Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel
About the role
The Sr. Director, Assistant General Counsel serves as a senior leader within Azenta's Legal Department and as one of the General Counsel's principal deputies. Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, this role provides strategic legal counsel and executive-level business partnership across a broad spectrum of legal, compliance, employment, contracting, litigation, governance, and operational matters affecting a global public company.
Responsibilities
Serve as one of the Company's principal business-facing attorneys, providing practical legal advice across the full spectrum of legal and operational issues confronting a global life sciences company.
Advise on employee relations matters, workplace investigations, performance management, disability accommodations, leaves of absence, compensation issues, restrictive covenants, reductions in force, executive separations, and workforce restructuring activities.
Manage employment litigation, administrative proceedings, demand letters, agency charges, and pre-litigation disputes.
Direct outside labor and employment counsel worldwide, ensuring effective legal strategy, consistent legal positions, and efficient management of legal spend.
Support global employment compliance initiatives and policy development across U.S. and international jurisdictions.
Provide practical, risk-based guidance to managers and HR professionals on complex workplace matters.
Partner with commercial and operational leaders to resolve contractual issues and accelerate business execution.
Advise on and negotiate complex customer, supplier, services, software, SaaS, licensing, distribution, procurement, consulting, confidentiality, and strategic partner agreements.
Lead and oversee the Company's commercial contracting function and contracts team.
Lead and help continuously improve the Company's compliance and ethics framework, partnering with the General Counsel, Human Resources, Internal Audit, Information Security, Finance, and business leaders worldwide.
Oversee the Company's Speak Up / whistleblower program, including intake processes, investigation oversight, remediation tracking, trend analysis, and reporting to senior management and the Board as appropriate.
Provide legal and strategic leadership for the Company's anti-corruption compliance program, including compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the U.K. Bribery Act, and other applicable anti-corruption laws.
Support and oversee compliance training initiatives, policy development, monitoring activities, risk assessments, and internal investigations.
Lead legal support for the Company's global data privacy and data protection compliance efforts, including governance initiatives relating to GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, cross-border data transfers, and data governance.
Advise the GC and management on emerging regulatory developments and evolving compliance obligations affecting the Company's global operations.
Oversee selected specialized compliance programs and regulatory initiatives, including compliance with U.S. Department of Justice requirements relating to bulk sensitive personal data transfers and other emerging national security, trade, and regulatory compliance obligations.
Promote a culture of integrity, accountability, transparency, and ethical business conduct throughout the organization.
Successfully leads, develops, mentors, and motivates attorneys and other legal personnel.
Builds high-performing teams, creates accountability, provides coaching and development opportunities, and fosters a culture in which individuals can achieve their full potential.
Earns the confidence and respect of executive leadership through sound judgment, professionalism, responsiveness, and credibility.
Communicates effectively with audiences at all levels of the organization and distills complex legal concepts into clear, practical business recommendations.
Continuously improves legal service delivery through process optimization, technology adoption, scalable workflows, and effective resource allocation.
Uses data and metrics where appropriate to improve efficiency, transparency, and results.
Thrive in a fast-paced environment with numerous competing priorities.
Exercises sound judgment in triaging issues, allocating resources, and ensuring that the most significant legal and business risks receive appropriate attention.
Makes recommendations that reflect a holistic understanding of the Company's broader objectives and stakeholder interests.
Demonstrates the leadership capabilities, strategic perspective, executive maturity, business acumen, and organizational influence necessary to assume progressively broader leadership responsibilities over time within a global public company.
Qualifications
- Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an ABA-accredited law school.
- Active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar.
- 10+ years of progressive legal experience, including significant experience in a corporate legal department and/or top-tier law firm environment.
- Demonstrated experience serving as a legal advisor across a broad range of business and operational matters.
- Significant labor and employment law experience, including counseling on employee relations matters, workplace investigations, compliance issues, workforce restructurings, executive employment matters, and management of employment-related litigation.
- Demonstrated experience supervising outside counsel, managing legal budgets, and directing litigation strategy.
- Significant experience drafting, negotiating, and advising on complex commercial agreements and business transactions.
- Demonstrated success recruiting, developing, mentoring, motivating, and retaining high-performing legal professionals while building collaborative, accountable, and service-oriented teams.
- Experience supporting and/or leading compliance programs, investigations, ethics initiatives, policy development, training programs, and risk mitigation efforts.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex legal issues clearly to executives and business leaders.
- Exceptional business judgment and the ability to balance legal, regulatory, commercial, operational, and reputational considerations.
- Demonstrated ability to manage a large volume of diverse legal matters efficiently while maintaining high-quality work product and responsiveness.
- Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders across all levels of a global organization.