Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel

At Azenta, new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking are driving our future. Our customer-focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo with novel thinking and collaborative work relationships. 

Azenta Life Sciences is a global leader in the life sciences space with headquarters in Burlington, MA, and offices and operations worldwide. We are a market leader in automated bio sample management solutions and genomic services across areas such as drug development, clinical and advanced cell therapies for the industry's top pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and healthcare institutions globally.   We provide unparalleled capabilities with our lab analysis, sample management and storage services, informatics software, and consumables, with the largest installed base managing millions of samples globally.

POSITION SUMMARY

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.

Unlike a specialist role focused on a single legal discipline, this position is intended for a highly capable legal generalist who can successfully navigate a diverse range of legal and business challenges while exercising strong judgment, influencing senior leaders, and delivering practical, risk-based solutions that enable business objectives. The successful candidate will serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and business partners throughout the organization, helping to shape decisions that affect the Company's people, operations, risk profile, culture, and long-term strategic direction.

The Sr. Director, Assistant General Counsel will lead the Company's labor and employment, compliance, and commercial contracting functions as well as significant portions of the litigation management function while also helping drive operational excellence within the Legal Department. The role requires a leader who can effectively manage other lawyers and legal professionals, develop talent, improve processes, leverage technology, and create a culture of responsiveness, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will possess the intellectual curiosity, enterprise mindset, leadership capability, and business acumen necessary to grow into increasingly broader leadership responsibilities over time. This individual should be capable of understanding and balancing legal, operational, financial, commercial, regulatory, reputational, and human capital considerations while serving as a strategic partner to the global leaders of the Company's operating businesses.

KEY SUCCESS CRITERIA

Strategic Business Partner

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. The successful candidate will be expected to use broad and sound legal judgment to assess unfamiliar issues quickly, identify key risks and opportunities, coordinate specialist resources when necessary, and deliver actionable business advice in a timely manner:

• Advise the leaders of the operating businesses regarding legal, commercial, operational, compliance, and strategic matters.
• Provide rapid, practical guidance on novel and emerging issues.
• Know when to provide direct guidance, when to engage subject matter experts, and how to calibrate legal advice to the significance and risk profile of the issue presented.
• Support major commercial, operational, and strategic initiatives across the enterprise.

Employment Law, Employee Relations & Workplace Risk

Serve as the Legal Department's lead attorney for employment and labor matters globally, partnering closely with Human Resources and business leadership to manage legal risk while supporting organizational objectives:

• 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.

Commercial Contracts & Business Transactions

Lead and oversee the Company's commercial contracting function and contracts team:

• 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.
• Continuously improve contracting strategies, processes, templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and approval frameworks that appropriately balance business objectives and risk management.
• Drive implementation of an AI-based CLM platform to dramatically scale the team’s productivity and contract life cycle management capabilities.

Compliance, Ethics & Enterprise Risk Management

Serve as a senior leader responsible for the continued development, implementation, and oversight of key elements of Azenta's global compliance and ethics program:

• 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.

Leadership & Talent Development

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.

Executive Presence & Influence

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.

Operational Excellence

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.

High-Volume Effectiveness & Prioritization

Thrives 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.

Enterprise Mindset

Looks beyond individual legal issues and understands how legal, compliance, operational, financial, commercial, and reputational risks interact across the enterprise. Makes recommendations that reflect a holistic understanding of the Company's broader objectives and stakeholder interests.

Future Leadership Potential

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. The position offers exposure to the full range of legal, compliance, governance, litigation, employment, contracting, and business issues facing a global public company and is intended to facilitate the development of a well-rounded legal executive capable of assuming broader enterprise leadership responsibilities over time.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• 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.

Preferred

• Public company experience, including familiarity with governance, disclosure, and public-company compliance considerations.
• Life sciences, biotechnology, diagnostics, healthcare, medical technology, industrial technology, or related industry experience.
• Experience managing global employment, compliance, and commercial legal matters.
• Experience with anti-corruption compliance programs, including FCPA and U.K. Bribery Act compliance.
• Experience supporting data privacy and data governance initiatives, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, cross-border data transfer requirements, cybersecurity governance, and emerging AI governance frameworks.
• Experience supporting enterprise compliance programs, whistleblower programs, internal investigations, and risk management initiatives.
• Experience supporting mergers and acquisitions, post-acquisition integrations, strategic partnerships, and other corporate transactions.
• Experience developing and implementing legal operations improvements, technology solutions, contract lifecycle management tools, AI-enabled legal technologies, or other process-efficiency initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a geographically dispersed and globally matrixed organization.

Onsite 4 days/week in one of our office locations:

• Indianapolis, IN
• South Plainfield, NJ
• Burlington, MA

EOE M/F/Disabled/VET

Azenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This company considers candidates regardless of race, color, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.

The posted pay range for this position is an estimate based on current market data and internal pay structure. Final compensation may vary above or below this range depending on factors such as experience, education (including licensure and certifications),  qualifications, performance, and geographic location, among other relevant business or organizational needs.