Senior Legal Counsel - Americas

Overview

The organization is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel, Americas for Electrification Service (ELSE).

This role reports to Division General Counsel ELSE and supports legal work that enables business execution across the Americas. Responsibilities include advising senior leaders and cross-functional teams on complex commercial contracts, compliance and integrity, disputes, employment matters, and strategic transactions. Coordination with other regional and global legal resources is essential; this position is not the sole legal resource for ELSE or other supported divisions.

Work model: remote. Operating time zone will align closest with the Eastern Time zone.

Responsibilities

• Advise business leaders across the Americas on legal risk, decision-making, and execution of strategic priorities, in coordination with relevant country, business area, and specialist counsel.
• Lead or support drafting, review, and negotiation of complex customer, supplier, service, subcontractor, channel partner, technology, and other commercial agreements across the Americas.
• Design scalable contract management processes, including playbooks, templates, and workflows, to improve efficiency and manage legal risk across high-volume transactions.
• Advise on tenders, contract risk reviews, claims, change orders, project execution, and dispute avoidance across service-intensive markets, including industrial services, utilities, data centers, infrastructure, and renewables.
• Manage litigation, arbitration, pre-litigation claims, settlements, and external counsel, including matter strategy, budgets, reporting, and quality assurance.
• Advise on employment and human resources matters, including performance management, investigations, terminations, reorganizations, immigration, and cross-border workforce issues (coordinating with specialists where appropriate).
• Provide strategic legal counsel on mergers and acquisitions, minority investments, divestitures, joint ventures, and restructuring activities globally, including deal structuring, due diligence, and post-closing integration support.
• Support other divisions, business areas, and corporate functions as business needs require, with priorities and matter ownership coordinated through Legal & Integrity leadership and existing coverage teams.
• Collaborate with lawyers across divisions, countries, specialist teams, and regions under agreed coverage models, matter-allocation principles, and escalation paths.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor (JD) with active bar admission in at least one relevant jurisdiction.
• Minimum 10 years of in-house or law firm experience supporting industrial, engineering, technology, construction, or services businesses across multiple legal disciplines and jurisdictions in a multinational company.
• Ability to succeed in a highly collaborative environment with appropriate autonomy, including partnering effectively with divisional, business area, regional, country, and specialist counsel; managing competing priorities; clarifying ownership and scope; and advising senior stakeholders under time pressure.
• Strong commercial judgment and substantial experience in commercial contracts, disputes, strategic transactions, and cross-border matters, including the ability to identify material risks, develop practical options, support timely business decisions, and engage specialists when needed.
• Candidates must already have work authorization that would permit them to work for ABB in the US.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, or Harvey; or demonstrated willingness to learn and quickly build AI fluency.
• Strong knowledge of anti-bribery and anti-corruption requirements relevant across the Americas, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and experience supporting internal investigations.
• Knowledge of professional, contractor, electrical licensing, and related regulatory requirements in one or more Americas jurisdictions, with the ability to coordinate local advice where needed.
• Working knowledge of employment and human resources law in one or more Americas jurisdictions, including the ability to identify when local specialist advice is required.

Compensation & Benefits

• Expected base pay: $163,500 to $261,600 annually.
• Eligible for a short-term incentive plan/annual bonus.

Benefit Summary for Eligible US Employees

(Excludes ABB E-mobility, Athens union, Puerto Rico)

Health, Life & Disability

• Choice between two medical plan options: a PPO plan called the Copay Plan, OR a High Deductible Health Plan with a Health Savings Account called the High Deductible Plan.
• Choice between two dental plan options: Core and Core Plus
• Vision benefit
• Company paid life insurance (2X base pay)
• Company paid AD&D (1X base pay)
• Voluntary life and AD&D – 100% employee paid up to maximums
• Short Term Disability – up to 26 weeks – Company paid
• Long Term Disability – 60% of pay – Company paid (ability to “buy-up” to 66 2/3% of pay)
• Supplemental benefits – 100% employee paid (Accident insurance, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Assistance Program
• Health Advocate support resources for mental/behavioral health, general health navigation and virtual health, and infertility/adoption
• Employee discount program

Retirement

• 401k Savings Plan with Company Contributions
• Employee Stock Acquisition Plan (ESAP)

Time off

• 11 paid holidays
• Salaried exempt positions provided vacation under a permissive time away policy

Location

Remote (operating time zone will align closest with the Eastern Time zone).