Vice President - Commercial Legal Affairs

Job Description

Freshworks is looking for an experienced legal professional with a strong understanding of AI powered SaaS business models to help lead our world-class commercial legal team. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, this role requires a collaborative and pragmatic team player who can proactively lead the global commercial legal team, navigate escalations, design legal operations and drive and manage multiple complex customer negotiations and commercial projects through to completion. This role requires a balance of strategic judgment and operational excellence, along with the ability to lead through complexity and utilize technology to drive execution at global scale. Superb project management, transactional, analytical, written and verbal communication skills are critical, particularly in conveying issues and topics with various cross-functional leaders and executives.

Qualifications

• Juris doctorate degree from an accredited U.S. law school and active state bar membership in good standing
• At least 15 years of relevant legal experience with an in-house position at technology companies directly supporting a sales organization, preferably during the growth-to-great phase of its lifecycle
• Demonstrated experience and ability to recruit, manage, mentor and lead a team of legal professionals, providing guidance and training with direct communication and feedback to constantly improve and uplevel the team as a whole
• Exhibit Radical Candor (i.e., care personally and challenge directly) while still being able to influence and inspire
• Demonstrated experience in providing both tactical and strategic legal leadership to contribute to overall business initiatives in a collaborative manner
• Strong organizational and communication skills with the ability to identify and resolve issues quickly and effectively and make on-the-spot risk calls
• Meticulous attention to detail, proactive, and able to manage and prioritize multiple concurrent matters in a fast-paced environment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and ability to deliver balanced, pragmatic risk assessments
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively across all levels of an organization with enterprise-wide savvy and viewpoint to avoid siloed thinking
• Service-oriented, responsive, professional and strong integrity
• Ability to drive your own results and “roll up sleeves” to take on any project in a small in-house legal team environment to get stuff done
• Ability to see challenges as opportunities to develop and move with an experimental mindset to find simpler or innovative ways to get the real work that matters done and deliver results (i.e., abandon past practices if they don’t make sense or would lead to a poor outcome)
• Low-ego individual that has the ability to view issues holistically and operate as a business person (not just a lawyer) and takes an expansive view of how to drive the business forward
• Flexible, fun, hard-working individual that thrives in dynamic and fast-moving environments, has the desire to be impactful and wants to be an integral part of shaping and nurturing an amazing work culture

Additional Information

We're committed to building a workplace that reflects the diverse world we serve. At Freshworks, you'll find inclusive teams, flexible thinking, and opportunities to grow your career - while making work better for millions. If this sounds like a journey you want to be part of, we'd love to meet you. Let's building something refreshing together.