Associate Counsel, Life Sciences

About the Role

We are seeking a commercially minded attorney to support our U.S. legal contracting function. You will negotiate a broad portfolio of life sciences and technology agreements, advise business teams in practical terms, and help deliver a disciplined, scalable contracting experience through clear templates, playbooks, and escalation standards. You will have meaningful ownership of matters appropriate to your experience, with senior support for novel, high-risk, or strategically significant issues.

Responsibilities

• Draft, review, and negotiate master services agreements, commercial and service agreements, SaaS and software license agreements, data privacy agreements and DPAs, vendor and consulting agreements, reseller agreements, development/developer agreements, and amendments, escalating novel or high-risk issues as appropriate.
• Manage assigned matters from intake through signature, maintaining clear status, required approvals, and organized matter records.
• Apply Legal playbooks, templates, approval thresholds, and fallback positions consistently; identify recurring issues that should be addressed through updated guidance, templates, or process improvements.
• Advise business stakeholders in plain language and collaborate closely with Sales, Finance, Privacy, Security, Procurement, and Commercial Operations.
• Review revisions that introduce legal or complex commercial terms, including revisions to evaluation agreements, and route matters for senior escalation when needed.
• Support Legal ownership of order form and task order templates, including quality checks and controlled self-service.
• Respect the operating boundary: Commercial Operations populates and executes order forms and task orders; Legal owns the framework, legal terms, templates, and escalations.
• Contribute to knowledge management, training, metrics, template maintenance, playbook updates, and alternative legal talent/provider coordination.
• Balance contract velocity and risk using sound judgment, strong organization, and responsive stakeholder communication.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (or equivalent law degree) and active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• Approximately 1-3 years of relevant commercial transactions experience at a law firm, in-house legal department, or comparable environment.
• Strong foundational drafting and negotiation skills, particularly for MSAs, services agreements, SaaS/software licenses, SOW-related frameworks, and privacy/data-processing terms.
• Experience with life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotech, health technology, software, data, or professional-services transactions is strongly preferred.
• Working familiarity with privacy and regulated-data issues; exposure to HIPAA and GDPR is preferred.
• Sound judgment about when to resolve an issue independently and when to escalate.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, responsiveness, and comfort managing multiple matters and deadlines.
• Interest in contract playbooks, template maintenance, knowledge management, and process improvement.

How Success Will Be Measured

• Assigned agreements progress promptly, accurately, and in line with Legal playbooks and approval requirements.
• Escalations are timely and well framed, with clear facts, options, and recommended paths.
• Matter status, approvals, key dates, and supporting records remain accurate and complete.
• Templates and repeatable guidance are applied consistently, and recurring issues are surfaced for improvement.
• Business partners receive practical, clear, and responsive support.