecycle, from intake and negotiation support through execution, storage, and renewal.
Escalate non-standard terms and risk issues to attorneys as appropriate.
Qualifications and Requirements
6+ years of paralegal experience, preferably in an in-house legal department.
Demonstrated experience with CLM systems (e.g., Agiloft, Ironclad, Icertis, DocuSign CLM, Conga) or equivalent platforms.
Strong technology aptitude and comfort learning and using legal tech tools.
Deep understanding of contract law, contract language, and in-house legal processes.
Experience supporting litigation and due diligence matters.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams, outside counsel, and vendors.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
A strong understanding of how to maintain and protect the confidentiality of sensitive information.
Paralegal certificate or relevant degree preferred.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in industry, e.g., life sciences, biotechnology, or pharmaceutical industry, including familiarity with agreements common to that sector e.g., clinical trial agreements, CDAs, CRO/vendor agreements, licensing agreements.
Extensive knowledge of contracts in general, across a variety of agreement types.
Hands-on experience implementing or migrating a CLM system.
Familiarity with e-discovery platforms, e-signature tools, and legal matter management or spend management software.
Experience building dashboards, reports, or metrics to measure legal operations performance.
Knowledge of legal operations frameworks and best practices
This is the pay for this position Pay Transparency $139,000 — $163,000 USD
Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor. The total compensation package for this position may also include bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable variable compensation.
Summit does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site. All employment businesses/agencies are required to contact Summit’s Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@smmttx.com to obtain prior written authorization before referring any candidates to Summit.
Summit Therapeutics Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and takes pride in creating and maintaining diverse environment. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training or promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.
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