About Cognizant Corporate
Cognizant Corporate is a global community united by a shared purpose: to make a meaningful impact. We are committed to excellence and driven by outcomes that matter. Collaboration is at the heart of how we work, and our forward-thinking mindset fuels continuous learning, innovation, and growth.
At Cognizant, careers transcend titles. We empower our people to think strategically, inspire others, and lead with purpose, always guided by our core values. Join us in shaping the future of business. About the role
As a Senior Manager in the Commercial Legal team, you will serve as a trusted legal partner to business, procurement, finance, delivery, risk, privacy, security, and other stakeholders. You will lead the review, drafting, negotiation, and lifecycle management of complex commercial agreements across multiple geographies, with particular focus on the United States, Europe, LATAM and the Middle East.
This role combines hands-on legal execution with team leadership, stakeholder management, and process improvement. You will be expected to exercise sound judgment, translate legal and regulatory requirements into practical business guidance, manage competing priorities, and help strengthen scalable contracting and governance practices. You will have the autonomy to lead negotiations, improve workflows, mentor team members, and contribute to responsible, technology-enabled legal operations. In this role, you will
- Lead the end-to-end review, drafting, and negotiation of complex commercial agreements, including master services agreements, statements of work, non-disclosure agreements, subcontractor and vendor agreements, amendments, data protection terms, business associate agreements, data privacy agreements and related documents.
- Provide practical, risk-based legal advice on contractual matters and partner closely with business, procurement, finance, delivery, privacy, security, compliance, and other stakeholders to understand commercial objectives, identify legal and operational risks, and develop balanced positions that support timely decision-making.
- Support contracting matters across the United States, Europe, LATAM and the Middle East, taking into account applicable legal and regulatory requirements and coordinating with local counsel or subject-matter experts where needed.
- Advise on privacy, cybersecurity, healthcare, financial-services, artificial intelligence and other emerging-technology considerations, including requirements associated with GDPR, the EU AI Act, HIPAA, HITECH, DORA, and other applicable frameworks.
- Lead negotiations with customers, vendors, subcontractors, and external counsel, clearly articulating legal positions and achieving commercially workable outcomes within approved risk parameters.
- Manage, mentor, and develop legal professionals by providing clear direction, thoughtful review, knowledge sharing, and constructive, development-focused guidance.
- Drive operational excellence through contract review and negotiation processes, playbooks, clause libraries, templates, intake processes, trackers, dashboards, knowledge management, and appropriate use of legal technology and generative AI, while maintaining confidentiality and responsible-AI principles.
- Monitor workload and priorities, communicate risks and dependencies early, and provide clear status updates and decision-ready escalations to legal and business leadership.
- Promote a culture of ownership, collaboration, integrity, inclusion, continuous learning, and high-quality delivery. What you must have to be considered
- A law degree (LLB/ LLM) from a recognized institution.
- Approximately 10-15 years of relevant post-qualification experience in commercial contracting, gained in a law firm, in-house legal function, or a combination of both.
- Demonstrated experience independently drafting and negotiating sophisticated technology, services, outsourcing, subcontractor, and vendor agreements.
- Strong understanding of core commercial-contracting principles and the ability to assess legal, operational, financial, privacy, security, and reputational risk in context.
- Experience supporting transactions across multiple geographies, particularly the United States, Europe, LATAM, and the Middle East.
- Working knowledge of relevant regulatory frameworks, including GDPR, the EU AI Act, HIPAA, HITECH, and DORA, with the judgment to involve specialist counsel when appropriate.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex legal concepts clearly to legal and non-legal stakeholders.
- Proven ability to lead negotiations, manage senior stakeholders, handle high-volume work, and deliver accurate outputs under competing deadlines.
- Experience mentoring or managing legal professionals and contributing to a collaborative, accountable, and inclusive team environment.
- A strong sense of ownership, sound ethical judgment, attention to detail, and commitment to organizational values. These will help you succeed
- Experience in the technology, IT services, consulting, outsourcing, cloud, cybersecurity, healthcare, or financial-services sectors.
- Familiarity with legal operations, contract review, workflow automation, knowledge management, dashboards, and responsible use of generative AI in legal work.
- Experience working with global and cross-functional teams across time zones and cultures.
- Ability to combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution, remain calm under pressure, and distinguish material risks from issues that can be resolved pragmatically.
- A continuous-improvement mindset and willingness to simplify processes, create reusable guidance, and support capability building across the team. Success in this role
Success will be reflected in high-quality and timely legal support, balanced risk management, strong stakeholder confidence, disciplined escalation, effective team development, and measurable improvements in contracting consistency, efficiency, and knowledge reuse. Work model
We strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 1-2 days a week in a Cognizant office. Regardless of the working arrangement, we support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs.
The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting and may change based on business, project, and client requirements. We will remain clear about role expectations. A note to applicants
We're excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don't hesitate to apply if your experience is broadly aligned with the role. We value transferable experience, sound judgment, diverse perspectives, and the ability to learn and grow.
