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Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.
We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.
We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.
For more information see: www.septerna.com.
THE ROLE & Key Responsibilities
- Senior leader of the legal function at Septerna, including all legal work to be performed in-house or through third-party providers, to efficiently manage the company’s legal activities and effectively manage business risk.
- Manage and direct all general corporate matters, including SEC reporting, disclosure compliance, corporate governance, capital markets transactions (debt/equity), license and collaboration agreements, CRO/CMO agreements, clinical trial agreements, employment law matters, regulatory matters, risk management, and general contract management.
- Lead Septerna’s global patent strategy and intellectual property management, conduct freedom-to-operate reviews, invention harvesting program, due diligence assessments, patentability, and related matters to support scientific and business development teams
- Manage in-house paralegal and other legal staff as company scales growth across both corporate and intellectual property matters.
- Lead enterprise risk management program including company-wide training and compliance program (e.g., intellectual property practices, insider trading, employment matters, interactions with health care providers)
QUALIFICATIONS
- Juris Doctorate from an ABA accredited law school and admitted to practice law in at least one state and before the USPTO. Strong academic background with undergraduate and/or graduate work in biology or chemistry strongly preferred.
- 5+ years of experience managing the in-house legal function for a public biopharma company and 7+ years of demonstrated experience in prosecuting and preparing technically relevant patent applications. Ideal candidates will have practiced law at a highly regarded law firm and served as in-house counsel at a biopharma company.
- Experience and/or demonstrated interest in learning all subject areas encompassing the in-house counsel role including SEC reporting, corporate governance, licensing/collaboration agreements and employment law. Desire for career trajectory to General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer preferred.
- Experience providing counsel to the CEO and board of directors on critical business issues and legal and regulatory compliance matters.
- Strong communication skills and ability to develop and maintain close relationships and collaborate with scientific, commercial, and business development teams.
- Extensive experience with contractual terms and conditions regarding intellectual property ownership, patent prosecution, patent enforcement, indemnification, trade secret, confidentiality, and other important IP terms and conditions.
- General corporate and IP litigation experience preferred either through direct experience or managing outside counsel (e.g., commercial disputes, securities litigation, inter partes reviews, patent infringement actions, trade secret disputes, re-examinations, EU interference proceeding, and patent validity and non-infringement analysis).
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage and lead cross-functional projects.
- $340,000 - $380,000
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