Director, Associate General Counsel: Product Legal
About The Position
The Product Legal organization at Cisco provides strategic, business-focused counsel across Cisco’s product development and go-to-market activities. They partner closely with product, engineering, marketing, finance, operations, sales, and executive leadership to advance innovation, manage risk, and help bring trusted technology solutions to customers worldwide. The Security, Observability and Data Platform organization, which includes the Security and Splunk business units, delivers ground breaking, AI-powered security and observability products and platforms that help organizations protect, supervise and strengthen resilience across their entire digital footprint. This role is for a strategic, and technology-focused attorney to serve as Senior Director, Associate General Counsel for Security, Observability and Data Platform. Reporting to the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel leading the Product Legal organization, this individual will lead the legal professionals delivering elite, front-line counseling across the full breadth of product development and go-to-market activities for these business units. They will serve as the principal Product Legal partner to the leader of the Security, Observability and Data Platform organization. The role involves building trusted relationships with senior executives and cross-functional partners, translating complex legal issues into practical business guidance, and leading the team through a dynamic period of innovation, growth, and organizational integration.
Requirements
- Juris Doctor or equivalent law degree and active bar membership in good standing in at least one jurisdiction.
- 15+ years of relevant legal experience at a law firm and/or in-house legal department, including substantial experience advising enterprise technology, software, cloud services, cybersecurity, or observability businesses.
- 7+ years of experience leading attorneys and other legal professionals, including responsibility for team development, performance management, prioritization, and delivery of legal services across a sophisticated organization.
- Demonstrated experience advising senior executives on sophisticated product development and go-to-market matters involving intellectual property, licensing, data, privacy, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, regulatory requirements, and technology transactions.
- Experience leading legal support for global product portfolios or business units, including the ability to assess sophisticated legal and business risks and provide, practical, business-focused mentorship.
Nice To Haves
- Deep knowledge of enterprise security, cybersecurity, observability, data analytics, cloud, SaaS, or platform technologies and their associated business models and regulatory environments.
- Experience serving as the principal legal advisor to senior executives and participating in business leadership teams within a large, global technology company.
- Consistent track record to lead through transformation, business integration, and evolving product and go-to-market strategies.
- Strong people leadership skills, with a record of building inclusive, high-performing teams and developing legal professionals.
- Outstanding judgment, executive presence, collaboration, intellectual curiosity, humility, and a solutions-oriented approach to sophisticated challenges.
Responsibilities
- Lead, develop, and inspire the legal teams supporting the combined Splunk and Security business units, establishing clear priorities and delivering coordinated, high-quality legal support across the organization.
- Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior business leaders on product development, technology strategy, go-to-market models, regulatory requirements, intellectual property, commercial matters, and other significant legal and business risks.
- Guide legal support for Security, Observability and Data Platform products and services throughout their life cycles, including compose and development, product readiness, launch, commercialization, integration, and compliance.
- Develop scalable legal strategies and operating models that enable innovation and growth while effectively handling risk across sophisticated security and observability software, cloud, data, AI, and platform offerings.
- Collaborate proactively across Product Legal and with Legal subject-matter experts and cross-functional partners, including product management, engineering, sales, marketing, finance, operations, privacy, security, regulatory, competition, intellectual property, and corporate development teams.
Benefits
- medical, dental and vision insurance
- a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
- paid parental leave
- short and long-term disability coverage
- basic life insurance
- grants of Cisco restricted stock units
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year
- 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
- paid year-end holiday shutdown
- 4 paid days off for personal wellness
- 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (non-exempt employees)
- flexible vacation time off program (exempt employees)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
- up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
- annual bonuses (for non-sales roles)
- performance-based incentive pay (for sales roles)
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
