M23226 Legal Counsel – Legal Operations

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT®, is a non-profit agricultural research for development organization with partners in over 100 countries. Please refer to our website for more information: www.cimmyt.org

CIMMYT is seeking a dynamic, self-motivated, and service-oriented professional for the position of Legal Counsel to work in the Legal Unit of CIMMYT. The Legal Counsel for Legal Operations will be responsible for the Contract Life Cycle Management (development, drafting, review, negotiation, amendment and release, quality control, and archiving) wide array of agreements entered by CIMMYT with its national and international (private and public) partners and service providers, globally. In close collaboration with the Legal Department Head, update, create and implement processes and practices and workflow optimization to enhance the day-to-day efficiency and effectiveness of the legal team, facilitate change, and control costs.

The position is based at CIMMYT’s campus in Texcoco, State of Mexico, located 45 km northeast of Mexico City, Mexico.

• Execute and implement the Contract Life Cycle Management (development, drafting, review, negotiation, amendment and release, quality control, and archiving) of a wide array of agreements entered by CIMMYT. with its national and international (private and public) partners and service providers, globally in close collaboration with the Legal Department Head, update, create, and implement processes, practices, guidelines, procedures, and workflow optimization to improve the day-to-day efficiency and effectiveness of the legal team, facilitate change, and control costs. Identify and implement legal department tools to streamline new or existing practices and manage the design, rollout, and training for new systems, including the Legal Department Intranet site design and maintenance. To enhance existing and develop new tools to streamline team collaboration and workflow automation within the legal team and its internal clients.
• Maintain, improve, implement, and monitor processes, procedures, guidelines, best practices, and tools that allows the Department to provide accurate and timely service for our clients, per the continuous improvement of Contract Life Cycle processes, including but not limited to automation, creation of templates, improvement of dashboards, and KPI monitoring tools.

• Knowledge Management of the breadth of the Legal Department documents and files. Curation of the CIMMYT agreements database and other documents at Headquarters and Regional Offices; maintain a high level of support for stakeholders requiring input, search, and update data and information.

• Monitor the flow of legal information and respond to internal clients’ needs by liaising with Programs and Units, collaborating with cross-functional groups across CIMMYT. Scrutinize the requests’ status to ensure appropriate follow-up actions and respond to requests’ status to ensure appropriate follow-up actions and respond to internal ’clients’ needs. Fostering a robust relationship with Programs and Units involved in the contract life cycle across the organization.

• Ensure proper follow-up of entrusted matters, tracking these matters daily in the provided dashboards and KPI monitoring tools that will be used to prepare the progress update to the relevant areas and the timely completion of ticketing systems requests for the review and drafting of various agreements and legal matters

• Project management and support across the full range of subject matter supported by the legal team.
• Oversight of Staff, interns, and consultants engaged in the Contract Life Cycle, and coordination and supervision of Outside Counsel
• Prepare educational materials for Staff and stakeholders in support of institutional research policies and procedures. Support the drafting, review, implementation, communication, and update of legal policies and procedures of CIMMYT. Prepare guides, training materials, and training on the Contract Life Cycle and tools offered by the Legal Department.

• Perform other related tasks within the job level as may be requested by the immediate supervisor.

• The selected candidate must have a Degree in Law, a Masters’s Degree/LL.M. in Corporate, International or IP Law, and Project Management Certification desirable.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in similar roles or activities.
• Advanced level of English. English will be tested, and the candidate must score a minimum of C1 on CEFR.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, and Adobe software. Experience with Contract Automation software is desirable.
• The candidate must exhibit a sense of urgency and commitment to his responsibilities and deadlines.
• The selected candidate must exhibit the following competencies: Teamwork, Customer Orientation, Achievement Orientation, Problem-Solving, Project Management.

CIMMYT offers an attractive remuneration package and support for continuous professional development. In addition to the provisions of the Mexican Labor Law, our package of benefits includes a year-end bonus (40 days), vacation premium (56%), life and medical insurance, supermarket coupons, savings fund, Mexican social benefits (IMSS, SAR / Infonavit).