Director Legal Counsel - Commercial Transactions

Your Opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

Schwab is seeking experienced senior commercial counsel to lead a wide range of complex commercial transactions while advancing Schwab’s contract operating model to facilitate operational excellence, consistency, and measurable outcomes.

What you have

Required

• Juris Doctor (JD) and active bar admission in at least one U.S. state.
• 7+ years of legal experience, including 3+ years in-house (financial services experience strongly preferred).
• Extensive experience negotiating complex commercial agreements, supported by a strong understanding of industry practice and the legal and regulatory frameworks governing commercial contracting.
• Demonstrated ability to balance risk and business objectives, evaluate options quickly, and drive deals to closure.
• Proven execution mindset, with the ability to take ownership of complex workstreams and drive them to completion.
• Strong executive communication skills and ability to explain risk clearly, succinctly, and persuasively.

Preferred

• Deep experience with technology sourcing transactions and licensing.
• Demonstrated program management skills and experience delivering legal transformation or contracting optimization initiatives.
• Comfort supporting or leading change management and implementing legal operations improvements, including responsible adoption of AI-enabled tools.

What you’ll do

• You will serve as counsel for Schwab’s commercial agreements, owning contract negotiations end-to-end from intake through execution in close coordination with Corporate Vendor Management, internal risk teams, and business stakeholders. On a day‑to‑day basis, you will scope deal requirements, identify the appropriate contracting structure, and take primary responsibility for drafting, revising, and negotiating commercial agreements. You will synthesize business objectives and cross‑functional risk input into agreements that align with Schwab policies, regulatory guidance, and industry best practices. The role supports a broad range of sourcing transactions, including technology procurement (artificial intelligence, software licensing, and cloud services—SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS), professional services and consulting, product procurement, data and content agreements (market data licenses, data feeds, analytics services, and content subscriptions), marketing, and sponsorships, among others.
• You will provide legal counsel on transactional risk, partnering with senior leaders and subject matter experts to advance business goals within Schwab’s governance frameworks. You will translate legal risk into clear decision options, explaining tradeoffs and strategic alternatives to key stakeholders.
• You will support compliance and risk alignment by confirming that agreements meet firm policies, regulatory standards, and control requirements. You will work closely with internal risk stakeholders to align contractual commitments with the firm’s risk appetite while promoting consistent documentation and escalations.
• You will support contracting process optimization initiatives that improve speed, quality, and consistency. This includes defining and implementing workflows, negotiation playbooks, clause libraries, and escalation standards. In partnership with Corporate Vendor Management and Legal Operations, you will identify and implement opportunities to reduce cycle times, improve the internal client experience, establish meaningful metrics and reporting, and build durable models for workload balancing, delegation, and cross‑functional collaboration.
• You will drive innovation and continuous improvement by identifying repeatable workflows where GenAI and automation can improve speed and quality. You will support change management to ensure tools are adopted responsibly and align with Legal objectives and enterprise governance, while staying current on industry developments affecting commercial transactions and third‑party risk.

In addition to the salary range, this position is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities