Legal Counsel, Commercial

Proteins are the molecular machines of life, used for many therapeutic, diagnostic, chemical, agricultural and food applications. Designing and optimizing proteins takes a lot of expert knowledge and manual effort, through the use of custom computational and biological tools.

Machine learning is revolutionising this space, by enabling high-fidelity protein models. At Cradle, we offer a software platform for AI-guided discovery and optimization of proteins, so that biologists can design proteins faster and at scale. We are already used by clients across pharma, biotech, agritech, foodtech, and academia.

We're an experienced team of around 70 people. We've built many successful products before and have enough funding for multiple years of runway. We are distributed across two main locations, Zurich and Amsterdam, and are focused on building the best possible team culture.

We offer our employees a very competitive salary, a generous equity stake (for full time employees) in the company and a wide range of benefits and career progression opportunities.

Cradle seeking a Legal Counsel for a fully remote position based on Eastern US time. You’ll be working alongside our current Legal Counsel (based in Zurich, Switzerland) in a lean team of two, supported by external advisers, and play a key role in supporting the business through an exciting phase of expansion.

You will provide expert legal advice on a wide variety of topics with a focus on supporting Cradle’s commercial team. As part of a fast-growing international scale up, you’ll ensure our contracts with customers around the globe safeguard the company’s rights. We expect the role’s scope to grow alongside the company’s growth, while offering you the option to work remotely in a dynamic team environment. This is a fantastic opportunity to work on a wide range of matters across the fast-paced AI and biotech environments, where your input will have a real and visible impact.

• Contract Management: Support across the full contract life-cycle, including drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts, in particular Master Services agreements with enterprise Pharma and Industrial Biotech customers, non-disclosure agreements, and partnership agreements with Contract Research Organisations (CROs), academic institutions, software providers and others.

• Template management: Draft and continuously improve contract templates and playbooks, in particular for commercial contracts.

• US Law: Advise on various US law matters, draft or review US contracts and other legal documents. This might include corporate, employment, IP or other matters.

• Regulatory Compliance: Stay abreast of existing and upcoming regulations and ensure that the company complies with relevant laws and regulations.

• Legal Risk Management: Identify and mitigate legal risks associated with the company’s business activities.

• Liaison with External Legal Advisors: engage with external legal advisors in Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States and other jurisdictions, for topics that require local expertise, as well as specialty areas such as intellectual property, data protection and others.

• License & Experience: US Licensed Attorney in good standing, with 5+ years in a law firm or similar in-house position. Extensive experience negotiating complex Services and/or Software-as-a-Service agreements with enterprise clients in Life Sciences, Biotech, and/or Software industries.

• Drafting & Negotiation: Exceptional drafting skills, efficient and with strong attention to detail. Strong negotiator, able to strike a good balance between the protecting legal rights of the company and enabling commercial deal-making.

• Prioritisation & Independence: Thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys wearing different hats and managing multiple tasks, and prioritises effectively. Self-starter, who can work very independently yet knows when and what to escalate.

• Communication & Interpersonal: Outstanding communicator, both oral and written, with strong interpersonal skills. Thrives working collaboratively across teams, and in particular with the commercial team. Customer centric, proactive problem-solver and a high level of integrity.

• Prior experience working in a scale-up, or a software and/or AI technology company

• Familiarity with Swiss, Dutch and/or German law

• Fluency in foreign languages, in particular German, Dutch, or French

A notice about recruitment scams: Please be aware that scammers are posing as us in order to get your personal details or money. We only communicate via @cradle.bio email addresses, we only make job offers after having met you in person at our office in Zurich or Amsterdam, and we never ask you to pay for anything during the interview process.