Vice President Legal General Counsel

Job description

**Have you ever enjoyed Arnold®, Brownberry® or Oroweat® bread? A Thomas’® English muffin or bagel? Or perhaps snacked on a Sara Lee®, Entenmann’s® or Marinela® cake or donut? If the answer is yes, then you know Bimbo Bakeries USA!** **More than 20,000 associates in bakeries, sales centers, offices and on sales routes work to ensure our consumers have the freshest products at every meal. In addition to competitive pay and benefits, we provide a safe and inclusive work environment that appreciates diversity, promotes development and allows our associates to be their authentic selves.** #LI-SO1 **Come join the largest baking company in the world and our family of 20,000 associates nationwide!** **Top Reasons to Work at Bimbo Bakeries USA:** **Annual Bonus Eligibility** **Comprehensive Benefits Package** **Paid Time Off** **401k & Company Match** **Position Summary:** This role exists to provide strategic, practical, and balanced legal leadership that protects the organization, enables business objectives, and supports sound executive decision-making. As the senior legal leader, the role shapes and delivers the legal strategy, ensures compliance with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and governance standards, anticipates legal and business risk, and partners with executive and cross-functional leaders to support sustainable growth, integrity, and long-term value creation. **Key Responsibilities:** - Shape and deliver the organization’s legal strategy, ensuring compliance, governance, accountability, and alignment with business priorities. - Provide authoritative legal and business advice to the President, Executive Team, and senior stakeholders on complex matters and strategic initiatives. - Manage complex litigation, legal disputes, regulatory matters, and external counsel strategy, scope, fees, and performance. - Advise and collaborate across Marketing, Sales, Distribution, Finance, Real Estate, Supply Chain, R&D, Procurement, Treasury, and other business functions. - Anticipate legal, regulatory, commercial, and reputational risks and recommend practical mitigation strategies. - Design, manage, evolve and maintain the legal framework for a large network of franchised direct store distribution businesses. - Develop, implement, and monitor policies, procedures, compliance programs, training, and governance practices. - Lead organizational crisis committee with effective stakeholder management, critical risk assessment and active communication. - Represent the organization in relevant corporate, professional, industry, and stakeholder forums as needed. - Build organizational legal capability by partnering with leaders, sharing expertise, and guiding teams through ambiguity, change, and complex decisions. - Broad legal expertise across litigation, commercial and corporate law, regulatory compliance in the food industry, franchise operations, governance, competition, marketing and advertising, intellectual property, franchising, real estate, M&A, privacy, policy development, and risk management. Strong business and financial acumen, knowledge of industry and legislative trends, and understanding of matrixed international organizations. - Recognized expert in legal communication, law and regulations, policy development and implementation, strategic planning, presentation of solutions, managing change, stakeholder relationship management, and interpreting policies and procedures. Experience in a highly unionized environment and working within a network of independent franchised businesses. - Strategic mindset, plans and aligns, manages ambiguity, drives vision and purpose, business insight, instills trust, balances stakeholders, manages complexity, persuades, collaborates, adapts to situations, and builds networks. **Leadership Competencies:** - **Manages Ambiguity** - Operates effectively, even when things are not certain, or the way forward is not clear. - **Drive Vision and Purpose** - Paints a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action. - **Challenges and Aligns** – Challenges Grupo Bimbo to get better results aligned with the Business Plan. - **Strategic Mindset** - Sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into breakthrough strategies. **Education and Work History:** - JD required from an accredited law school - Active license in State Bar of Texas - 15+ years of broad legal experience, including general counsel, top-tier law firm, and/or large in-house legal department experience - Demonstrated success advising senior leaders and executives in a dynamic, matrixed environment - Managing litigation - Setting and delivering medium- to long-term objectives - Bilingual in English and Spanish preferred - Broad general counsel or senior in-house legal experience; litigation experience - Executive-level advisory capability - High integrity, judgment, and ethics - Strong business acumen - Ability to operate independently and manage external counsel - Strategic planning, governance, compliance - Stakeholder management expertise - Legal matter management, contract review, case management, policy/procedure management, presentation, and standard Microsoft Office tools The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Bimbo Bakeries USA is an equal opportunity employer with a policy that provides equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.