Lead Negotiator - Director

Lead Negotiator Director

Job Summary:

The Lead Negotiator Director role is a deal closer who has extensive direct client negotiation experience to run a holistic negotiation strategy and manage the EY deal team as well as act as the primary client team contact with the ultimate goal of a collaborative and mutually value-based outcome. The role is primarily responsible for working on EYs largest most complex and unique deals and must have a high level of business acumen leadership skills constructive influence and emotional intelligence to be an effective first chair on the deal. The role is required to have extensive experience working with external counsel and third party advisors to faciliate the close of risk balanced deals in challenging client environments.

The role must also be able to thrive in new and unfamiliar environments as each deal and client is different and navigate the clients behavior and tactics to maintain the integrity of the deal for EY. The position also involves the ability to lead training classes and presentations on best pratices in negotiation for the Firm as well as acting as a mentor for less experienced negotiators in the team.

Essential functions:

Negotiations

• Effectively interact with pursuit teams to advise prepare and lead them for client interactions and negotiations. **This rank is assigned to the most complex opportunities (size and scope) in the Region.
• Lead the actual negotiation process as a first chair with the clients negotiation lead to take the engagement from sold to closed.
• Lead development of creative solutions and persuasive arguments to help account teams overcome client barriers and obstacles and handle internal team disputes (i.e. differences of opinions on the best strategy to employ) with minimal supervision.
• Collaborating with the EY sales leads with relationship mapping and tiering to align EYs people with the appropriate client leaders
• Provide advice and strategies on how to get client commitment to a close plan.
• Lead the deal-making process to document and then get agreement with the client on the terms of the deal.
• Provide advice / counsel to pursuit teams and leadership on the various commercial models available for large complex deals.
• Assist in the development and implementation of negotiations strategies for the Region.
• Identify coaching needs develop and execute training approach; drive business meetings to develop partners engagement leads and other account team members with key negotiating skills needed to support the pursuit and to win the client engagement

Deal Activation:

• Act as a key conduit of information between the account team and Pursuits & Commercial Excellence leadership.
• Team closely with region industry and sector business development leaders to advise and strategize on deal opportunities.
• Cascade EYs negotiation methodology as a global best practice.
• Bring process consistency and synergies for negotiations to the regions and client accounts by example and through EY training programs.
• Build relationships with Industry Sector and Region leadership to enable successful activation and implementation of EYs negotiation methodology
• Leverage proximity and relationships with regional business leads to facilitate and encourage successful integration of EYs negotiation methodology across priority deals in the industries sectors and region.
• Instill exceptional client service into the end-to-end negotiations process across EY.

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

• Exercise independent judgment when analyzing information and evaluating results to recommend the best strategy and solution.
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Identify opportunities for increasing sales and drive towards achieving the Engagement financial objectives.
• Focus on results-oriented behaviors and make sound decisions quickly given tight timeframes.
• Apply strong analytical skills to our proposed solutions and seek information on risks and dependencies to capture in our drafting.
• Solve challenging and ambiguous problems in a consistently efficient and effective manner.
• Provide exceptional service to the EY account teams across parallel projects by demonstrating the ability to prioritize critical activities to meet business needs in a timely manner with high quality.
• Demonstrate creativity versatility and adaptability in a constantly evolving environment with a wide variety of social styles.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements

• Strong business and commercial acumen to quickly become familiar with a given solution.
• Capable of leading and being part teams in a complex matrix and unstructured environments with teams geographically distributed.
• Ability to lead EY teams without authority using skills of influence and communication.
• Attention to detail and ability to produce work of consistently high-quality under pressure (time and outcomes)
• A high level of drive ability to work independently and deal effectively with ambiguity and change.
• Fluency of best practice in technology and financial services contract drafting and ability to translate these for EY pursuits
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for EY stakeholders
• Flexibility in working with various EY stakeholders across the world and in different time zones.

Supervision Responsibilities:

• May supervise other negotiators and manage multiple priorities simultaneously.

• Directs a virtual team of resources.
• Operate as a first chair to the deal team leading the drive giving direction on tasks and timelines and oversee drafting of the contracting documents.
• Ability to execute performance standards with a high degree of independence and autonomy.
• Ability to serve as a Counselor to negotiation team members

Other Requirements:

• Embraces shared philosophy that great teams execute a consistent set of behaviors aligned with being a:
  • Trusted Strategic Advisor Build Trust and credibility by proactively providing forward-thinking insights and guidance to help pursuit teams develop and execute a winning pursuit strategy.
  • Gold Standard Champion Execute EYs gold standard pursuit process with discipline and expertise to improve consistency and use of leading practices in EYs approach to winning.
  • Win-Win Advocate Drive internal and external clients towards outcomes that deliver compelling and sustainable results for both the client and EY.
  • Creativity and innovation Driver Inspire and challenge teams to differentiate EY through innovative strategies experiences and deliverables that compel our clients to choose EY.
  • Inspirational Change Agent Invest in developing world-class talent methods tools and capabilities to deliver better results create exceptional experiences and develop transformative leaders and teams.
• As the job involves responding to clients needs and varying time zones flexible hours are regularly required.
• Limited to moderate to frequent travel will be required.

Experience:

• 20 years experience of negotiation and contract drafting experience in commercial and legal terms with substantial experience in the financial and technology services industry (managed services/BPO/system integration/consulting)

• Approximately 12 years plus of previous first chair negotiation experience (in either sales legal or procurement) in the financial and technology services industry
• Experience working in a large complex global organization with strong understanding of leading negotiation practices with proven experience.
• Experience leading and managing high-performance teams.

• University/Bachelors degree or equivalent qualification required.
• JD MBA or masters degree (or equivalent qualification) in Business or related field preferred