Associate General Counsel, Food & Beverage

Job Summary: Ecolab is seeking a highly experienced, commercially focused Associate General Counsel to serve as a strategic legal leader for the Global Water Food & Beverage Sector. This role will be based in Naperville, Illinois or St. Paul, Minnesota and will lead a team supporting Ecolab’s Global Food & Beverage, Animal Health, and Paper businesses. The Associate General Counsel will provide legal expertise on complex matters of strategic importance to the Company.

The successful candidate will be an exceptional legal practitioner with excellent judgment and personal integrity. This role provides practical legal and business counsel across a broad range of sophisticated matters and partners closely with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders to enable commercial growth while appropriately managing risk.

The Associate General Counsel sets direction for the legal team, ensures the right resources and processes are in place to execute the business strategy, and is accountable for talent development, performance management, and delivery of timely, high-quality legal support across the Sector.

What You Will Do:

• Partner with leadership to understand the objectives of the business and develop commercial contracting strategies aligned to those goals.
• Advise senior executives on complex legal issues with material business risk; assess exposure and drive practical risk-mitigation solutions.
• Lead, develop, and mentor a legal team that delivers practical, solutions-oriented counsel on commercial matters, including:
• Drafting and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements (e.g., master sales and service agreements, equipment lease and purchase agreements, distribution agreements, term sheets, and letters of intent).
• Designing and implementing efficient procedures for contract review, negotiation, and approval.
• Delivering training for business stakeholders on key contract provisions, negotiation approaches, and related legal/commercial topics.
• Providing legal and strategic business advice to leaders on a wide variety of commercial matters.
• Evaluating business practices for legal risk and proactively advising operating leaders to support growth and profitability.
• Coordinate with subject-matter experts (e.g., compliance, litigation, IP, and risk management) to ensure appropriate alignment and support.
• Manage outside counsel on specialized matters as needed.
• Collaborating with functional leaders in support of sales growth including Ecolab finance, supply chain, insurance and research & development.

Qualifications & Skills

This position requires an accomplished commercial attorney with a strong business orientation and a record of delivering practical, risk-balanced counsel. Cultural fit is important; the successful candidate will be ambitious, collaborative, and motivated to understand the business and contribute meaningfully to its long-term strategy.

Minimum Qualifications

• J.D. from an accredited law school, with strong academic credentials.
• 12+ years of legal experience (in-house and/or law firm) focused on complex commercial contracting supporting the sale of goods and services and custom equipment/solutions, including negotiating and closing significant transactions in a fast-paced, global business environment.
• Deep expertise in UCC-governed sales contracting (and related common-law concepts).  Experience with data usage, cybersecurity, and insurance-related issues.
• Ability to learn how Ecolab’s products and services are performed at customer sites in an industrial environment and apply that knowledge to document Ecolab and customer responsibilities.
• Demonstrated success leading and mentoring legal professionals (e.g., setting strategy, allocating work, coaching, and performance management).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, sound judgment, and the ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Unquestioned integrity, credibility, passion, humility and professionalism.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in food and beverage, commercial chemistry, or industrial manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a pragmatic, business-minded advisor in a matrixed, global organization.
• Experience applying artificial intelligence and technical solutions in delivering legal services.
• Educational background including business administration, finance and/or accounting.

The base salary range for this position is $202,100.00 - $303,100.00. This position is eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentives based on performance, per plan terms. Many factors are taken into consideration when determining compensation, such as experience, education, training, geography, etc. We comply with all minimum wage and overtime laws.

Ecolab strives to provide comprehensive and market-competitive benefits to meet the needs of our associates and their families. Click here to see our benefits. 

If you are viewing this posting on a site other than our Ecolab Career website, view our benefits at jobs.ecolab.com/working-here.