Associate General Counsel | Hybrid | Reston, VA

Senior Counsel, Commercial & Legal Operations

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.

The Senior Counsel, Commercial & Legal Operations leads the operational strategy and infrastructure of Ellucian's global Legal Department to ensure efficient, data-driven, and scalable legal service delivery aligned with business objectives. Reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer, this role partners closely with Legal leadership, Finance, IT, and other cross-functional teams to modernize legal operations through technology, process optimization, vendor strategy, financial management, and analytics.

In this role, you will oversee high-impact commercial transactions across our global SaaS business and drive the adoption of legal technology to increase scalability, transparency, and contracting velocity. You will serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and partner cross-functionally with Sales, Product, Info Sec, Engineering, Finance, and Operations to enable revenue growth while managing legal, regulatory, data protection, and governance risk.

This role requires strong operational judgment, change leadership, and the ability to balance near-term priorities with long-term transformation. The Director will apply technology, automation, and data to improve efficiency, enhance visibility, and free legal talent for high-value strategic work. This is a hybrid, in-person role based in Ellucian's Reston, VA headquarters.

Where you will make an impact

• Legal Operations Strategy & Leadership
• Define and execute the Legal Department's operational strategy to support business growth, risk management, and scalability.
• Serve as a strategic partner to the CLO and Legal leadership, providing operational insight and execution support.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the Legal Operations team, fostering accountability and continuous improvement.
• Support execution of the Legal Department's operational strategy and annual priorities.
• Manage day-to-day legal operations programs, timelines, and deliverables. Provide operational support to Legal leadership, including preparation for leadership meetings and reporting forums to support practical and compliant decision-making.

• Commercial Transactions & Contracting
• • Draft, structure, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of complex commercial agreements, including:
  • SaaS subscription and cloud services agreements
  • Licensing, development, and strategic partnership agreements
  • Data Processing Addendums (DPAs) and AI addendums
  • NDAs, content licenses, and vendor/supplier agreements
  • Lead end-to-end negotiations for high-value, strategic transactions, balancing legal risk with business objectives to close impactful deals.
  • Create scalable contracting frameworks that accelerate deal cycles while maintaining appropriate risk controls.
  • Partner with M&A integration teams to streamline contracting processes, harmonize terms, and align legal frameworks post-acquisition.

• Technology, Process & Transformation
• • Own the Legal technology strategy, including system selection, implementation, optimization, governance, and ROI measurement.
  • Drive continuous optimization of legal workflows (e.g., matter intake, contract lifecycle management, knowledge management).
  • Partner…