Chief Legal Officer

About this role

About the Role:

Grade Level (for internal use): 20 Company Overview S&P Global is a leading provider of transparent and independent ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. With more than a century of trust behind its brands, S&P Global plays a foundational role in the global financial system, transforming data into Essential Intelligence® that enables companies, governments, and individuals to make decisions with conviction. The firm is executing a multi‑year enterprise transformation focused on three strategic pillars: ADVANCE Market Leadership, EXPAND High‑Growth Adjacencies, and AMPLIFY Enterprise Capabilities & AI. This strategy is reshaping how S&P Global operates—scaling enterprise platforms, accelerating innovation, simplifying operating models, and embedding AI across products, workflows, and internal processes. At the same time, S&P Global’s competitive advantage increasingly rests on the strength of its proprietary data, methodologies, benchmarks, and intellectual property, reinforced by robust governance, regulatory credibility, and trust. Maintaining that trust—while enabling growth and innovation—is central to the company’s long‑term value creation.

The Team Reporting To President and Chief Executive Officer. Direct Reports: • Divisional General Counsels

• Global Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy

• Head of Legal Operations & Transformation

• Corporate Secretary

• Corporate Legal

• Chief Risk & Compliance Officer

Responsibilities and Impact This is a successor appointment, reflecting continuity of leadership while positioning the function for the company’s next phase of enterprise transformation. As S&P Global evolves its operating model, accelerates innovation, expands globally, and commercializes AI‑enabled capabilities, Legal and Risk are increasingly central—not only as guardians of trust, integrity, and the license to operate, but as strategic enablers of growth. This role will inherit a strong legal and risk foundation and is expected to evolve it into a more integrated, forward‑leaning, and enterprise‑scaled capability—strengthening governance, anticipating risk proactively, and enabling the business to move with confidence in an increasingly complex global environment.

The Chief Legal Officer will serve as a primary advisor to the Board of Directors and executive leadership on legal, regulatory, risk, and governance matters, and as a trusted strategic partner to the President and CEO. Critically, the role is expected to operate not only as a steward of governance and compliance, but as a growth‑oriented leader, enabling: • Product innovation and new commercial models

• Strategic partnerships and ecosystem expansion

• Inorganic growth, including M&A

• Deployment of AI, GenAI, and emerging technologies, and continued geographic expansion

Operating at the intersection of law, regulation, risk, data, and technology, this executive will lead an integrated global legal and risk organization responsible for protecting S&P Global’s license to operate while enabling innovation, growth, and transformation across the enterprise. The role combines: • Board‑level judgment and independence

• Regulatory credibility and enforcement readiness

• Deep understanding of IP, data, and AI governance

• A modern, transformation‑oriented operating mindset

The Chief Legal Officer will be expected to bring gravitas, foresight, and pragmatism—balancing innovation with discipline, speed with rigor, and commercial ambition with long‑term stewardship.

Key Responsibilities:

Board, Governance & Public Company Leadership • Serve as a principal advisor to the Board and its Committees on corporate governance, securities law, disclosure, enterprise risk oversight, and fiduciary matters.

• Ensure strong, timely, and decision‑ready engagement with the Board, supporting effective oversight during a period of enterprise transformation.

• Oversee public company obligations, including SEC and stock exchange requirements, in close partnership with Finance, Investor Relations, and senior leadership.

Growth Enablement & Enterprise Transformation • Act as a strategic partner to the business on growth initiatives, including product innovation, new commercial models, strategic partnerships, and geographic expansion.

• Provide legal leadership on M&A and other strategic transactions, supporting disciplined execution of inorganic growth priorities.

Regulatory Engagement & External Trust • Lead senior‑level engagement with key regulators and enforcement bodies, including the SEC, DOJ, and relevant global regulators, ensuring consistency, credibility, and preparedness.

• Anticipate regulatory and enforcement developments impacting S&P Global’s businesses, advising leadership on emerging risks and strategic implications.

• Safeguard S&P Global’s reputation as a trusted, independent market institution.

Enterprise Risk Leadership • Provide enterprise leadership on legal and risk governance, setting clear frameworks for issue identification, escalation, and decision‑making.

• Set the tone for the function, ensuring the right balance between protecting the company and enabling responsible innovation—helping leaders navigate trade‑offs with clarity and consistency.

• Partner closely with the Chief Risk Officer to ensure alignment across legal, regulatory, operational, technology, and reputational risk within a coherent enterprise model.

AI, IP, Data & Technology Governance • Lead governance frameworks for AI, GenAI, and agentic technologies, ensuring responsible innovation, auditability, defensibility, and regulatory readiness.

• Define and protect enterprise‑wide intellectual property strategy, consistent with S&P Global’s proprietary data, methodologies, benchmarks, and tools.

• Balance innovation velocity with strong controls across data privacy, security, model governance, and emerging technology risk.

Litigation & Dispute Strategy •

Similar jobs

• Chief Legal Officer (CLO) ($1M-$5M salary) — Batoncorporation · New York
• Sr. Executive Assistant, Chief Legal Officer — Mongodb · Palo Alto
• Senior Legal Counsel — Airgarage · Remote
• Senior Legal Counsel — Faradayfuture · El Segundo, California, United States
• Senior Legal Counsel — Playson · Remote
• Senior Legal Counsel — Patrianna · Remote
• Senior Legal Counsel — Rocketlab · Long Beach, CA
• Senior Legal Counsel — Onxmaps · Austin, Texas, United States; Bozeman, Montana, United States; Denver, Colorado, United States; Free Solo; Kalispell, Montana, United States; Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States; Missoula, Montana, United States; Portland, Oregon, United States; Salt Lake City, Utah, United States; Seattle, Washington, United States