Senior Legal Counsel

Job description

We are looking for an independent, commercially-minded lawyer, based in India, to own BlueOptima’s legal function on a full-time basis. The role principally supports the contracting that underpins our enterprise SaaS business and owns, maintains and improves the legal framework that supports a fast-moving, multi-jurisdiction group. Commercial deals are sold through our UK and US entities, and BlueOptima contracts on its own standard paper governed by England & Wales, New York or Swiss law. You will negotiate directly with counterparties — including some of the world’s largest enterprises — so the ability to lead difficult, high-value negotiations to a clean close with limited supervision is central to the role. In addition to the group commercial work, you will be the legal point of contact for the India entity, covering Indian employment law and local statutory compliance. The role reports to the UK-based Head of Finance and requires working hours with meaningful overlap with the UK and US business day. Duties and Responsibilities Enterprise contract negotiation. Lead negotiations directly with large enterprise counterparties — from engagement through redlining to close — explaining standard terms and holding the company’s fall-back positions on complex, high-value deals. Commercial contracting. Draft, review and negotiate MSAs, order forms, SOWs, NDAs and DPAs across England & Wales, New York and Swiss-governed paper, supporting deals sold through the UK and US entities. India entity legal & compliance. Act as legal point of contact for the India entity — employment-law matters, local statutory and regulatory compliance, and entity-level legal support. Legal framework and playbooks. Own, maintain and optimise standard templates, fall-back positions, contract policies and the contract-management system; drive continuous improvement. Vendor and procurement contracts. Review and negotiate inbound supplier, SaaS, professional-services and confidentiality agreements. Data privacy and InfoSec. Handle data-protection matters (including GDPR-governed obligations), negotiate DPAs, and support InfoSec policy management and customer security requirements. IP protection. Support IP protection, assignment and related strategy. AI enablement. Embed AI tooling across legal review, triage, drafting and contract analysis, and help shape the company’s approach to AI-related legal and regulatory questions. Required Qualified lawyer with excellent academic credentials, qualified to advise on England & Wales, New York Law. England & Wales qualification is the target profile; equivalent demonstrable experience drafting and negotiating under E&W law will also be considered. 4+ years’ PQE in a corporate/commercial team at a leading firm and/or comparable in-house environment. Proven experience leading negotiations directly with Western / international enterprise counterparties through to close — not solely reviewing or marking up documents. Multi-governing-law commercial drafting — comfortable working across more than one of England & Wales, New York and Swiss law. Working knowledge of Indian employment law and local statutory compliance (India bar enrolment is not required). Working knowledge of our other locations, Mexico, UK, Japan, US. Strong commercial drafting across MSAs, DPAs and NDAs, plus sound data-privacy knowledge - for SAAS industry. Genuinely independent and self-sufficient — able to own the function with minimal day-to-day UK oversight. Excellent written and spoken English; clear communicator with internal and external stakeholders. Willing and able to work hours with meaningful overlap with the UK and US business day. Desirable Experience with AI — a significant plus — whether using AI tools within legal workflows, or advising on AI legal/regulatory frameworks. US (New York State) qualification and/or experience under Swiss-governed contracts. Prior in-house experience in a SaaS / enterprise software business serving Western enterprise clients. Breadth across IP and InfoSec policy management. Why Join Us? Own and run an established legal function with real autonomy — your decisions carry weight and are visible to the leadership team. Broad, varied mandate spanning commercial, data privacy, employment, IP and InfoSec across multiple jurisdictions. A genuinely AI-forward environment: you are expected and supported to build AI into how legal work gets done. Hybrid working, modern equipment and a personal professional-development budget. Benefits: 32 days of holidays (this includes public and religious holidays) Contributions to your Provident Fund which can be matched by the company above the statutory minimum as agreed Gratuity payments Private Medical Insurance provided by the company (Employee + Spouse + 2 Children + 2 Parents) 12 Weeks Paid Paternity Leave, 6 months Maternity leave Support with childcare costs (50%) Work from Home Equipment allowance Flexible Work from Home policy - 2 days home p/w Flexible Work from Long Distance - 4 weeks a year Sponsored Learning Opportunities Team Socials Stay connected with us on LinkedIn or keep an eye on our career page for future opportunities! BlueOptima provides industry-leading objective metrics in software development using its proprietary Coding Effort Analytics, enabling large organisations to deliver better software, faster and at lower cost. Founded in 2006, BlueOptima is a profitable, independent software company whose core technology was originally devised in research carried out at Cambridge University. Headquartered in London, UK, BlueOptima operates through subsidiaries and offices across the UK, India, Mexico, the United States and Japan. Its technology is deployed by global enterprises — including Fortune 50 companies, major global banks and leading S&P constituents — to drive value from their software development activities, running complex analytics over very large source-code data sets. BlueOptima is an Equal Opportunities employer.