Assistant General Counsel

About Benson Hill
Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, tasty and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. This platform allows for cost-effective and more efficient ways for companies to analyze and make improvements in plant genetics. Benson Hill brings a unique and holistic approach to our product and platform development, as we span a broader workflow involving trait and seed development, genome editing, and breeding all the way to creating better ingredients and varieties that tap a strong consumer demand for more flavorful and nutritious fruits and vegetables. More information can be found online at www.bensonhill.com. Follow us on Twitter at @BensonHillInc.

Our Purpose and Core Values

Our Core Values are a set of common principles we share that are fundamental to our company’s identity.

• Be Bold!  We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively.
• Be Inspired! We have purpose in our work-we are curious, engaged, and have fun. We maintain an active learning mindset and are motivated by diverse people and thoughts. We are energized by all innovators and together we aim to make an impact and contribute to building a better world.
• Be Real! We understand who we are, what we want to achieve, and what it takes to get there. We hold each other accountable through timely, candid, and well-intentioned feedback. Together we engage in honest communication and healthy debate that leads to success through true alignment.

Department Overview

The Legal Department operates to proactively leverage legal and regulatory conditions to maximize business outcomes. The team provides proactive legal support to functional groups/departments across the organization to ensure ongoing compliance with appropriate laws, policies and practices.  The team also supports the operations of the organization through contract negotiation, corporate governance, proactive client counseling and training, and intellectual property strategy and execution.

Position Summary

We are actively seeking a Assistant General Counsel with well-rounded generalist experience to join our evolving legal team.  Areas of support will include proactive and strategic legal support in a variety of areas including commercial transactions, licensing, finance, employment matters and the development of policies and procedures to minimize risk and support the fast-paced growth objectives of Benson Hill.

You Will:

(Essential Duties and Responsibilities) 

• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide variety of commercial transaction documents such as M&A documents, real estate leases, licensing, and strategic business alliances.
• Partnering with the Human Resources team on employment matters, including employee terminations, performance management, investigations, accommodations, reorganizations, and other employment-related matters. .
• Supporting activities to ensure that the company is in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations; monitors compliance and makes recommendations regarding implementation of procedures or policies, including the implementation of best practices for legal department management.
• Collaborating with and facilitating cross-functional decision-making among the Legal team, HR Team, Finance team, and other internal teams.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned. 

You Have:

(Competencies and Qualifications)

Education

• JD from a leading law school, with proven academic success
• License to practice law and in good standing under the Bar of any state that enables admission to practice as in-house counsel in Missouri.

Experience

• 10+ years relevant experience

Other

• Experience designing and developing policies and procedures.
• Must have desire to learn, curiosity, and willingness to tackle new areas of law.
• Must be able to work across all levels in the organization and across multiple departmen