Senior Corporate Counsel

Ginkgo Bioworks Inc.; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 144,000 - 217,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock awards

Medical, dental & vision

Health spending accounts

401(k) with employer contribution

Paid holidays

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Job summary

Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston seeks a Senior Corporate Counsel to oversee commercial transactions, support and advise foundry supply chains and operations, and lead negotiation of agreements. You will collaborate with internal teams to balance risk and opportunity while accelerating growth.

With a strong background in life sciences, you will architect legal frameworks for new offerings, manage complex deals, and contribute to a culture of clarity, integrity, and durable partnerships across the

Qualifications

• Minimum of 8 years’ experience as a lawyer in a legal environment; JD required.
• Experience supporting business development, logistics and alliance management in life sciences.
• Ability to lead and negotiate complex agreements with diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Work with commercial teams to support customer transactions, sales outreach, marketing and alliance management.
• Provide balanced legal advice addressing risk and business opportunity, ensuring compliance.
• Lead and negotiate agreements with customers, distributors, partners and suppliers.
• Review technical and logistical materials to support transactions and programs.
• Execute and manage multiple deals in a fast-paced environment.
• Communicate clearly with stakeholders to assign ownership for initiatives.

Skills

Legal experience

Negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

Commercial transactions

Risk assessment

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Job description

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.

Ginkgo Introduction

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.

Team Introduction

Our Corporate Legal Team is focused on providing creative solutions to help drive these groundbreaking endeavors at Ginkgo, and we’re seeking a talented, motivated, and energetic Senior Corporate Counsel to join our team. In particular, you’ll support the growth of our business by overseeing commercial transactions, supporting and advising our foundry supply chains and operations, leading and negotiating agreements, engaging with existing collaborators, architecting the legal framework for new offerings and more. With your in-depth legal experience in supporting business development, logistics, and alliance management in the life sciences space, your role will be critical to Ginkgo’s success.

Job Description:

Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with Ginkgo’s commercial teams by supporting customer transactions, sales outreach, marketing and alliance management.
• Engage with internal teams to provide balanced legal advice managing risk and business opportunity, all in a compliant manner.
• Actively lead and negotiate agreements with our customers, distributors, industry partners, and suppliers, which may include collaboration and licensing agreements, software agreements, purchase agreements, acquisition agreements, strategic service agreements, material transfer agreements, financial agreements, leasing agreements, and supplier and other procurement agreements.
• Review technical and logistical materials to support our business development and program teams to ensure compliance with associated transactions.
• Execute and manage multiple deals, matters and responsibilities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
• Speak clearly and directly with multiple stakeholders to create consensus and assign ownership for complex initiatives.
• Participate in team-building activities and communications to reinforce the camaraderie and partnership that defines the legal team.
• Act in a manner that exemplifies the professionalism and excellence of the legal team.
• React to new challenges with poise and a drive toward effective and efficient problem-solving.
• Take humility seriously.
• Acclimate to an environment that is constantly changing and adapting and be ready for responsibilities to evolve.

Minimum Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years’ experience working as a lawyer in a legal environment; years of experience in a high pressure law firm environment will be considered when determining minimum experience. JD required.
• Ability to discern between low impact efforts and high impact efforts and make wise decisions about time management.
• Directs resources efficiently towards company priorities, with cost control in mind.
• Effective communicator.
• History of honest, direct and quick communication of issues that arise within a project or organization.
• Ample experience managing projects/programs with a company-wide impact that require significant indirect and cross-functional influence.
• Reputation for having good judgment when making decisions balancing risk and business opportunity.
• Dedication to making biology easier to engineer.

Closing

To learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:

What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)

Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)

Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: ‘If we try, we can win’ (CNBC)

Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)

Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)

Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)

The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)

Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)

Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)

Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)

We also feel that it’s important to point out the obvious here – there’s a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.

We’re developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can – and will – impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it’s something we’ll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it’s critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.

It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.

Special Requirements/Materials to be Provided by Candidates

• Please let us know if any special requirements/materials should be included with the job post (i.e deal sheet, programming portfolios, cover letter, etc.) Please speak with the talent acquisition team if you need special requirements outside of the standard forms or want to know what is already in place in Lever with regards to your specific special requirement.
• In all applications, application source and EEO (equal employment opportunity) data fields along with links (LinkedIn, Twitter, Github) are included in the post for the candidate to populate.

The base salary range for this role is $144,400–$217,200. Actual pay within this range will depend on a candidate’s skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer company stock awards, a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full-week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.

Ginkgo has implemented a return to office policy effective October 1, 2025 with required in-office days 5x per week. Some teams may require to be onsite 4-5 days per week and this will be discussed as part of the interview process. This policy applies to all employees who live within 50 miles of Ginkgo’s offices in Boston, MA, Emeryville, CA and West Sacramento, CA.

It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet.

Privacy Notice

I understand that I am applying for employment with Ginkgo Bioworks and am being asked to provide information in connection with my application. I further understand that Ginkgo gathers this information through a third-party service provider and that Ginkgo may also use other service providers to assist in the application process. Ginkgo may share my information with such third-party service providers in connection with my application and for the start of employment. Ginkgo will treat my information in accordance with Ginkgo’s Privacy Policy. By submitting this job application, I am acknowledging that I have reviewed and agree to Ginkgo’s Privacy Policy as well as the privacy policies of the third-party service providers used by Ginkgo’s associated with the application process.