Associate General Counsel, Global Legal Services

Workday; Ireland; On-site; EUR 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday is seeking a Director, Associate General Counsel to lead our international contract negotiation team in Europe. This role focuses on scaling and streamlining legal deal support across EMEA and APAC/Japan regions with strategic change leadership.

The successful candidate will combine exceptional negotiation and drafting skills with strong business acumen, and will influence senior leaders across Sales and Legal to adopt modern contracting models leveraging AI and CLM.

Qualifications

• European law degree or equivalent professional qualification.
• 10+ years of negotiating contracts in a law firm or in-house/public sector.
• Proven experience leading and developing a team with a people-first leadership style.
• Experience transforming contracting models, workflows and processes for efficiency and scale.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders across Sales and Legal.

Responsibilities

• Drive technology transactions including negotiation of subscriptions, data processing and professional services agreements.
• Provide proactive strategic advice on business and legal issues and risks.
• Transform contracting models and workflows to optimize efficiency and scale.
• Collaborate with Legal and Business Technology to implement solutions.
• Lead change initiatives and adopt new processes, tools and ways of working with clients.
• Partner with senior leadership across Sales and Legal to drive adoption of new models.
• Represent Legal in high-stakes conversations with leaders across the organization.

Skills

Negotiation

Contract drafting

Leadership

Strategic advising

Change management

Education

European law degree

Tools

AI tools

Contract lifecycle management (CLM)

Job description

Your work days are brighter here.

We're obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we're shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you'll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We're in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you'll do meaningful work with Workmates who've got your back. In return, we'll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you've found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

The Global Legal Services team delivers world class legal shared services to Workday's Legal and business teams in a wide variety of legal work. This global team consists of legal professionals who handle work across Workday's customers, vendors and internal partners. The team is asked to manage a large volume of transactions and workstreams, as well as interact with several cross functional teams, and it operates at scale through efficiency, speed and skills.

About the Role

The Global Legal Services team seeks a highly motivated Director, Associate General Counsel, to join our team, based out of Europe. This role will lead our international team of contract negotiators, and will be critical in driving transformation to streamline legal deal support in our EMEA and APAC/Japan regions with a focus on scale and efficiency. The successful candidate will be a strategic change leader with a proven track record of building coalitions and driving sustainable, organization-wide change, and will be highly comfortable representing Legal in senior-level conversations with leaders across Sales and Legal, as well as having a deep understanding of the commercial contracting needs of a Fortune 500 cloud software provider.

The Director will need to possess exceptional negotiation and drafting skills as well as outstanding business acumen that enables them to be an effective and persuasive influencer at the leadership level, both cross-functionally and within the broader legal team. They will be a change leadership expert with a consistent track record of taking ownership of change, communicating the "why," and building coalitions of advocates rather than waiting to be told what to change, using their legal expertise and finely honed judgment to take smart risks in developing innovative, modern contracting models, streamlined end to end processes leveraging AI, CLM and other automation tools to simplify and scale contracting.

Responsibilities:

• Drive valuable technology transactions, which will include negotiation with prospects and customers and drafting of subscription, data processing and professional services agreements, assignments, amendments, and add on transactions
• Provide proactive strategic advice and guidance to internal teams regarding business and legal issues and risks
• Transform, design and refine contracting models, workflows, and department processes to achieve optimal efficiency and scale, analyzing complexity, effort and risk
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams in Legal and Business Technology to implement process and technology solutions
• Leverage business expertise to implement process improvements and serve as a trusted advisor for business process owners
• Own change leadership for the organization - communicating the "why," building coalitions of advocates, and designing for adoption (not just announcement) of new support processes, tools and ways of working with our legal team's clients and business partners
• Serve as a trusted, senior-level partner to leadership in Sales and Legal, comfortably leading high-stakes conversations that build alignment and drive cross-functional adoption of new processes and models

About You

Basic Qualifications

• A European law degree or relevant professional legal qualification
• 10+ years of experience of negotiating contracts in a law firm or in-house/public sector legal department
• Proven experience leading and developing a team with a people-first leadership style
• Prior experience from transforming, designing and refining contracting models, workflows, and department processes to achieve optimal efficiency and scale
• Proven experience leading organizational change and partnering with senior leaders, including stakeholders in Sales and Legal

Other Qualifications

Negotiation & Communication - Excellent cont