Uplanders rise to meet the challenges they’re faced with, and support each other in career growth. José Bautista, a Contracts Manager, started as an Office Administrator, and has since built essential contract processes that are now used company-wide. Hear about his journey in his own words.
Q: Who, what, and where are you?
A: I’m José Bautista; I am the Contracts Manager for Upland’s Document Workflow team. I’m based out of Las Vegas, NV.
Q: How did you start working at Upland? What has kept you here?
A: I came to work for Upland by way of the InterFAX acquisition in March 2018. Upland has afforded me opportunities for personal and team growth. I have seen many of my co-workers excel within Upland and move into advanced positions that suit their strengths and abilities; and love how many of the different teams within Upland work well together to advance the group.
Q: How has your career grown with Upland?
A: Prior to Upland, I began as an Office Administrator, working on the day-to-day general office administrative functions. Within a year’s time, I accepted a position as Office Manager and began managing the day-to-day office and building operations, some marketing efforts, and contracts processes.
As Interfax grew within Upland, we saw a bigger need to have someone manage more of the document process for all the incoming contracts and services we were providing, so my role continued to grow in that area.
In 2019, I moved from Houston, TX to Las Vegas. Shortly after that, COVID hit. I managed the Houston office remotely and continued building our document process for contract reviews. The team identified a need for this role in other product stacks which resulted in a shift for the position. Soon after, I took over document processes and contracts management for the stack of Document Workflow products.
I then started contracts management classes with University of California-Irving as part of continued education in my position, and my role was effectively changed to contracts manager in 2021.
Q: Balancing a full-time job with going back to school sounds like a challenge. How did you make that work?
A: It was my management team that supported me in that effort to go back to take the course, I have had a lot of support from the InterFAX management team as well as the Upland management team. They’ve been very great at helping us with our growth within the company. I’d still work during the day; the courses were in the evening, twice a week. I was able to manage that along with the daily work schedule.
I’ve seen a lot of people grow since coming to Upland. The environment at Upland helps us to grow personally and as a team, and I’ve just seen everybody continue to excel and progress with their strengths and abilities. Everyone’s found their little niche where they’re best suited for the company. You see people moving and growing, and the management team is really on board to support you in that growth.
Q: Can you tell me about a time you felt successful?
A: The document and contract review processes that I worked to develop in support of the InterFAX product were replicated to support the entirety of that product stack. It was great to see that my efforts helped in creating three other positions to perform the same role in the other three Upland workstacks.
Q: In one word, what does being an Uplander mean to you?
A: Teamwork, as a team I have seen us accomplish a lot! If somebody’s not available, we will pull in and work to help cover those resources while they’re out.
I remember we had an Uplander get injured in an accident, so he couldn’t attend a trade show. So, I went out to the show, set up the booth, and did that week’s booth work at the trade show. I’d never done a show before like that, let alone on my own. It was good training!
Q: What are you looking forward to?
A: In 2022, I have steadily worked alongside the legal team and together, we have built a group that supports the whole of Upland for their document review and contracting needs. I am looking forward to seeing what more Upland has to offer. There is so much room for growth that I envision a long future ahead with this company.