Senior Corporate Counsel, Commercial | Hybrid | Reston, VA

Ellucian; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Flexible time off

401k with match

Parental Leave

Telemedicine

Wellness program

Job summary

Ellucian is seeking a Senior Corporate Counsel to provide legal support across a broad range of commercial contracts and related matters. You will draft, review, and negotiate complex customer and commercial agreements and partner with Sales, Product, InfoSec, and Finance teams to enable strategic transactions.

This role focuses on privacy, data governance, regulatory compliance, and operational improvements in a global SaaS context.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• 7+ years of legal experience, including in-house experience in commercial contracting, licensing, IP, privacy, and data governance matters.
• Experience collaborating with Sales teams in high-volume deal environments.
• Experience working cross-functionally across Sales, Product, InfoSec, Engineering, Finance, and Operations.
• Strong business judgment balancing legal risk with business objectives.
• Collaborative, solutions-oriented mindset building trust across stakeholders.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, and communication skills for non-legal audiences.

Responsibilities

• Draft, structure, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of commercial agreements including SaaS ARR, SOWs, DPAs, and vendor agreements.
• Lead end-to-end negotiations for high-value, strategic transactions.
• Advise on corporate governance, IP, and regulatory compliance matters.
• Provide guidance on data privacy, AI governance, and information security for global SaaS providers.
• Improve contracting processes and CLM workflows across regions.

Skills

Contract negotiation

Legal drafting

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulatory compliance

Privacy & data governance

In-house experience

Stakeholder management

Education

Juris Doctor

Job description

About Ellucian

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 customers across 50 countries, serving more than 21 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

About The Opportunity

Ellucian is seeking a business-minded, collaborative, and self-motivated Senior Corporate Counsel to provide legal support across a broad range of commercial contracts and related matters. In this role, you will review, draft, and negotiate complex customer and commercial agreements and serve as a trusted legal partner to Ellucian business teams.

You will work closely with Sales, Product, Information Security, Engineering, Finance, Operations, and other stakeholders to provide practical legal guidance, help navigate contractual and regulatory issues, and support the successful completion of commercial transactions. You will also contribute to improvements in contracting processes, legal operations, and the use of technology to make the delivery of legal services more efficient and scalable.

If you are a practical, solutions-oriented attorney who understands technology, enjoys partnering across the business, and knows how to balance legal risk with business objectives to get deals done, this could be a great fit.

Where You Will Make An Impact

• Draft, structure, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of complex commercial agreements, including SaaS subscription and cloud services agreements, SOWs, license agreements Data Privacy/Processing addenda (DPAs), AI addenda, non-disclosure agreements, and vendor/supplier agreements.
• Lead end-to-end negotiations for high-value, strategic transactions, balancing legal risk with business objectives to close impactful deals.
• Advise on corporate, intellectual property, governance, and compliance matters.
• Provide guidance on complex regulatory issues affecting global SaaS providers, including data privacy, AI governance, and information security.
• Support compliance with GDPR, CCPA, EU AI Act, FERPA, state privacy and other applicable statutes and regulations.
• Continuously improve contracting and legal operations functions, including updating contract templates, playbooks, policies and other materials to ensure regional/global consistency.
• Use AI tooling to innovate with respect to legal operations, contract governance, and operating procedures and policies.
• Collaborate with the team on the design and configuration of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) workflows, including contract intake, template generation, review and negotiation, approval routing, signature, contract storage and post-execution processes.
• Develop and maintain a strong knowledge of the product and services portfolio.
• Uphold the company’s ethical standards and demonstrate sound professional judgment in all legal and business matters.
• Leverage CLM data, reporting and analytics to measure contract cycle times, identify bottlenecks, monitor adoption and compliance, and recommend process improvements.
• Identify opportunities to expand the use of CLM and related legal technology, including automation and AI-enabled capabilities, to improve efficiency, consistency, visibility and the delivery of legal services.

What You Will Bring

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• 7+ years of legal experience, including in-house experience in commercial contracting, licensing, IP, privacy, and data governance matters.
• Extensive experience working in close collaboration with Sales teams in high-volume deal/sales environment.
• Experience working cross-functionally across Sales, Product, InfoSec Engineering, Finance, and Operations teams.
• Exceptional business judgment and the ability to balance legal risk with strategic objectives.
• A collaborative, solutions-oriented mindset that builds trust and drives alignment across stakeholders.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, and communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex legal concepts for non-legal audiences.
• Adaptability, resilience, and a commitment to continuous improvement in a dynamic, global environment.

What makes #Ellucianlife

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision
• Flexible time off
• Thrive Flex Lifestyle Account (LSA) that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 401k w/ match & BrightPlan - to help you save for the future
• Parental Leave
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Telemedicine
• Wellness
  • Headspace Care (mental health)
  • Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare & Wellthy– caregiver supporq
• Diversity and inclusion programs which provide access to internal employee resource groups
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
  • Education Assistance Program
  • Professional development opportunities
  • LinkedIn Learning