Senior Legal Counsel, Global Legal Services

Overview

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.

The mission of the Global Legal Services (GLS) team is to enhance the Legal organization’s support for Workday by focusing on simplicity, speed, scale, and skills, thereby accelerating strategic growth and improving the customer experience. The team’s focus areas include developing business strategy for the Legal organization and operational alignment with larger Workday initiatives. Additionally, the team leads efforts in process optimization, resourcing, and risk management, while enabling operational efficiencies in technology management and data harmonization.

The GLS team also focuses on developing skills-based training for the organization and providing solutions through effective project management, strategic analytics, vendor management, and budget coordination.

The Legal Compliance and Corporate Affairs organization seeks a highly motivated Senior Legal Counsel to join our Global Legal Services Center of Excellence. This role will play a key part in driving transformation in the legal department through establishing contracting standards, streamlining complex processes, leveraging AI to improve department efficiency, driving change management communication, and enhancing, streamlining, and curating resources used by the department to operate  are looking for an innovative change agent—someone who can drive cultural shifts in how we operate while leveraging expertise to build modern, scalable contracting infrastructure.

As Legal Counsel, you will navigate the intersection of legal drafting, system architecture (Salesforce/CLM), technology, and executive communication to simplify the business as we scale to a $20 billion enterprise. This role demands a unique blend of high-energy project management, critical thinking, and the integrity to lead high-stakes initiatives independently.

• Supporting the development and maintenance of transactional infrastructure governance policies and processes.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams in Legal, Sales, and Business Technology to implement process and technology solutions.
• Engage with cross-functional teams continuously to gather feedback for improvement to processes, templates, and tools and align contracting processes with broader business objectives.
• Mapping work streams and department processes, identifying complexity, effort and risk.
• Leveraging business expertise to implement process improvements and serve as a trusted advisor for business users.
• Proactively participate in organizational change and launch support processes, aiding change management and support enablement.
• Lead negotiations for enterprise-level agreements (SaaS, procurement, non-disclosure, etc.).
• Draft and review redlines to Workday commercial contracts, coordinate with cross-functional teams during contract review cycles, provide guidance on commonly requested edits, non-standard terms, policies, copies, questions, etc.
• Contribute to model development and deployment of AI…