VP & Chief Counsel, Mergers and Acquisitions

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Innovation
- Act as a strategic partner to the senior leadership team and Corporate Development, helping to shape the company's inorganic growth agenda.
- Drive innovation in deal structuring, legal process optimization, integration, and risk management to accelerate deal velocity and value creation.
- Serve as a thought leader on emerging legal trends in M&A and corporate governance.
Deal Execution & Negotiation
- Lead the end-to-end legal execution of all M&A transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and strategic investments.
- Serve as chief negotiator on high-stakes deals, balancing legal risk with business objectives to deliver optimal outcomes.
- Oversee and coordinate all legal aspects of due diligence, deal structuring, contract drafting, regulatory approvals, and post-closing integration.
Operational Excellence
- Build and lead a high-performing M&A legal team, fostering a culture of accountability, agility, and continuous improvement, leveraging internal and, where needed, external resources.
- Manage relationships with external counsel to ensure high-quality, cost-effective legal support.
- Develop and implement scalable legal frameworks, playbooks, and tools to support repeatable, efficient deal execution.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Businesses, Finance, Tax, HR, Compliance, and other stakeholders to enable alignment and seamless execution.
- Participate creatively and respectively in Global Law's leadership team with CLO and her direct reports.
Governance & Risk Management
- Ensure all transactions comply with applicable laws, regulations, and internal governance standards.
- Provide clear, actionable guidance to senior leadership and the Board on legal risks and strategic implications of proposed transactions.

Qualifications:

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing.
• Minimum of 15 years of legal experience, with a strong focus on M&A and corporate transactions, ideally including both top-tier law firm and in-house roles.

Additional Core Attributes:

• Exceptional verbal and written communication and platform skills; ability to communicate and relate at all levels of the company to enforce standards where necessary in a persuasive manner.
• Strong executive presence, including demonstrated experience presenting, reporting out, and influencing at the executive level.
• Demonstrated success in leading complex, cross-border transactions in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Exceptional negotiation, drafting, and communication skills, with a proven ability to influence at the highest levels.
• Strong business acumen and a delivery-oriented mindset; able to balance legal precision with commercial pragmatism.
• Experience in a global, matrixed organization is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience working with senior executives, including developing and presenting strategy, advocating and influencing, coaching and advising, and providing direct feedback.
• Highly developed sense of judgment and risk management skills, with proven ability to think globally.
• Ability to be a thoughtful team player as needed and a humble, respectful leader as needed. Solid influencing and organization skills with demonstrated managerial courage. Visionary with a bias for action and innovation.
• Ability to develop talent in team reports and cross-functionally.

At Eaton, we strive to provide compensation and benefits that attract, engage, and retain the best talent. This includes competitive pay and a variety of benefit programs for eligible employees. The expected annual salary range for this role is $198,750 - $291,500 a year. This role is also eligible for a variable incentive program. Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Eaton believes in second chance employment. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction history will be considered regardless of their arrest or conviction history, consistent with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the California Fair Chance Act and other local laws.

You do not need to disclose your conviction history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if Eaton is concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.

To request a disability-related reasonable accommodation to assist you in your job search, application, or interview process, please call us at 1-800-836-6345 to discuss your specific need. Only accommodation requests will be accepted by this phone number.

We know that good benefit programs are important to employees and their families. Eaton provides various Health and Welfare benefits as well as Retirement benefits, and several programs that provide for paid and unpaid time away from work. Click here for more detail: Eaton Benefits Overview. Please note that specific programs and options available to an employee may depend on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, and the applicability of collective bargaining agreements.