Lead Senior Legal Counsel

We help the world run better

At SAP, we enable you to bring out your best. Our company culture is focused on collaboration and a shared passion to help the world run better. How? We focus every day on building the foundation for tomorrow and creating a workplace that embraces differences, values flexibility, and is aligned to our purpose-driven and future-focused work. We offer a highly collaborative, caring team environment with a strong focus on learning and development, recognition for your individual contributions, and a variety of benefit options for you to choose from. 

Role Description

SAP is seeking a senior lawyer with 10+ years post qualification legal experience to act in a senior legal role focused primarily on supporting the Japan market unit (Japan MU), and also taking on some APAC regional responsibilities.  Primary responsibilities include working closely with the Japan MU leadership team on complex and strategic deals in the Japan MU, working as part of the APAC legal leadership team and carrying out day to day transactional work. This includes drafting and negotiating multiple complex technology cloud, license, service and related agreements, to help achieve SAP’s business growth strategies and objectives. All legal work must be carried out within SAP’s risk tolerances, while maintaining SAP policies, and complying with applicable laws.  In addition, the position will work with other internal lines of business/practice areas such as Finance, Global Commercial Finance, Customer Success, Government Affairs, Office of Ethics and Compliance, Cybersecurity Advisory, Human Resources, Marketing, Procurement, and Bid Management. You will act as a key contact for the relevant sales and related business teams in the Japan Market Unit, in particular the sales and business leads, and provide legal advice and counseling on a wide variety of matters, including local laws and regulations, cybersecurity, intellectual property, licensing, data privacy, and license compliance matters.  

You will be fluent in both English and Japanese, have a problem-solving mindset and to be able to draft and negotiate complex agreements, work with sales and services professionals, pricing and revenue recognition teams, and others, in a fast-paced environment.  The ability to work with a team across a wide organization is critical.  This position spends a significant amount of time in customer negotiations.

All resumes/CVs must be submitted in English.

The key accountabilities of the role are to:

• Work with the Japan MU executive team as required to help ensure the legal needs of the Japan MU are met and to provide legal advice.
• Mentor, support and assist in development of the Japan legal team.
• Work with local and regional deal support teams to resolve issues, manage escalations and streamline deal support for transactions.
• Work with APAC regional legal leadership on projects and regional initiatives, including supporting transactions in other parts of the APAC region as required
• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, working closely with other legal colleagues, the regulatory and government affairs teams and the Office of Ethics and Compliance.
• Assist with the legal aspects of customer escalations and disputes, and engage outside counsel as necessary.
• Effectively structure, draft, redline, and negotiate with customers, complex terms and agreements in support of SAP’s Cloud and Services business.
• Work closely with internal Sales and Deal Support teams during the drafting and negotiation process. 
• Work with sales, finance, and operations teams to ensure that contractual terms are compliant with legal, regulatory, and company policies and risk preferences.

Education and Skills

• Tertiary qualifications in Law from an accredited law school.
• Licensed to practice law in Japan (must have practising certificate/admitted to practice).
• Excellent/ fluent written and oral English and Japanese business language skills.
• Customer-service mindset, with strong written, communication and interpersonal skills with a high attention to detail.
• Team player with the ability to work collaboratively across multiple teams and communicate in a timely and responsive manner.
• Strongly preferred is experience and expertise in negotiating key terms for Cloud Agreements, such as data protection, security, compliance/regulatory and limitation of liability terms.
• You think critically, identify issues quickly, and you are able to examine multiple aspects and perspectives.
• You are able to represent the team to other board areas and cross-functional teams within SAP and are able to represent SAP to external customers on specific subject matter topics within your field of expertise.

Bring out your best

SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best.  

We win with inclusion

SAP’s culture of inclusion, focus on health and well-being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better and more equitable world.
SAP is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to the values of Equal Employment Opportunity and provide accessibility accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAP and are in need of accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e-mail with your request to Recruiting Operations Team: Careers@sap.com.

For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the SAP Employee Referral Program, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training.

EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their age, race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, et al), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or disability.

Compensation Range Transparency: SAP believes the value of pay transparency contributes towards an honest and supportive culture and is a significant step toward demonstrating SAP’s commitment to pay equity. SAP provides the hourly base salary rate range applicable for the posted role. The targeted range for this position is 1 USD. The actual amount to be offered to the successful candidates will be within that range, dependent upon the key aspects of each case which may include education, skills, experience, scope of the role, location, etc. as determined through the selection process.  SAP offers limited benefits for employees hired into hourly or like roles subject to appliable plan/policy terms. A summary of benefits and eligibility requirements can be found by clicking this link:  SAP North America Benefits.

Requisition ID: 421782 | Work Area: Legal | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations:  #LI-Hybrid

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