Commercial Counsel, Growth

Biotechnology is rewriting life as we know it, from the medicines we take, to the crops we grow, the materials we wear, and the household goods that we rely on every day. But moving at the new speed of science requires better technology.

Benchling's mission is to unlock the power of biotechnology. The world's most innovative biotech companies use Benchling's R&D Cloud to power the development of breakthrough products and accelerate time to milestone and market.

Come help us bring modern software to modern science.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We are looking for a mission-driven, collaborative, and highly-motivated individual to join as a founding member of the commercial legal team as part of Benchling's broader legal team. 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, Commercial 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, contracts operations and other stakeholders.

YOUR IMPACT

• Draft, negotiate, and advise cross-functional teams on a broad range of commercial agreements, including software and SaaS, partnerships, professional services and outsourcing, IT infrastructure, marketing and advertising technology, and various supplier agreements.
• Provide thoughtful and practical business and legal advice to internal clients on various legal risks, opportunities, business strategies, and other issues related to commercial transactions and general operations.
• Assist with the development of standard template language to be used in contracts, ancillary documents and associated playbooks.
• Participate in cross-team efforts to develop and implement policies and procedures relating to go-to-market efforts
• Help create and deliver education, information, and training programs for the sales organization on negotiation best practices and relevant legal issues
• Train and advise new members of the Commercial Legal Team on the preparation, negotiation and execution of commercial agreements.

ABOUT YOU

Must Haves

• JD and demonstrated record of success as a lawyer and member of local State Bar or eligible to register as Registered In-House Counsel.
• 8+ years of commercial transactions legal experience, including 4+ years as in-house counsel negotiating complex technology transactions including enterprise SaaS, biotech, healthcare or life sciences-related.
• Experience leading, drafting and negotiating complex strategic commercial transactions with a range of customers including Fortune Global 2000 companies.
• Proven ability to provide entrepreneurial, pragmatic, business-oriented advice, with a dedication to superior customer service.
• Experience advising internal and external clients on and managing multiple deals simultaneously on tight deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Experience effectively collaborating with business and other cross functional teams (sales, security, privacy, product, finance) to drive alignment and resolve complicated issues related to commercial deals.
• Most importantly, you have a growth mindset, embrace change, and practice with kindness, humility, empathy, integrity, and levity.

Nice to Haves

• Demonstrated knowledge of U.S. and international security, privacy and data protection matters as they relate to commercial transactions.
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize and scale the commercial contracting process.

OUR VALUES

• Empower through information. We explain the "why" behind every decision, unless there are highly sensitive circumstances. We're honest about how we're doing, especially in difficult times. We believe that sharing information builds trust and enables better decision-making.
• Rely on tenacity. Hard work is one of the greatest factors to determine success and is fully under our control. We must make the most of every day by bringing the highest level of determination. Dreaming big is not enough.
• Raise the bar. Pushing ourselves and others to improve will be uncomfortable and at times result in failure. However, it's critical to our success. We're dedicated to creating a place where everyone feels challenged to improve.
• Build a lever. We choose to build tools and infrastructure that will help others make world-changing innovations. There's less glory in it, but in the words of Archimedes, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."

#LI-JE1 #LI-Remote

Benchling welcomes everyone.

We believe diversity enriches our team so we hire people with a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications for this job, we strongly encourage you to apply.

We are an equal opportunity employer. That means we don't 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.

Our leadership principles guide how all Benchlings can lead by example:

• 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

For applicants for U.S.-based roles only: All new hires in the United States are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to provide proof of vaccination prior to their first day of employment. If you are unable to be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons, we will explore potential reasonable accommodations; however, Benchling may not be able to grant such accommodations in all cases if doing so would cause undue hardship.

If you are a Colorado, Connecticut, or New York City resident: Please contact us by emailing salary-inquiries@benchling.com to receive compensation and benefits information for this role. Please include the job title in the subject line of the email.