Assistant General Counsel, Global Deal Team Americas

The Global Deal Team Americas Assistant General Counsel is a senior lawyer responsible for leading an industry pillar of Microsoft’s Global Deal Team—a high-performing, distributed legal organization within Corporate, External and Legal Affairs (CELA), a community of 2,000+ legal and compliance professionals. The team supports complex enterprise transactions with Microsoft’s largest and most strategic customers (excluding public sector) around the world. The Assistant General Counsel leadership role helps drive revenue and accelerate deal velocity through strategic legal leadership, direct engagement on high-impact negotiations, operational excellence, and innovative use of technology and AI—while navigating the regulatory, cultural, and contracting diversity of multiple jurisdictions and languages.    This Assistant General Counsel serves as the primary CELA point of contact for senior enterprise leadership in Americas that are responsible for pursuing and closing complex commercial transactions with Microsoft’s most important customers in Financial Services, Manufacturing and Retail industries.  You will partner with sales, operations, finance, product and engineering, marketing, and security/trust stakeholders to align customer expectations with Microsoft’s risk posture, policies, and compliance obligations.  The role collaborates closely with regional Legal Affairs leaders who are subject matter experts in the Americas and their regulations and who lead public sector matters and non-deal workstreams.   Reporting to the Global Deal Team Lead for Americas, this position is one of three Assistant General Counsels who serve on the GDT Americas leadership team and who partner to maintain a consistent approach, share best practices and rapidly learn together to scale solutions.    This successful candidate could be based in Redmond, Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. This role involves some international travel.

Leadership & People Management   Lead, inspire, and develop a high-performing team of legal professionals supporting complex enterprise transactions.  Cultivate a culture of collaboration, inclusion, accountability, and continuous improvement.   Translate Global Deal Team priorities into a strategy and operating plan aligned to enterprise sales priorities, operational execution requirements, and Americas-specific market drivers in the Financial Services, Manufacturing and Retail industries.   Own operating cadence for your team (intake, prioritization, escalation, and executive communications) and deliver on agreed service levels, quality, and customer experience outcomes.   Drive change by simplifying processes, clarifying decision rights, and adopting scalable approaches that improve speed and consistency.   Coach and develop talent, including building succession plans and strengthening negotiation, drafting, and issue-spotting capability across the Americas deal support ecosystem.  Partner with Global Deal Team regional leads to create cross-region development and “follow-the-sun” opportunities for members of the global team.     Complex Commercial Transactions & Negotiation Leadership   Lead and directly support high-value, complex enterprise negotiations across Americas, advising senior business executives and driving practical, risk-informed outcomes in a multi-jurisdiction environment.   Develop and implement regional negotiation strategies and scalable solutions for recurring issues (e.g., AI models, data usage and protection, security), aligned with Global Deal Team playbooks, contract standards, and escalation paths.   Coach and mentor lawyers and business partners on negotiation tactics, drafting approaches, and risk analysis.  Raise capability across the region through targeted training and deal retrospectives, including on emerging regulatory and AI topics.