Senior Legal Counsel

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Legal Counsel

Job Designation Director/Senior Director/AVP

Vertical: LSO Preferred

Locations: Princeton, NJ/ New York, Santa Clara, CA/ Dallas, TX

Position Type: Permanent

A. Position Summary: Coforge is seeking an experienced lawyer who will serve as the principal legal lead and trusted advisor to one or more business units. You will provide strategic counsel to the business leaders and will have end-to-end ownership of all contractual, vendor, procurement, and commercial dispute matters for the unit.

This role is responsible for leading the legal support for the business unit (s) while directly negotiating and advising on complex client-facing and vendor-facing transactions. The successful candidate must balance commercial agility and business growth objectives with prudent legal and regulatory risk management.

The role will be reporting to General Counsel – Americas and U.K./Europe. B. Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following (other duties may be assigned):

1. Client Contracts & Deal Support: Lead the legal strategy for pursuit, negotiation, and closure of complex client transactions. Draft and review MSAs, SOWs, SLAs, transition/transformation, data processing agreements, and RFP responses. Lead negotiations with external parties on behalf of the company ensuring company's interests are protected and agreements are in line with legal standards.

2. Vendor & Procurement: Review and negotiate supplier, subcontractor, staffing-agency, technology contracts; ensure client obligations are flowed down; develop procurement policies, templates, and approval matrices in partnership with Procurement and Finance

3. Disputes & Litigation : Own the strategy and resolution of commercial, client/vendor disputes, negotiate settlements; manage outside counsel.

4. Risk, Compliance & Data Protection : Advise data protection, information security, cross-border data transfers and compliance obligations arising from client contracts, audits, and regulation; assess legal risks of automation and AI in service delivery.

5. Advisory & Thought Leadership: Advise senior leadership on legal and commercial risks and market developments; develop internal guidelines, legal playbooks, templates, and policies; deliver training to business, HR, and sales teams.

6. Team Leadership & Governance: Build, mentor and manage a team of lawyers; allocate work, set quality and turnaround standards, and report on legal metrics to the General Counsel.

7. Other Assignments: Undertake such other duties, responsibilities, and special projects as may reasonably be assigned from time to time, consistent with the seniority, scope, and objectives of the role.

Equal Opportunity Employer Coforge is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of society and does not discriminate on grounds of race, religion, or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or any other basis as protected by applicable law.

Essential Qualification and Work Experience:

1. Minimum 10 years of recent law practice in-house (with least 5 years leading legal teams or serving as the legal head for a business unit (s) at a global technology organization with a strong focus on technology transactions, intellectual property and data privacy; combination of top-tier law firm training and in-house corporate legal department experience is highly preferred.

2. Admitted to practice law in any U.S. State and is in good standing. N.J., N.Y., TX, or CA preferred.

3. Global experience primarily handling matters with clients in the U.S. Experience includes drafting, reviewing and negotiating master services agreements, and managed-services agreements, statements of work, service level agreements, transition and transformation agreements, data processing and data transfer agreements, requests for proposals, licensing and SaaS agreements, cloud and hosting agreements, collaboration agreements, non-disclosure agreements and MOUs.

4. Vendor and procurement experience: drafting and negotiating supplier, subcontractor, staffing-agency, technology, telecom, and facilities-management agreements; structuring flow-down of client obligations; and setting up procurement policies, templates, and approval frameworks.

5. Knowledge of data protection federal, state, and international data privacy and AI laws (including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, EU AI Act and emerging US state laws).

6. Prior experience in advising senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders on client projects, strategy, risk management, and other legal matters.

7. Prior experience in technology industry a must.

8. Managed client and vendor negotiations independently.

Preferred Qualification:

1. Understanding software license compliance (including open source), and of emerging legal issues in AI, automation, and analytics-led service delivery.

2. Experience with legal tech / GenAI tools to improve contracting turnaround and legal operations.

3. Prior experience with Global Capability Center (GCC) establishment, operationalization, and associated GCC transactions.

4. Dispute resolution experience: managing commercial, client/vendor and employment disputes, arbitrations, litigation and regulatory notices, including strategy, settlement negotiations and oversight of outside counsel and budgets.

D. Key Competencies:

1. Strategic, business-minded leader who balances legal risk with commercial objectives and gives clear, actionable recommendations.

2. Excellent judgment and communication skills, with strong attention to detail; able to explain complex legal issues clearly to non-lawyers.

3. Build credibility and influence with Business Unit heads, Delivery leaders, Finance, HR, and other stakeholders.

4. Action and results-oriented, with ability to adapt quickly to new surroundings and in a fast-paced environment.

5. Manages a high-volume docket independently, prioritizes effectively, and drives matters to resolution.

6. Integrity and discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters with professionalism and sound ethical judgment.

7. Reliable and collaborative team-player; flexibility to assist the Legal department in its other activities and mission as needs arise.

8. Thrives in a fast-paced, global, matrixed organization and responds constructively to change.

9. Ability to work flexible hours with stakeholders across the globe. Additional Information This job description outlines primary responsibilities but is not an exhaustive list. Duties may be adjusted.