Global Deal Team EMEA Lead

Job Description

Overview

The Global Deal Team EMEA Region Lead is a senior lawyer responsible for leading the Europe, Middle East and Africa 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) across EMEA. The 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.

The EMEA Region Lead serves as the primary CELA point of contact for senior enterprise leadership in EMEA that are responsible for pursuing and closing some of the most strategic and complex commercial transactions and partners 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 EMEA markets and their regulations and who lead public sector matters and non-deal workstreams.

Reporting to the Global Deal Team Lead, this position is one of three regional leadership roles (Asia, EMEA, and the Americas) and partners with the other regional leads to maintain a consistent global approach, share best practices and rapidly learn together to scale global solutions.

Responsibilities

• Regional Leadership & People Management
• Lead, inspire, and develop a high-performing EMEA regional team of legal professionals supporting complex enterprise transactions. Cultivate a culture of collaboration, inclusion, accountability, and continuous improvement across multiple countries, cultures, and time zones.
• Translate Global Deal Team priorities into an EMEA regional strategy and operating plan aligned to enterprise sales priorities, operational execution requirements, and EMEA-specific market drivers (e.g., regulatory requirements, digital resilience expectations, and localization needs).
• Own operating cadence for the EMEA regional 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 across EMEA while respecting local legal requirements and contracting practices.
• Coach and develop talent, including building succession plans and strengthening negotiation, drafting, and issue-spotting capability across the EMEA 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 EMEA, 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., digital operational resilience, data access/sovereignty, cybersecurity reporting, FX and pricing sensitivities, and localization), 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.
• Partner with sales, finance, and field teams to identify systemic deal blockers (e.g., handoff gaps, sequential workflow delays, and late-stage escalations) and implement repeatable solutions with the global team.
• Ensure compliance with Microsoft policies and applicable laws and regulations across EMEA, partnering with specialist teams (e.g. product teams, privacy, security, competition/antitrust, trade, regulatory, and accessibility) as needed.
• Support enterprise revenue objectives by enabling the sale and consumption of Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions through efficient, customer-focused contracting across EMEA’s diverse markets.
• Operational Excellence, Process Improvement & AI Adoption
• Apply systems thinking to improve end-to-end deal processes across EMEA, improving seller and customer experiences.
• Advance adoption of AI-enabled contracting, knowledge, and workflow tools to streamline negotiations, automate low-impact work, and increase consistency in drafting and issue-spotting—while maintaining appropriate legal review and quality controls.
• Establish feedback loops and knowledge-sharing (e.g., playbooks, learning sessions and post-deal briefings) to scale best practices across EMEA and inform global standards.
• Collaborate with Global Deal Team regional leads in the Americas and Asia to align priorities, calibrate positions, and scale reusable solutions, including cross-region staffing and shared tooling.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent law degree; active bar membership (or ability to become licensed) in any jurisdiction.
• Extensive legal experience, including significant experience leading or influencing complex commercial transactions in a technology and/or enterprise sales environment, ideally across multiple jurisdictions.
• Demonstrated people leadership and talent development experience, with the ability to build high-performing, inclusive teams.
• Deep experience supporting enterprise sales and complex, high-value customer negotiations, including the ability to balance customer experience, business priorities, and legal risk in a cross-cultural environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience advising on technology transactions (e.g., cloud services, software licensing, SaaS, professional services, strategic partnerships, and/or AI solutions).
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a large, matrixed, multinational organization and to lead through influence with diverse stakeholders across multiple countries; experience managing localization and jurisdiction-specific contracting considerations is a plus.
• Demonstrated negotiation and drafting skills, with a track record of closing complex, high-value commercial agreements and managing escalations.
• Executive presence and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to advise and influence senior leaders and coach others.

#CELA

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.