Senior Legal & Compliance Counsel (m/f/d)

Job Description Summary

Acts as a strategic Legal & Compliance Business Partner, supporting and driving the effective execution of business strategies by managing legal, compliance, and reputational risks in a highly regulated environment. Provides solution-oriented legal advice to senior stakeholders, leads complex legal projects and transactions, negotiates key contracts, and oversees litigation and investigations. Ensures the robust implementation of Ethics, Risk & Compliance programs while fostering a culture of integrity and accountability across the organization.

Job Description

Job Description:

Sandoz continues to go through an exciting and transformative period as a global leader and pioneering provider of sustainable Biosimilar and Generic medicines. As we continue down this new and ambitious path, unique opportunities will present themselves, both professionally and personally. Join us, the future is ours to shape!

Your Key Responsibilities:

Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Strategic Business Partnering: Serve as a trusted legal and compliance advisor to the Country Head and senior management on all relevant business activities, including complex contractual arrangements, strategic initiatives, and regulatory matters. Proactively contribute to business decision-making by providing pragmatic, solution-oriented legal advice aligned with business objectives and risk appetite.
• Legal Advisory & Contracting: Independently draft, review, and negotiate complex agreements (e.g. commercial, distribution, licensing, service, and cooperation agreements). Deliver high-quality, context-driven legal advice across a broad range of topics, including pharmaceutical law, competition law, and compliance matters. Design and deliver tailored legal and compliance trainings to internal stakeholders.
• Risk Management & Compliance Leadership: Identify, assess, and mitigate legal and compliance risks, ensuring early involvement of Legal & Compliance in key business initiatives. Conduct robust risk assessments and provide clear, actionable recommendations to support management decision-making. Foster a strong culture of integrity and compliance by raising awareness of legal and ethical risks across the organization.
• Disputes, Investigations & Audits: Lead and manage significant litigation, disputes, regulatory proceedings, and internal/external investigations. Oversee and support internal audits and compliance reviews, ensuring appropriate remediation measures are implemented. Make sound, independent decisions within a complex and evolving legal framework.
• Leadership & Team Development: Guide, coach, and support junior legal colleagues, paralegals, and compliance support staff. Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of the Legal & Compliance function. Act as a role model for ethical behavior and professional excellence.
• Subject Matter Expertise: Provide deep expertise in one or more key areas such as pharmaceutical law, regulatory law, compliance, or litigation. Monitor relevant legal and regulatory developments and ensure their effective implementation within the organization.
• Compliance & Reporting Obligations: Ensure compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory reporting requirements, including: Timely reporting of technical complaints, adverse events, and special case scenarios related to Sandoz products (within 24 hours where required). Oversight of compliant distribution of marketing samples (where applicable).

What you’ll bring to the role:

Essential Requirements:

• A degree in Law (or equivalent qualification) is required
• Several years of relevant professional experience in a law firm and/or in-house legal department, ideally within the pharmaceutical or healthcare industry
• Proven experience in handling complex legal matters and compliance issues
• Experience in highly regulated environments and cross-functional collaboration
• Demonstrated ability to manage projects and drive initiatives independently
• Fluency in oral and written English and German is necessary.

You’ll receive:

Sandoz has an employee-first approach and that’s why your personal growth is so important to us. You will have access to Coursera and other learning platforms with more than 200,000 learning videos and 5000+ courses.

In addition to the various learning opportunities, we offer company benefits, such as:

• 30 days of annual leave
• Holiday allowance
• Additional rewards for special occasions (e.g. service length awards, marriage celebration, etc.)
• Company pension schemes and capital formation benefits
• Parental leave
• Other offerings, such as bike leasing

Why Sandoz?

Generic and Biosimilar medicines are the backbone of the global medicines industry. Sandoz, a leader in this sector, provided more than 900 million patient treatments across 100+ countries in 2024 and while we are proud of this achievement, we have an ambition to do more!

With investments in new development capabilities, production sites, new acquisitions, and partnerships, we have the opportunity to shape the future of Sandoz and help more patients gain access to low-cost, high-quality medicines, sustainably.

Our momentum is powered by an open, collaborative culture driven by our talented and ambitious colleagues, who, in return for applying their skills experience an agile and collegiate environment with impactful, flexible-hybrid careers, where diversity is welcomed and where personal growth is supported! 

Join us!

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

We are committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Hiring decisions are only based on the qualification for the position, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age and disability.

The law provides for severely disabled / equal applicants the opportunity to involve the local representative body for disabled employees (SBV) in the application process. If you would like to request this, please let us know in advance as a note on your CV.

#Sandoz

Skills Desired

Business Development, Business Partners, Career Development, Computer Cluster, Data Privacy, Finance, Internet, Law (Legal System), Legal Advice, Litigation Law, Negotiation Skills, Private Equity, Tax

Global leader in generic and biosimilar medicines, operating as an independent company spun off from Novartis. Based in Basel.

sandoz.com