Corporate Counsel, Operating Unit

West Pharmaceutical Services • Uwchlan Township, PA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

West Pharmaceutical Services is seeking a business-oriented Corporate Counsel to join its Operating Unit Legal Team. This role will provide broad-based legal support to commercial and operational teams, serving as a trusted advisor on contracting, risk management, and strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate is a pragmatic attorney with strong transactional experience, sound business judgment, and the ability to independently manage complex matters in a fast-paced, highly regulated environment.

Requirements

• Law degree and bar admittance or license to practice law in at least one US jurisdiction.
• Minimum of 10+ years of legal work experience with a minimum 5-8 preferably combining large law firm and in-house experience.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality at all times.
• Dependability, attention to detail with strong organizational and time management skills a must.
• Must be able to meet deadlines and manage multiple priorities.
• Able to be aware of all relevant SOPs as per Company policy as they are related to the position covered by this Job Description.
• Able to comply with the company’s safety and quality policy at all times.

Nice To Haves

• Preferred experience in pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, or manufacturing industries.
• Preferred familiarity with regulated environments and operational business models.
• Demonstrated ability to embrace simplification of legal processes.
• As comfortable with reading a financial document as legal documents.
• Bias toward problem-solving with a demonstrated ability to innovate and think “outside the box”.
• Learning agility and intellectual curiosity to learn new areas of the law or aspects of the business.
• Significant experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements independently.
• Extensive experience advising multinational clients regarding matters of legal and business importance and managing of related risks.
• Strong analytical, communication, and negotiation skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work as a team player.

Responsibilities

• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of complex commercial agreements, including supply, manufacturing, development, services, confidentiality, and distribution agreements.
• Assist in developing playbooks, risk matrices and contracting guardrails
• Serve as day-to-day legal advisor to assigned business units, business functions and law department initiatives - providing practical and risk-balanced guidance.
• Partner cross-functionally with Commercial, Operations, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Finance, and Quality teams.
• Support strategic initiatives, operational changes and optimization, and enterprise strategic strategy including.
• Develop and deliver proactive legal education to internal stakeholders on identified areas
• Identify legal and business risks and develop practical mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with internal subject matter experts (e.g., intellectual property, compliance, employment, governance) when specialized expertise is required.
• Support continuous improvement of contracting processes and templates to increase efficiency and consistency.
• Manage outside counsel relationships when necessary, including scope and budget oversight.
• Flexibility to serve as primary or backup on designated subject areas, fill capacity gaps dynamically based on need and support workload balancing across a global team of operating unit generalist lawyers
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Community Involvement: West encourages volunteerism through its West without Borders initiative and other charitable programs that make a difference in local communities.
• Continuous Learning & Development: Opportunities for professional growth through training programs, tuition assistance, leadership development, and skill-certification initiatives.
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO): Flexible vacation, personal, and holiday leave ensures employees can maintain a healthy work-life balance and recharge effectively.
• Inclusive & Collaborative Culture: A global workforce that values diversity, equity, and inclusion—where all voices are heard and respected in a supportive environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed