Empower Pharmacy is a visionary healthcare company dedicated to making quality, affordable medication accessible to millions of patients nationwide. As the nation’s most advanced 503A compounding pharmacy and FDA-registered 503B outsourcing facility, we’re redefining what’s possible in personalized medicine and pharmaceutical manufacturing. We’re proud to be recognized as one of Houston’s fastest-growing private companies and ranked #116 in Healthcare & Medical on the Inc. 5000 List for 2025.

Our strength is built on four core values: People, Quality, Service, and Innovation. Guided by these principles, we’ve created a uniquely integrated healthcare platform powered by advanced technology, operational excellence, and a relentless commitment to patient care. From manufacturing and quality control to distribution and customer experience, our teams work together to raise industry standards, expand access to critical medications, and improve outcomes for patients and providers across the country.

At Empower, joining our team means more than starting a new role. It means becoming part of a mission-driven organization that’s transforming healthcare at scale. We invest deeply in our people, encourage bold thinking, and create opportunities for growth, leadership, and innovation at every level. Your ideas matter here, your development is supported, and the work you do has a direct impact on the lives of millions.

If you thrive in a fast-moving, purpose-driven environment where innovation, collaboration, and ambition come together, Empower Pharmacy is the place for you. Let’s transform healthcare together.

Position Summary:

The Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Commercial serves as a strategic legal advisor responsible for building scalable commercial and corporate legal infrastructure supporting Empower’s hyper-growth 503A and 503B environment. This role owns complex commercial agreements, corporate governance activities, strategic transactions, and enterprise legal operations while protecting contractual economics, mitigating risk, and enabling disciplined organizational growth. Leveraging AI as a force multiplier, the position improves contract execution speed, legal analysis quality, operational efficiency, and decision-making through automation, structured workflows, and advanced contract intelligence tools. The role partners closely with Executive Leadership, Finance, Operations, Procurement, and Compliance to strengthen enterprise governance, accelerate business execution, and support scalable growth without compromising regulatory obligations or enterprise value. Success requires P80–P90 talent demonstrating strategic thinking, execution rigor, learning agility, enterprise ownership, and sound legal judgment.

Responsibilities:

Enterprise Commercial Infrastructure

Commercial Structuring: Lead the structuring, drafting, review, and negotiation of complex vendor, customer, licensing, real estate, and strategic partnership agreements supporting enterprise growth objectives and operational scalability. Develop business-aligned legal solutions balancing commercial opportunity, contractual protections, operational realities, and regulatory obligations while leveraging AI-enabled contract intelligence tools to improve negotiation efficiency, execution speed, and enterprise risk visibility across highly complex commercial relationships.
Contract Governance: Develop scalable contract templates, clause libraries, governance standards, and approval workflows that improve legal consistency, reduce deviation rates, and accelerate contract cycle times across enterprise operations. Implement AI-supported review processes, automated validation workflows, and standardized negotiation frameworks that strengthen operational discipline, improve legal execution quality, and support efficient management of high-volume commercial contracting activities.
Risk Evaluation: Evaluate contractual financial exposure, operational risks, indemnification structures, and liability allocation while providing clear, business-aligned legal guidance supporting executive decision-making and enterprise growth objectives. Partner closely with Finance, Procurement, Operations, and Executive Leadership to negotiate practical legal solutions that strengthen commercial relationships, protect organizational interests, and maintain scalable legal governance within a highly regulated environment.

Corporate Governance & Transactions

Transaction Support: Support mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments, and capital projects through legal diligence, contract analysis, governance reviews, and enterprise risk assessment activities. Provide strategic legal guidance throughout transaction lifecycles while identifying legal exposure, strengthening contractual protections, and supporting scalable business integration strategies aligned with operational, financial, and organizational objectives.
Governance Management: Maintain enterprise entity management records, governance documentation, board approvals, and corporate compliance activities with exceptional accuracy, confidentiality, and operational discipline. Develop scalable governance processes, standardized documentation controls, and centralized legal tracking systems that strengthen organizational visibility, improve governance efficiency, and support enterprise readiness for audits, transactions, and regulatory reviews.
Strategic Agreements: Structure strategic agreements with clear allocation of legal risk, indemnification obligations, operational responsibilities, and financial protections supporting sustainable enterprise growth. Collaborate cross-functionally with Executive Leadership, Finance, Compliance, and Operational stakeholders to negotiate agreements balancing commercial objectives, regulatory requirements, and long-term organizational value while minimizing legal and financial exposure.

AI-Enabled Legal Transformation

Legal Automation: Implement AI-enabled legal technologies supporting automated contract drafting, document review, obligation tracking, and legal workflow management across enterprise legal operations. Lead modernization initiatives improving operational efficiency, execution consistency, legal scalability, and response times while ensuring legal processes remain compliant, auditable, and aligned with evolving organizational growth requirements.
Contract Analytics: Analyze contract data, negotiation trends, risk patterns, and operational metrics to strengthen legal strategy, improve negotiation outcomes, and reduce enterprise risk exposure. Utilize AI-supported analytical capabilities and legal intelligence tools to identify process inefficiencies, optimize contractual protections, and provide leadership with actionable insights supporting strategic business decisions and operational scalability.
Workflow Design: Design repeatable legal workflows incorporating validation controls, confidentiality safeguards, approval governance, and operational accountability standards supporting scalable enterprise legal operations. Develop structured intake processes, automated routing capabilities, and standardized legal frameworks that improve execution quality, reduce administrative burden, and strengthen visibility into legal operations, contract performance, and enterprise risk management activities.

Individual Ownership & Execution Discipline

Operational Ownership: Operate with full ownership and accountability across assigned legal domains while delivering high-quality outcomes with minimal oversight in a fast-paced and highly regulated environment. Balance strategic legal judgment, operational responsiveness, and execution discipline while managing competing priorities, enterprise risks, and complex stakeholder relationships supporting scalable organizational growth and operational continuity.
Performance Systems: Establish legal intake systems, prioritization methodologies, tracking mechanisms, and performance measurement frameworks supporting operational efficiency and enterprise transparency. Implement scalable governance standards, workflow reporting tools, and AI-supported operational metrics that improve visibility into legal workloads, execution timelines, contract cycle performance, and organizational service delivery effectiveness.
Subject Expertise: Serve as enterprise subject matter expert supporting mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, capital projects, and complex commercial transactions across the organization. Provide strategic legal guidance, mentorship, and decision support to internal stakeholders while strengthening organizational legal capabilities, operational alignment, and enterprise readiness for growth, transformation, and evolving regulatory requirements.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership

Counsel Development: Supervise and mentor Contract Counsel while providing guidance, quality oversight, and strategic direction across contract-related matters and enterprise legal operations. Foster a high-performance legal culture emphasizing operational discipline, analytical rigor, business partnership, and continuous learning while strengthening team capabilities supporting scalable organizational growth and legal execution excellence.
Stakeholder Alignment: Partner cross-functionally with Executive Leadership, Finance, Operations, Procurement, Compliance, HR, and external stakeholders to align legal strategies with enterprise priorities and operational objectives. Translate complex legal concepts into practical business guidance supporting informed decision-making, operational scalability, and effective management of legal, contractual, and organizational risk.
Strategic Execution: Lead highly complex legal initiatives supporting operational transformation, enterprise governance, and scalable commercial growth across multiple organizational functions. Establish execution frameworks, governance standards, and operational processes improving legal responsiveness, business alignment, and enterprise-wide consistency while positioning Legal as a strategic partner enabling organizational agility and long-term business success.

Knowledge and Qualifications:

Advanced expertise in commercial contracting, corporate governance, and transaction support.
Strong knowledge of contract law and applicable regulatory frameworks.
Experience with AI-enabled contract lifecycle management and workflow automation tools.
Strong analytical judgment and ability to translate legal risk into business impact.
Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Experience leading contract lifecycle management processes and driving process improvements.

Experience and Qualifications:

Minimum of 7 years of legal experience, with a focus on contract drafting, negotiation, and management, preferably in pharmaceutical, healthcare, or life sciences industries.
Combination of law firm and in-house experience preferred.
Demonstrated success negotiating complex agreements with vendors, customers, and strategic partners.
Experience implementing or leveraging AI-enabled legal tools and contract automation platforms.
Supervisory experience managing and mentoring Contract Counsel.
Experience with mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and real estate agreements.

Key Competencies:

Customer Focus: Builds trust through customer-centric solutions.
Strategic AI: Guides responsible AI adoption and adaptation.
Optimizes Work Processes: Drives efficiency with continuous improvement.
Collaborates: Partners effectively to achieve shared goals.
Resourcefulness: Secures and deploys resources efficiently.
Manages Complexity: Simplifies and solves complex challenges.
Ensures Accountability: Delivers on commitments with integrity.
Situational Adaptability: Adjusts approach to shifting conditions.
Communicates Effectively: Tailors messages to diverse audiences.

Values:

People: Empowering people defines who we are.
Quality: Excellence in every product, every time.
Service: Serving others is our highest purpose.
Innovation: Advancing care through technology and discovery.

Employee Benefits, Health and Wellness:

We offer comprehensive benefits to support your health, well-being, and future, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, 401(k) matching, wellness perks, IV therapy, and compounded medications. Learn more: https://careers.empowerpharmacy.com/benefits/

Physical Requirements:

While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to remain in a stationary position for a significant amount of the workday and frequently use their hands and fingers to handle or feel in order to access, input, and retrieve information from the computer and other office productivity devices. Employees are regularly required to move about the office and around the corporate campus. The employee is regularly required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.

About the company

Empower Pharmacy and Empower Pharma provide personalized, high-quality compounded medications at scale. They customize dosages, remove allergens, and create multi-drug combinations that aren’t available through standard options. Operating with a vertically integrated model as licensed manufacturer, wholesaler, and pharmacy, they streamline the pharmaceutical supply chain to reduce costs without compromising quality. The company serves both healthcare providers (B2B) and individual patients (B2C), manufacturing over 400 medications for millions across all 50 states and internationally. Based in Houston, Texas, Empower runs a 503A compounding pharmacy and a 503B outsourcing facility, focusing on patient safety, excellent service, and advanced technology to expand access to affordable, effective healthcare.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Houston, Texas

Founded

2009

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Demand for compounded GLP-1 alternatives remains strong despite Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly shortages ending.
Empower announced a March 11, 2026 FDA-registered 503B facility, expanding regulated manufacturing capacity.
LO3 Capital's 2023 investment and Aurobindo asset acquisition support capital access and infrastructure expansion.

What critics are saying

FDA's September 18, 2026 warning letter cites illegal copycat GLP-1 compounding and sterility failures.
This is Empower's fifth warning letter since 2017, signaling persistent compliance weaknesses.
An injunction or seizure after missed remediation would cripple GLP-1 revenue and trigger existential scrutiny.

What makes Empower Pharmacy unique

Empower runs 503A and 503B facilities, serving clinics with nationwide overnight shipping.
Empower sells GLP-1 blends like semaglutide-cyanocobalamin and tirzepatide-niacinamide across patient-specific formats.
Empower has FDA-registered outsourcing capacity and PCAB accreditation, supporting large-scale compounding operations.

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Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Paid Vacation
401(k) Company Match
Wellness Program

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

28%

1 year growth

28%

2 year growth

28%

MedPage Today

Sep 23rd, 2026

FDA warns Pharmacy about illegal GLP-1 compounding.

FDA warns Pharmacy about illegal GLP-1 compounding. - Agency's letter flagged issues with copycat manufacturing and sterility by Kristen Monaco, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today The FDA issued a warning letter this month to Empower Pharmacy over its mass production of compounded GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs, citing illegal copycat manufacturing and insanitary conditions. Following a facility inspection in November 2025, the agency determined that Empower produced large quantities of drugs that were "essentially copies of FDA-approved semaglutide [Ozempic, Wegovy] and tirzepatide [Mounjaro, Zepbound] products," in violation of Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. "The volume of products you are producing suggests that differences between products you are compounding and the FDA-approved products are pretextual," the FDA wrote in the letter, dated Sept. 18. Under Section 503A, licensed compounding pharmacies are permitted to tailor customized medications for individual patient needs. However, they are prohibited from regularly compounding "in inordinate amounts" any drugs that copy commercially available products without a documented, individualized clinical rationale from a prescriber. Compounded formulations cited in the letter combined active GLP-1 ingredients with added B vitamins - specifically tirzepatide mixed with niacinamide, and semaglutide mixed with cyanocobalamin. Because Empower failed to meet Section 503A conditions, its products lost statutory exemptions and were reclassified as unapproved new drugs and misbranded products. Additionally, FDA inspectors found that sterile drug products were prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions and thereby could be "contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health." Other key violations included: * Failure to perform smoke studies under dynamic conditions to confirm proper airflow in ISO 5 clean room areas * Performing media fills under non-stressful conditions, therefore not guaranteeing aseptic technique * Inadequate environmental monitoring, equipment maintenance, and quality control unit oversight Some of Empower's subsequent corrective actions were adequate while others were deficient, the FDA noted. The compounder has 15 working days to respond. The warning letter follows intensified efforts to crack down on GLP-1 compounding this year. The surge in GLP-1 compounding began a few years ago when high demand triggered widespread shortages. However, shortages of tirzepatide (resolved in December 2024) and semaglutide (resolved in February 2025) have since ended.

Medspa Mastery

Apr 1st, 2025

Eli Lilly Sues Empower Pharmacy Over Tirzepatide - What Medspas Need to Know ASAP

Eli Lilly sues Empower Pharmacy over tirzepatide - what medspas need to know ASAP.

PR Newswire

Jun 21st, 2024

Empower Pharmacy Named Finalist In Houston Business Journal'S Best Family-Owned Business Awards

HOUSTON, June 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Empower Pharmacy is pleased to announce its selection as a finalist in the prestigious Best Family-Owned Business Awards, organized by the Houston Business Journal (HBJ). This recognition underscores Empower Pharmacy's commitment to excellence, innovation, and community investment within the Houston business landscape.The Best Family-Owned Business Awards, presented by HBJ, spotlight companies that not only demonstrate financial success but also exhibit a significant commitment to their community investment. Empower Pharmacy was handpicked by HBJ staff and nominated by esteemed members of the Houston business community for its significant impact as an employer and longstanding presence in the region.Empower Pharmacy has been categorized within the large company list, demonstrating its substantial presence and impact as a large employer within the Houston area. To qualify for consideration, all nominees had to meet stringent criteria set by HBJ, including being at least 51% owned by the family, involving multiple generations in company operations, and exhibiting longevity in business."We are honored to be recognized as a finalist in the Best Family-Owned Business Awards," said Shaun Noorian, CEO of Empower Pharmacy. "This acknowledgment reflects our dedication to family values and our deep-rooted commitment to serving our community as we grow. Today, Empower has over 1,000 employees with over 90% located in Houston, and remains a family centered thanks to the hard work and dedication of our entire team."Empower continues to uphold its commitment to providing personalized healthcare solutions of compounded medicines to providers and patients in the Houston area and beyond

PR Newswire

May 1st, 2024

Empower Pharmacy Unveils Brand Refresh, Signifying The Next Era Of Growth And Innovation During Boon Of Consumer Driven Telehealth Care

Amidst a period of significant expansion, Empower Pharmacy embarks on a strategic rebranding initiative, aimed at enhancing customer and employee experience and reinforcing its commitment to excellenceHOUSTON, May 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Empower Pharmacy, the country's most advanced compounding pharmacy, today announced a significant milestone with the launch of its brand refresh, signaling the start of a new chapter aimed at enhancing healthcare accessibility and elevating patient, provider, and employee experiences. This comprehensive update reflects the company's commitment to excellence, innovation, and customer-centricity represented by a vibrant brand, redesigned website, and new employee talent program.The brand refresh marks a new era for Empower, highlighting its dedication to enhancing services for customers and employees alike. By actively seeking feedback from both groups, Empower ensures that customers' and employees' needs are met, and experiences continually improved, underscoring the company's ongoing dedication to excellence through responsiveness and improvement."We are launching this fresh approach to meet the needs of our consumers – both patients and providers – on their wellness journey through quality and affordable customized medication," said Shaun Noorian, CEO of Empower. "Our growth throughout the last decade has mirrored the transformation of pharmacy from big box retail brick-and-mortar to consumer-driven health and wellness telehealth." Telehealth is serving consumers nationwide with reportedly more than 35% of individuals aged 18 and over relying on telemedicine in the past year.Empower's Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Nicole R. Braley, highlighted that "recent surveys indicate that 71% of respondents have turned to online pharmacies in the last one to three years, highlighting the demand for better digital services.1 As part of our strategic rebranding, we are striving to ensure the greater market fully understands the opportunities available through a compounding pharmacy. By exceeding expectations in how we meet their needs, we set a new standard for the industry."Key elements of the brand refresh include a new visual identity that showcases Empower's commitment to excellence and innovation

Fierce Pharma

Apr 2nd, 2024

Aurobindo's Eugia recalls one lot of muscle relaxant because of possible contamination

In February, drug compounder Empower Pharmacy announced that it planned to buy the 170,000-square-foot Eugia facility for an undisclosed price and retain its workforce.

Empower Pharmacy

Senior Legal Counsel - Corporate & Commercial

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