Senior Corporate Counsel in Sydney, Australia

Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us achieve our mission.

The Asia Regional Commercial team within the Corporate, External and Legal Affairs (CELA) department has an immediate opening for a senior corporate counsel on a team of lawyers that prides itself on collaboration, learning, energy, and creating wins for Microsoft and its partners and customers. Your primary responsibility will be supporting business teams that are responsible for pursuing and closing some of the most strategic and complex commercial transactions across the Asia region.  In this role, you will work across business and CELA teams to enable strategic transactions with Microsoft’s most important customers and partners and guide business teams that are managing such transactions.

This successful candidate can be based in Singapore or elsewhere within the Asia region where Microsoft has an office. This role will likely involve some regional travel.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

• Lead legal support for complex technology transactions, developing negotiation strategies, creatively solving problems, coordinating across CELA and business team subject matter experts, utilizing outside counsel effectively, and guiding escalations to appropriate senior leaders to take smart and well-informed risks to meet customer needs.Common legal issues include commercial contracts, IP, and data protection.

• Provide strategic advice on newly emerging information technology business models including AI.

• Stay informed of rules, regulations, and other statutory requirements relating to Microsoft business and provide practical and strategic adviceand guidance to business clients and CELA colleagues.

• Communicate in a manner that advances negotiations and projects, creates clarity, utilizes insights, and advances closure of open issues.

• Support the business teams in ensuring legal compliance and in providing solutions to mitigate risks.

• Collaborate with and coach colleagues while supporting complex technology transactions.

• Lead cross-team, cross-disciplinary strategic projects, including supporting AI outreach and initiatives and improving internal processes in the legal department.

Culture

• Desire and ability to work as part of a diverse and inclusive team.

• The ability to deliver impact through superior collaboration, sharing knowledge with and building on the work of others.

• You must be a flexible and analytical thinker able to quickly, and accurately identify legal issues in a complex environment and to develop solutions by exercising confident judgment in ambiguous situations.

• Be an excellent coach, helping others to grow and contributing to their success.

• Bring energy and passion to your work.

• Exercise a growth mindset by learning and being agile, bold, and curious.

• Keen business sense, ability to think creatively and strategically, and a sense of humor.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Juris Doctorate Degree or Equivalent International Degree.

• Active license to practice law.

• 8+ years’ experience as a practicing attorney.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience as an attorney specializing in complex transactions, including technology transactions.

• Enthusiastic team player who enjoys partnering with cross-functional teams to solve complex issues, invest in others, and work collaboratively to generate consensus across diverse points of view.

• Comfort with ambiguity and with a bias for action in a fast-paced, highly matrixed environment.

• Excellent negotiation, legal drafting, and communications skills.

• Sound judgment that incorporates strong legal analysis, a pragmatic approach, andconsideration of business goals, risk tolerance, and stakeholder priorities.

• Excellent project management skills and the ability to work efficiently and meet deadlines in the face of competing priorities.

• Understands business issues and has a pragmatic, commercial orientation.

• Inquisitive and curious – enjoys learning new concepts, tackling cutting-edge legal issues, thrives amidst change and exhibits a growth mindset.

• Service-oriented and customer obsessed.

• In-house counsel experience.

• Experience with cloud computing, AI, and other cutting-edge technologies and the related legal issues.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .