Career Biography

Sara Carpinteiro is a Senior Legal Counsel at SAP, supporting transactions and legal matters across the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With over 11 years of professional experience, including 4 years at SAP, Sara began her legal career in private practice in Portugal, where she worked at law firms including Vieira de Almeida (VdA), Telles, and Miranda.  

Since joining SAP, Sara has focused on supporting complex commercial transactions related to software and cloud services, working across multiple jurisdictions. Her role has progressively evolved towards the Middle East region, and she is currently focused on the Saudi Arabian market, where she advises on contractual negotiations and supports business operations in a dynamic and developing regulatory environment. Her work includes sectors such as Oil and Gas, Entertainment, and PIF, as well as Corporate segment across diverse industries, supporting transactions that often require coordination across legal, commercial, and technical teams, as well as alignment with internal policies and external regulatory requirements. 

In addition to transactional work, Sara is involved in monitoring legal and regulatory developments in the region, particularly in relation to data protection and digital regulation in Saudi Arabia. This includes assessing the impact of legislative changes on contractual frameworks and contributing to internal alignment with evolving compliance requirements. She has also been involved in internal initiatives aimed at improving legal processes and supporting more efficient contracting practices, including the development of standardised approaches to recurring negotiation topics and the use of structured contractual frameworks. 

Sara’s experience reflects a transition from private practice to an in-house role focused on cross-border work in the technology sector, with increasing responsibility for complex transactions and legal support. 

What piece of work or project over the past year are you most proud of, and why was it particularly significant for the business? 

Over the past year, I have been involved in supporting one of the most complex and strategically significant negotiations undertaken by SAP globally, relating to a long-term cloud transformation project with a major energy company in the Middle East. 

The project involved structuring a highly customised private cloud services agreement to support the customer’s transition from legacy software systems to a cloud model. The transaction was particularly notable due to its scale, long-term nature, and the need to align commercial, technical, and legal frameworks within a highly regulated and strategically sensitive environment. From a legal perspective, this required navigating complex contractual structures, addressing evolving local regulatory requirements, and aligning multiple stakeholders across jurisdictions and functions. The negotiation also involved some innovative elements, including tailored service delivery models. 

What makes this project particularly meaningful to me is the opportunity to act as a true business partner, balancing legal risk with commercial ambition, and contributing to a deal that has the potential to redefine the relationship between SAP and one of its most important customers.

What skills or experiences have been most important in your development as an in‑house lawyer so far? 

A defining aspect of my development as an in-house lawyer has been the ability to adapt to constantly evolving legal, regulatory, and business environments. In my current role, focused on the Saudi Arabian market, I operate within a landscape that is undergoing rapid transformation, particularly in areas such as data protection, digital regulation, and the adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. This requires continuous monitoring of legal developments and, more importantly, the ability to translate those developments into clear, practical guidance that enables the business to move forward with confidence.

Equally important has been developing a collaborative and commercially minded approach. I have consistently focused on working alongside stakeholders to find constructive, compliant solutions, ensuring that legal considerations are integrated into decision-making without unnecessarily hindering progress. 

Have you been involved in any initiatives to improve legal processes, introduce new ways of working or make the legal function more efficient? 

Yes, I have been actively involved in several initiatives aimed at improving efficiency, consistency, and scalability within the legal function, particularly in the context of high-volume and complex commercial transactions.

A key focus has been the identification and consolidation of commonly negotiated contractual provisions across strategic customers and jurisdictions. This involved reviewing legacy agreements, analysing recurring negotiation patterns, and defining a set of preferred, pre-approved contractual positions. The objective was to streamline negotiations, reduce internal friction, and enable faster turnaround times while maintaining alignment with internal risk frameworks.

In parallel, I have contributed to broader efforts to simplify and standardise cloud contracting models by reducing complexity in contractual structures and developing more predictable and scalable frameworks for customer negotiations. These initiatives are closely linked to the increasing use of structured approaches, including pre-approved language and fallback positions, to support consistency and efficiency.