Head of Legal

Microsoft Corporate, External and Legal Affairs (CELA) has an opening for a motivated, skilled and talented Head of Legal to provide hands on legal support and counsel for various business units within the Microsoft Germany Customer & Partner Solutions (MCAPS) team. You will help create a favorable business and policy environment for Microsoft to ensure long-term sustainable revenue growth as well as help drive deployment, consumption and usage of Microsoft’s cloud services through complex deal support and negotiations;

You will be managing a team of talented commercial attorneys on our Microsoft Germany team. Central to this role will be close collaboration with internal Microsoft teams, including the wider CELA CPS (Customer and Partner Solutions) team; CELA headquarters teams based in Redmond; regional and subsidiary CELA legal teams; and key business clients across all areas of Microsoft’s business.

The role reports to the GM & Associate General Counsel for Microsoft Germany.

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.

Responsibilities

• MCAPS Transactional and Digital Transformation Support: Be responsible for managing and coordinating the legal services required to negotiate and close customer, partner and vendor contracts to deliver revenue, deployment, usage and growth of Microsoft’s products and services. You must be able to blend legal guidance and business-focused insights to conceive and implement creative solutions to legal and regulatory deal-related issues, with a focus on supporting the digital transformation of Microsoft’s existing and new customers.
  
• Cloud Adoption and Public Policy Engagement: Be focused, in particular, on accelerating our customers’ move to the cloud and will devote time externally focused on positioning Microsoft as the most trusted, responsible and inclusive cloud services provider. In that connection, the larger CELA Germany team is responsible for promoting an enabling the public policy environment in Germany and across the EU (working in concert with CELA Europe’s government affairs team in Brussels) with a focus on new and emerging regulations relating to digital services, digital markets, data, and artificial intelligence.
  
• Microsoft Runs on Trust: Play a key role in ensuring the MCAPS business runs on trust, complies with the law, and adheres to company policies.
  
• Team Leadership and People Management: Lead, manage, coach, and develop the talented team of Munich-based commercial attorneys and other legal and business professionals and inspire them to achieve high impact, top performance and individual growth.
  
• CELA EMEA Commercial Legal Leadership Team: Be an important part of the EMEA Commercial Legal Leadership team and will be expected to make positive and active contributions to this diverse and dynamic team, including contributing to the setting of strategy, tactics and commitments in support of company and CPS long-term, annual and quarterly goals.
  
• Budget, Vendor and Outside Counsel Coordination: Manage the CELA Germany commercial legal budget and drive synergies in management and retention of outside counsel, strategic advisors and other vendors.

Qualifications

Experience: Extensive experience combining corporate and field experience in managing complex commercial legal issues. Demonstrated executive presence is a must and direct experience in strategic and complex commercial transactions is an important prerequisite. You must be business savvy, highly flexible and able to think beyond purely legal matter. Demonstrable capability to support and serve as a trusted legal and business advisor to senior and experienced executives with high standards and high expectations for the support and partnership they require from their commercial legal lead.

Experienced People Manager and Team Leader: Experienced leader, manager, coach and developer of talent with a proven ability to motivate and inspire a team to achieve high impact, top performance and individual growth.

Strong and Proven Communication Skills: Highly developed written and oral communication skills and ability to communicate legal advice promptly and pragmatically in a business context in German and English is a must. Must be able to proactively advance company positions through high impact engagement in small and/or large group settings, including communications with business leaders. Proven ability to establish trusted advisor relationships with business leaders in key positions of responsibility, and to work effectively with colleagues throughout CELA and in all the business support functions.

Decision Making in a Fast-Paced, Dynamic and Sometimes Ambiguous Environment: The environment in which the Head of Legal will operate is highly matrixed, cross-functional and collaborative and requires skills and capabilities to engage effectively with a variety of different internal stakeholders across a diversity of disciplines and multiple areas of expertise. You must have a proven ability to navigate through ambiguity, assess and mitigate risk, a demonstrated capability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and demands, and, most importantly, sound decision-making capabilities coupled with a willingness to make tough decisions and make them promptly.

Team Focus and Making Others Great: A strong record of being an effective team player, dedicated to collective successes as well as working behind the scenes to help make others great. You must have the ability to promote cooperation and facilitate problem resolution in a timely, creative and professional manner.

Growth Mindset: Track record of experimentation, learning from both successes and failures, and driving resolution with urgency and speed.

Company Values: Demonstrated commitment to a company’s core values, including a commitment to high ethical standards, unquestioned integrity, and a commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion commitments.

Education: A graduate degree in law.