Senior Counsel, Product & Privacy
Over the next 10 years, biotech will fundamentally rewrite the way we live. Gene editing and cell therapy will dramatically change how we treat cancer and other major illnesses. Biofuels and biomaterials will transform the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the makeup of everyday objects. Crop science and synthetic biology will produce sustainable and ethical food. Benchling’s mission is to accelerate the research that propels us towards this future, and magnify its impact, through modern software.
Every day, scientists around the world use Benchling in their efforts to solve humanity's most pressing problems. For these scientists, Benchling is the central technology they use to conduct their research.
Benchling was founded by a team of MIT graduates and has raised funding from Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and Y Combinator. Our customers include pharmaceutical giants, leading biotechs, and the world's most renowned research institutes.
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 have a broad range of responsibilities, including partnering with our internal engineering, product, and design teams and serving as a trusted advisor to internal stakeholders. You will build and maintain our privacy compliance program, and handle all aspects of product and privacy matters relating to Benchling’s platform, products and services.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Partnering with product and engineering teams to provide guidance on legal issues related to product design, development, and operations, with specific attention to privacy and data protection and open source.
- Creating and developing legal processes and documentation to support new product or other business initiatives.
- Designing, improving, and implementing our global privacy and data protection compliance program and processes, as well as educating our teams about relevant privacy and data protection laws.
- Establishing and maintaining privacy and data protection policies, notices or other documentation, as well as managing privacy and data protection terms in standard contractual arrangements and supporting the commercial legal team in negotiations with customers.
- Working closely with the product, engineering, security and IT teams to support our security initiatives, frameworks, and requirements.
- Monitoring and advising on regulatory and industry developments, including trends in privacy and security laws, regulatory guidance, enforcement actions, and public policy.
ABOUT YOU (Qualifications)
- J.D., with strong academic credentials and membership in at least one U.S. state bar (CA, NY preferred).
- 7+ years of experience as product and privacy counsel (including in-house and law firm experience).
- 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.
- Deep experience and knowledge of U.S. and international security, privacy and data protection laws, including HIPAA, CCPA and GDPR.
- Ability to design and implement privacy compliance programs
- Experience working on enterprise SaaS, biotech, healthcare or life sciences-related technology products and services.
- Most importantly, you have a growth mindset, embrace change, and practice with kindness, humility, empathy, integrity, and levity.
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
*COVID-19 Perks updates
PERKS AND BENEFITS
- Work with a talented yet humble team
- Competitive compensation & equity package
- Monthly health & wellness stipend
- 401k
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Weekly virtual social events, and annual company retreats
- *$1,000 work-from-home stipend
*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. To support remote work conditions, Benchling provides each employee a one-time stipend of $1,000 upon commencing employment, and additional discounted employee purchase plans for home-office equipment.
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.