Director, Legal

About the Role

NetApp, a multi-billion dollar technology leader, is adding a Director, Product Legal, to join its award-winning legal department. The successful candidate will support the company’s product legal functions, partnering with engineering, product management, and other business teams on all phases of the product development life cycle. This attorney will work closely with the Company’s technical and business organizations. This position is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, but other locations will also be considered.

Responsibilities

• Partner with product teams on all phases of the product development life cycle—conception, design, MVP definition, roadmap, commercial release, support, and end-of-life.
• Embed within the product organization to help ensure legal compliance and other requirements.
• Partner closely with Product Management teams to provide pragmatic and actionable advice on a variety of legal and regulatory topics, including open source, privacy by design, data inventory and flow, intellectual property protection, and product and data security (such as Executive Order).
• Help build and participate in scalable and effective processes for legal review and launch of new products.
• Work with Product Management, Finance, other legal teams, and stakeholders to structure and draft product-specific terms to be incorporated into standard commercial templates, draft custom templates (such as SDK licenses, API or specification licenses), terms of use, and product policies.
• Assist Product Management and Finance on revenue recognition, COGS, and other financial issues (e.g., software, hardware, recurring services/SAAS, leases, etc.).
• Partner with others on updates of templates, processes, and playbooks as business models evolve.
• Identify interdependencies to help alignment/approvals among stakeholders from various business, technical, and legal groups.
• Help find solutions that balance enabling the business and managing its associated risks.
• Advise, structure, draft, and negotiate technology transactions, including partner agreements, OEM relationships, inbound technology licenses, joint development, collaboration, joint solutions, strategic alliances, software-as-a-service, technology acquisitions, and professional/hosted services.
• Work with Product Management and other legal teams to develop a legal framework for supporting planned and unplanned feature and product deprecation and obsolescence.
• Drive consistency of terms flowing from upstream licensors to downstream customers. For example, establish response plans for epidemic failures and product recalls, and propagate through both customer and vendor agreements.
• Assist the privacy legal team, Engineering, Sales, and Finance to evaluate opportunities for data usage centered around products and services, and optimize data rights for use by NetApp.
• Assist the IP group to identify offensive and defensive patent gaps and opportunities from a product perspective.
• Maintain an end-to-end bill of materials for each product/service.

Qualifications

• JD and membership in good standing of at least one state bar in the US.
• 12-15 or more years of legal experience in a major law firm or in-house legal department supporting product-related legal issues and technology transactions/licenses.
• 5 or more years of people management experience.
• Strong work ethic and self-starter, with a growth mindset.
• Flexibility in working hours in a global enterprise.
• Strategic thinker, but also detail-oriented; ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects, strong project management and organizational skills, work well under pressure and deadlines.
• Excellent team player and interpersonal skills.
• Strong personal communication skills, both written and oral.
• Commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally.

Pay

The target salary range for this position is $227,800 - $338,800 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package covering Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, and various Leave options.
• Performance-Based Incentives.
• Employee stock purchase plan and/or restricted stocks (RSUs).

Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

Schedule

NetApp embraces a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. Most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Why Join NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure. NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.