Head of Commercial Counsel
Solutus Legal Search
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: San Francisco • California • United States
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Job Level
About the role
- Own the full lifecycle of enterprise contract negotiation — MSAs, SaaS agreements, DPAs, order forms, and partnership contracts — with sophisticated counterparties including major banks, airlines, and financial services companies
- Resolve legal blockers on complex, high-value deals quickly and creatively, including navigating entrenched procurement and legal teams at large enterprises
- Develop and maintain scalable contract templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks that keep the sales team moving without sacrificing company protection
- Manage and mentor existing commercial counsel, with the team expected to grow alongside revenue
- Advise on legal considerations unique to AI products: data privacy, model liability, output indemnification, and evolving AI regulation including the EU AI Act, CCPA, GDPR, and emerging U.S. state-level AI laws
- Partner with Product and Engineering on data use obligations, customer data handling, and security review processes
- Implement contract management systems and processes that scale with a rapidly growing sales pipeline
Requirements
- 8+ years of commercial legal experience, with the bulk of it in-house at a high-growth enterprise SaaS or technology company
- Demonstrated track record negotiating complex enterprise agreements with large, sophisticated counterparties — particularly in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, telecom, or travel
- Experience navigating the organizational complexity of Fortune 100 legal and procurement teams
- Strong commercial instincts — understands revenue, deal structure, and risk trade-offs, not just legal exposure
- Player-coach mentality: equally comfortable diving into a redline and mentoring a junior attorney
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment without heavy infrastructure or support
- Prior experience managing or building a commercial legal team from scratch is preferred
- Big Law commercial transactions background before going in-house and AI-native company experience and EU AI Act familiarity are a plus
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
contract negotiationenterprise agreementsdata privacymodel liabilityoutput indemnificationAI regulationcontract managementlegal compliancenegotiation playbookscommercial legal experience
Soft Skills
mentoringcommercial instinctsproblem-solvingadaptabilityleadershipteam managementcommunicationcollaborationstrategic thinkingplayer-coach mentality