Senior Counsel, Commercial
Over the coming years, biotech will fundamentally rewrite the way we live. Gene editing and cell therapy are dramatically changing how we treat cancer and other major illnesses. Biofuels and biomaterials are transforming the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the makeup of everyday objects. Crop science and synthetic biology are producing sustainable and ethical food. Benchling’s mission is to accelerate the research that propels us towards this reality, and magnify its impact, through modern software.
Every day, scientists around the world use Benchling’s applications, platform, & analytics in their efforts to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. For these scientists, Benchling is the central technology they use to conduct their research. Our customers include pharmaceutical giants, leading biotechs, and the world’s most renowned research institutes.
ROLE OVERVIEW
We are looking for a mission-driven, collaborative, and highly-motivated individual to join as a founding member of the legal team as we assemble a world-class group from the ground up. The right person for this role must be a team player who is comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-growth environment and is able to balance legal risk with business objectives. As Senior Counsel, and one of our first lawyers, you will handle a wide variety of transactions across Benchling’s business and develop and implement scalable contracting policies, practices, and processes to remove friction from the deal cycle while protecting Benchling’s interests. You will lead negotiations of complex customer, partner and vendor deals, serve as a trusted advisor to internal stakeholders, and and liaise with Benchling’s deal desk and contracts ops function.
WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON
- Draft, negotiate, and advise cross-functional teams on a wide variety of commercial agreements, including new business development initiatives, software licenses, data agreements, partnership agreements, and vendor contracts.
- Provide thoughtful and practical business and legal advice on various legal risks, business strategies, and other issues related to commercial transactions and general operations.
- Manage and resolve complicated issues related to commercial deals, and drive alignment with various cross-functional teams.
- Own the entire contracting cycle —from initial draft to execution— working with deal desk and business teams to drive contract negotiations to timely and successful completion.
- Build, streamline, and operationalize our contracting process to help us scale domestically and internationally.
ABOUT YOU
- J.D., with strong academic credentials and membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
- 7+ years of commercial transaction experience with significant experience drafting, negotiating, and managing commercial deals for technology companies (either in-house or at a law firm).
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with ability to advocate for a position while maintaining collaborative and open-minded approach.
- Highly organized, reliable, detail-oriented, and diligent.
- Ability to work on multiple issues simultaneously and to set appropriate priorities with clients and to deliver results efficiently.
- Proven ability to provide entrepreneurial, pragmatic, business-oriented advice, with a dedication to superior customer service.
- Ability to operate autonomously while being a team player who brings a positive attitude to the job.
- Experience working on enterprise SaaS, biotech, healthcare or life sciences-related commercial agreements.
- Working knowledge of U.S. and international security, privacy and data protection laws.
- Demonstrated ability to operationalize and scale the commercial contracting process.
- Most importantly, you have a growth mindset, embrace change, and practice with kindness, humility, empathy, integrity, and levity.
Benchling welcomes everyone. We believe every member of our team enriches our diversity and inclusion by broadening our ways of problem-solving for future challenges. Even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications for this job, we strongly encourage you to apply.
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES
- Admit mistakes and shortcomings
- Deliver results
- Disagree and commit
- Obsess over customers
- Rely on work ethic
- Show empathy
- Recruit and develop the best
- Sweat the details
- Think and communicate clearly
- Unite around the mission
PERKS AND BENEFITS
- Work with a talented yet humble team
- Competitive compensation & equity package
- Quarterly mental health days
- Weekly virtual social events, and annual company retreats
- 401k, Medical, dental, and vision insurance (US Employees Only)
- Monthly health & wellness stipend (Currently US Employees Only)
- Yearly educational stipend (Currently US Employees Only)
- To support remote work conditions, Benchling provides each employee a one-time stipend of $1,000(USD) upon commencing employment, and additional discounted employee purchase plans for home-office equipment.
In following best practices and safety protocols, all Benchling employees are expected to work remotely until we are further advised that it is safe for employees to resume work in their respective office locations.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.