Associate Director, Legal Project Manager

Xenon Pharmaceuticals•Needham, MA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Xenon Pharmaceuticals is a neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company dedicated to drug discovery, clinical development, and commercialization of life-changing therapeutics. We are seeking an experienced Legal Project Manager to support Legal & Corporate Governance matters. This role will work closely with and support the Chief Legal Officer, the Executive Director, Legal (corporate, securities & governance), and the Legal & Compliance team, as well as senior leaders in Human Resources and Finance. The ideal candidate will have a strong grasp of technology, including SharePoint and board portal tools (Diligent), and will provide critical support for the management of the corporate filings calendar and deadlines. This individual will ensure compliance with state and federal corporate filings in the US and Canada, including filings with the SEC and SEDI in Canada, and state corporate filings as the company expands its presence in various US states. The role requires a motivated self-starter with exceptional organizational skills, strong communication abilities, a high level of commitment, ownership, and a keen sense of urgency. A strong understanding of confidentiality and discretion is essential, given the sensitive nature of the Legal department's work. Additional important attributes include an achievement orientation, exceptional organizational skills, and a positive "can do" attitude with full commitment to Xenon.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
Paralegal certificate or comparable legal training preferred.
8+ years of progressively responsible experience in corporate governance, securities, corporate paralegal work, legal operations, or legal project management.
Experience supporting a publicly traded company, preferably within biotech.
Demonstrated experience coordinating Board and committee operations and preparing governance materials.
Substantive experience supporting SEC reporting, Section 16 filings, proxy materials, securities compliance, or comparable public company requirements.
Experience managing domestic or international subsidiaries, corporate records, registered-agent relationships, and recurring entity compliance obligations.
Experience designing, documenting, and improving business processes, controls, workflows, and legal-operating practices.
Experience with legal technology platforms such as Diligent, Workiva, virtual data room platforms, or comparable systems.
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint.
Experience supporting intellectual property, financing, business development, licensing, or transactional matters is an asset.

Responsibilities

Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of Board of Directors and committee processes, including annual calendars, agendas, meeting materials, briefing documents, minutes, consent resolutions, approvals, follow-up actions, and governance records.
Serve as a key Legal department liaison and administrative contact for the Board, executive leadership, internal stakeholders, Finance, internal and external counsel, and third-party service providers, fostering strong cross-functional partnerships and timely decision-making.
Spearhead processes to ensure timely cross-functional review, approval, and filing of public company securities disclosures and corporate governance materials, including periodic and current reports, proxy statements, Section 16 filings, confidential treatment requests, and related regulatory filings.
Coordinate annual and quarterly D&O questionnaires, independence reviews, related-party updates, Board and committee assessments, governance data collection, and other recurring public company compliance obligations.
Manage governance and securities compliance calendars, checklists, approvals, user access, delegations, filing documentation, and internal controls to support accurate, complete, and on-time execution.
Lead subsidiary and entity management activities, including maintaining good standing across jurisdictions, coordinating with registered agents and outside counsel, supporting annual reports, registrations, officer and director changes, and maintaining accurate entity records and compliance calendars.
Lead and coordinate the monthly inducement program, including drafting consents, obtaining required approvals, maintaining supporting documentation, and filing the Listing of Additional Shares form with Nasdaq.
Manage virtual data rooms for business development, financing, licensing, corporate transactions, or diligence activities, including folder structure, document collection, permissions, external access, outreach tracking, and post-process follow-up.
Support Intellectual Property and Trademark teams by coordinating invention disclosure signatures, declarations, assignments, powers of attorney, communications with inventors and outside IP counsel, and organization and tracking of trademark portfolio information.
Lead Legal department process improvement initiatives, including developing and maintaining SOPs, templates, checklists, playbooks, SharePoint filing structures, naming conventions, access controls, document retention practices, and other scalable workflow tools.
Proactively assess administrative systems, legal technology, records management, and cross-functional workflows to improve efficiency, accuracy, transparency, confidentiality, and accountability across Legal, Compliance, and IP operations.
Manage sensitive and confidential information with sound judgment and discretion, including matters involving corporate governance, Board communications, securities filings, Legal strategy, intellectual property, transactions, and executive-level matters.
Provide operational and administrative support to the Chief Legal Officer and Legal leadership as needed, including expense reports, credit card reconciliations, vendor coordination, invoice administration, reporting, and special projects.
Demonstrate strong project leadership, executive communication, discretion, organizational judgment, and proficiency with legal technology and Microsoft 365 platforms, including tools such as Diligent, Workiva, EDGAR, virtual data rooms, entity-management systems, SharePoint, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.