You will be the Senior Corporate Counsel & Head of Legal for Ciena India. In this role you will provide business advice to the Chairman & General Manager of India and the Senior Leadership team.
You should thrive in commercial and engineering environments, with a proven ability to work collaboratively in a team setting. Strong interpersonal and communication skills will be critical to your success in the role, along with the ability to work to strict timelines. You should be comfortable being routinely challenged while supporting and influencing high impact and results-driven sales and engineering leaders.
Your highly motivated, customer-focused and disruptive legal approach should always demonstrate good business judgement & sound decision making. As a coach, mentor and manager you can build and motivate teams to drive a high-performance culture.
Your Responsibilities
Serve as a legal and business advisor to both the India Chairman and General Manager and the India Senior Leadership Team
Lead negotiator, active participation as a member of the legal team with the business and the first point of contact on legal issues arising in relation to India business
Advise stakeholders like Sales, HR, Commercial, and R&D, including Senior Leadership on a broad range of legal disciplines, including company law, labour compliances, commercial contracts, regulatory, business law, local laws on privacy, compliance and anti-corruption etc.
Liaise with and provide general legal advice and support to the sales team, finance, marketing, engineering, corporate internal audit, Legal IP team, and other functions
Support and/or the implementation of innovative and replicable legal solutions to business problems, managing policies and ensuring consistency with corporate strategy and business objectives, while maintaining the company’s high standards of integrity and ethical and transparent conduct
Work closely and seamlessly with the team to ensure compliance issues are identified and managed effectively
Manage a regional team of four individuals (two company secretaries and two contract professionals) in the execution of the defined legal strategy and deliverables, including;
- Negotiate, draft and structure a wide range of complex commercial contracts with customers, partners and suppliers
- Provide legal and business advice and support for the operations of the India region, including with respect to:
- organizational structure and go-to-market strategy
- corporate compliance and governance, regulatory (FCPA, BIS/OFAC, boycott, data protection and any other liaison that may be required with regulatory/ government authorities)
- labor and employment (managed exits, reorganizations, compliance with Companies Act, Shops, and Establishment Act)
- environmental and corporate social responsibility
- real estate, finance and accounting, insurance and general commercial issues
- engineering enabling supplier issues
- product homologation and certification issues
- Assist in the supervision of litigation matters (primarily commercial and employment-related), including management of external counsel
- Develop region-specific processes and deliver effective training to ensure compliance with local legal, regulatory and business requirements
- As needed, assist in region-specific management of transactions involving acquisitions and strategic partnerships
- Provide, and assist in providing, company secretarial support for all local entities including the establishment, management, and maintenance (and closing, as necessary) of corporate subsidiaries and branches in connection with regional operations in new or existing jurisdictions
About You:
Minimum Qualifications
- 10+ years of prior experience as a qualified lawyer in India
- Qualified Company Secretary with membership of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
- Experience working in the corporate or commercial department of a top-rated law firm or a leading (higher rated) niche technology law firm strongly preferred
- Experience working in the corporate legal department of a public company (US company preferred) in the telecoms, software, technology or integrator sectors preferred
- Must be currently affiliated to a national law or bar association
- Experience with US GAAP and revenue recognition rules is strongly preferred
