Post: Senior Counsel
Company: Mastercard
Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India
Education Qualification: LLB

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation and delivers better business results.

THE POSITION
The appointed person will be a vital part of the regional legal team which currently oversees the legal and regulatory needs of South Asia region. This position will report directly to the Senior Managing Counsel.
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RESPONSIBILITIES
• Oversees legal and Corporate Secretarial matters, and assisting with regulatory functions, for Mastercard in India and South Asia IMK division, including partnering with the business and legal specialists to facilitate commercial operations and activities
• Responsible for holding Board meetings and AGM and all Board approvals for all Mastercard entities in India
 Compliance Management Framework including Identifying and updating all laws and compliance obligations applicable to Indian entities.
 Drafting the Engagement letters for empaneling law firms and managing the relationship.
• Drafting the inter-company agreements and finalizing them in consultation with the concerned attorney(s).
• Managing ad-hoc assignments like capital raising, RBI – FEMA compliances etc.
• Collaborating with internal stakeholders to comply with the RBI license requirements and FIU related requirements.
• Serves as a strong legal advisor and considers the overall benefit to the business unit or market as the highest priority when structuring legal deals and contracts
• Negotiates, drafts, and approves key business and legal agreements that are complex, high-risk, and strategic in nature
• Leads communications and training to clients on legal issues, including explaining implications on business operations and legal risks
• Engage and manage relationship with outside counsels on specific business-related research and analysis
• Coaches and mentors others while serving as a technical expert, often leading cross-functional strategic initiatives and sharing legal knowledge for a business and/or market
• Often called upon to represent Mastercard at external industry events, contributing to expert panels and sharing white papers and best practices, etc., to enhance the organization's brand
• Manage statutory compliances pertaining to the Corporate Secretarial function and overall manage the compliances including advising to the directors as a Company Secretary.

JOB SPECIFIC EXPERIENCES
• Successful track record in managing and resolving enterprise wide and/or strategic high-risk business issues. Preferably from payments or financial services industry
• Led complex, international, cross-functional projects or committees
• Extensive success building relationships with global multi-cultural teams and leading remote project teams
• Proven ability to build collaborative working relationships with external stakeholders at the global/regional or local level and able to strike a balance between the two principal objectives of being a facilitator to the business and protecting Mastercard’s interests
• Adapted global best practices for a compliance area(s) or market to achieve improved business results
• Quick learner, stress resistant, ability to grasp complex new business concepts, good commercial acumen and creative approach to problem-solving
TECHINICAL SKILLS
Consultative & Pro-Active Advice: Establishes oneself as a trusted advisor for a designated area and partners with other leaders and experts to anticipate, address, and resolve multi-faceted business issues
Strategic Judgement: Drives an understanding of long-term business strategies and implications by overseeing the development of actionable plans for both short- and long-term next steps
Laws, Regulations and Statutory Compliance Risks: Leverages expert understanding of statutory environment and Mastercard’s legal position to advise on sophisticated legal issues and communicate risk and/or implications of new laws
Client Advocacy: Presents well-argued and comprehensive business case to obtain buy-in of stakeholders needed to execute on client opportunities and facilitate positive business outcomes
Applying Corporate Secretarial Expertise: Acts autonomously as subject matter expert or strategic advisor on general and/or specialty corporate secretarial environment and communicates changes, risks, and legal implications to clients on highly visible and sophisticated corporate matters at a senior/ executive level
Emerging Issues Research & Reporting: Identifies impacts to the business from emerging and high risk legal issues and implications from research reports to inform solution development and the implementation of future-proofing strategies
Corporate Secretarial & Legal Service Optimization: Role models a high level of professionalism in all client interactions sets internal performance metrics to evaluate quality of legal and corporate secretarial service delivery
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Market knowledge: Demonstrates thorough understanding of global market variables that impact Mastercard, and their associated risks; provides advice/point of view
Competitor knowledge: Leverages knowledge of the competitive landscape to identify how Mastercard can better address real-time and emergent needs of end-users better than competitors
Drive for results: Exhibits ownership, initiative and enthusiasm to achieve ‘stretch’ targets by balancing and aligning priorities and removing barriers in support of seamless cross-functional collaboration
Delivering customer value and experiences: Draws upon a broad base of customer knowledge and experience to establish and sustain a culture that exceeds customer expectations
Global business mindset: Builds global diversity of thought as an essential part of business and team strategy to bring about positive mindset shifts for Mastercard
Cross-cultural resourcefulness: Navigates across cultures and geographies and leverages strong relationships with key groups across Mastercard to gain support and buy-in for key decisions
Cross-cultural sensitivity/diversity: Creates an inclusive working culture where global colleagues are regularly consulted and can successfully bring their perspectives to the table
Challenging Status Quo: Spots breakthrough ideas/ opportunities in the market; leads direct development of new approaches to utilize these ideas/opportunities at Mastercard.
Subject Matter Expertise: Demonstrates advanced knowledge of own subject matter area in the payments space and is able to show broader application of work to strategic business outcomes.
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Should possess membership of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India with relevant experience of minimum 10 years in Corporate Secretarial matters.
A Bachelor’s degree in Law
Experience with reputed MNC would be an added advantage

COVID-19 Considerations

We value the safety of each member of our community because we know we’re all in this together. In many locations, which may change over time, we’ve implemented a virtual hiring process and continue to interview candidates by video or phone. In addition, in some locations, only individuals who have been fully vaccinated will be permitted inside Mastercard offices until further notice.

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