Principal Corporate Counsel, Global Trade Compliance
Cisco, the world’s leading networking, communications, and security company, is on a mission to empower an inclusive future for everyone. We’re proud to be consistently recognized as one of the best workplaces in the world by Fortune and Great Place To Work, and we are looking for exceptional people to join our legal team.
What You’ll Do
You will join Cisco’s Regulatory Affairs Trade Legal & Compliance team, providing trade compliance counseling for the business and compliance professionals supporting the greater Asia Pacific region. We are looking for a fun, creative teammate, hungry to dive into a wide variety of hands-on work to help drive the business forward.
With your team, you will advise and lead on emerging export and sanctions compliance issues, particularly in the cloud and SaaS environments, as applied to a combined hardware and software company with sales and operations that span the globe. You will be at the forefront of emerging issues in international trade, partnering working with Cisco’s Government Affairs group to help shape evolving regulation and working with our Supply Chain and Sales teams to maintain compliance in a very dynamic landscape. You may also provide import compliance counsel support for our Global Tax & Customs team.
You will report to Cisco Legal’s Director & Associate General Counsel for Global Trade Compliance.
Who We Are
We are a team of 450+ Legal and Compliance professionals in 25+ countries committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment as we work together to drive Cisco’s success. We serve as trusted advisors to the business – problem solving, navigating complexities, and enabling transformation along the way. We use technology to make life easier – leveraging Cisco’s innovative networking and collaboration tools to enable flexible, hybrid work. And we embrace the responsibility to be a force for good – donating our time and expertise through pro bono and community impact initiatives. We are Cisco Legal.
You will join Cisco Legal’s Regulatory Affairs Trade Legal & Compliance team. The Regulatory Affairs team is comprised of lawyers, operational specialists, program managers, engineers, and subject matter experts focused on topics including data and privacy, global trade and telecom, ESG and human rights, and cyber and national security regulations. The team’s charter is aligned with influencing, interpreting, and implementing evolving and existing regulations that impact Cisco’s business and interacting with external stakeholders on those topics as well. You will partner with your colleagues in Legal and numerous other functions across the company to have an immediate impact with your analytic rigor, business judgment, and ability to get things done.
Who You Are
You are a meticulous, agile, and curious attorney with deep experience leading businesses on economic sanctions, export controls, and import requirements. You are a subject matter expert on sanctions, export controls and customs regulations, with a particular focus on Asia Pacific jurisdictions and how those regulations apply to cloud and SaaS businesses. You have demonstrated experience engaging with regulators and you have a wide external network in which you are recognized as a thought- leader on trade compliance matters.
You are a positive, engaged, and adaptable colleague who is passionate about Cisco’s business success. You possess excellent English language oral and written communication skills, and you can synthesize complex issues and influence and lead across functions (both legal and non-legal). You have sharp business focus and are dedicated, highly collaborative, and pragmatic. You are comfortable working in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, and you can successfully handle frequent changes in priorities, deadlines, workload, and conflicting laws. You follow through on commitments, resolve conflicts, and have the modesty to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. You are not afraid of complexity and are intent on offering simple, elegant solutions. You are a change agent willing to speak up with ideas to address outdated methodologies, broken processes or inefficient ways of doing things. You can clearly articulate issues and risks and take ownership for identifying and implementing better, more innovative ways of working.
But more important than all of that, you are an amazing colleague who is eager to join a fun and dynamic team. You appreciate your teammates, you don’t take yourself too seriously, and you are deeply committed to sustaining a welcoming and inclusive team.
Required Skills and Qualifications
- Qualified lawyer in the jurisdiction where you will be based.
- 7+ years of in-house and/or law firm experience on export controls and trade compliance matters. Prior in-house experience with a public company is preferred, but we will consider candidates with deep experience working with technology and/or SaaS providers on trade issues.
- Strong leadership skills and a demonstrated track record of motivating, empowering, stretching, supporting and engaging teams to achieve optimal business results, develop their skills and careers, and enjoy their work.
- Deep subject matter knowledge on global trade regulations, sanctions, export controls, and trade compliance, with an emphasis on cloud/SaaS trade matters.
- Experience conducting investigations and engaging with regulators on export control and trade compliance matters.
Primary responsibilities:
- Provide both detailed and executive-level guidance on trade regulations law as applied to Cisco, including expert analysis of regulatory landscape of the Asia Pacific region and compliance standard processes;
- Deliver concrete guidance based on requirements from the Asia Pacific region and other jurisdictions, including U.S., from which Cisco operates;
- Lead and conduct investigations, working with cross-functional teams to oversee this effort;
- Develop close internal working relationships with Cisco’s sales, engineering, operations, and finance teams to reduce any regulatory friction;
- Prioritize ongoing learning and understanding of our go-to-market strategies, business processes, and product offerings; and
- Stay current of evolving and existing trade regulations and act as our subject matter expert in these areas providing advice and guidance to Cisco legal and business colleagues.
Why Cisco
#WeAreCisco, where each person is unique, but we bring our talents to work as a team and make a difference powering an inclusive future for all.
We embrace digital, and help our customers implement change in their digital businesses. Some may think we’re “old” (36 years strong) and only about hardware, but we’re also a software company. And a security company. We even invented an intuitive network that adapts, predicts, learns and protects. No other company can do what we do – you can’t put us in a box!
But “Digital Transformation” is an empty buzz phrase without a culture that allows for innovation, creativity, and yes, even failure (if you learn from it.)
Day to day, we focus on the give and take. We give our best, give our egos a break, and give of ourselves (because giving back is built into our DNA.) We take accountability, bold steps, and take difference to heart. Because without diversity of thought and a dedication to equality for all, there is no moving forward.
So, you have colorful hair? Don’t care. Tattoos? Show off your ink. Like polka dots? That’s cool. Pop culture geek? Many of us are. Passion for technology and world changing? Be you, with us!