Associate General Counsel, Legal (US)

Worldwide Clinical Trials•Columbia, NC

3d•Remote

About The Position

As an Associate General Counsel, Legal, you will play a critical leadership role in helping Worldwide navigate complex legal, regulatory, commercial, and compliance matters across a global clinical research environment. Your expertise will directly support the delivery of clinical development services while protecting research participants, strengthening sponsor relationships, and enabling responsible business growth. Working closely with the General Counsel and senior leaders, you'll provide practical, risk-based guidance that balances business objectives with legal and ethical obligations. You'll influence enterprise-wide decisions, lead key legal subject-matter areas, and help shape the future of a scalable, high-performing legal function. This is an opportunity to partner with teams across Clinical Operations, Business Development, Finance, Human Resources, Quality, Technology, Compliance, and Data Privacy to drive business outcomes, reduce risk, and support innovation across a global organization.

Requirements

Juris Doctor from an accredited law school (or equivalent legal qualification appropriate to the jurisdiction), active license to practice law, and membership in good standing in at least one applicable jurisdiction.
8-12+ years of progressively responsible legal experience, including significant in-house leadership experience within a CRO, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, healthcare, or other highly regulated life sciences environment.
Demonstrated experience supporting complex clinical research services, sponsor contracting, regulated operations, and global legal or compliance matters.
Strong expertise in commercial contracting, including master services agreements, statements of work, change orders, clinical research agreements, data protection agreements, and related sponsor-facing arrangements.
Working knowledge of global clinical research regulations, GxP requirements, data privacy and security obligations, healthcare compliance, and research-related contracting.
Proven leadership, coaching, delegation, and change-management capabilities within a global, matrixed organization.
Excellent legal judgment, business acumen, executive-level communication skills, and the ability to manage multiple high-priority matters while delivering practical, risk-calibrated solutions.
Proficiency in English and strong competency with Microsoft 365, legal technology platforms, workflow automation tools, analytics, and responsible AI solutions.

Responsibilities

Advise the General Counsel and senior leadership on complex legal, regulatory, commercial, operational, and reputational risk matters.
Lead strategic legal subject-matter areas and deliver practical guidance that supports business objectives, risk tolerance, and global operations.
Oversee the drafting, negotiation, and execution of complex clinical research and sponsor-facing agreements while balancing risk and commercial outcomes.
Partner with Business Development, Finance, Clinical Operations, and other stakeholders to streamline contracting processes and accelerate business performance.
Collaborate with Quality, Data Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory, and Compliance teams to address GxP, privacy, data integrity, and regulatory obligations.
Support enterprise risk management activities, investigations, compliance initiatives, governance programs, and escalation of significant legal risks.
Provide legal support for mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, corporate governance matters, disputes, and other key business initiatives.
Lead, mentor, and develop legal professionals while advancing operational excellence through processes, metrics, technology, automation, and knowledge management.