Legal counsel

Maki; Paris; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Maki is seeking a Legal Counsel to build and scale its legal function. The role covers commercial contracts, privacy, regulatory matters, and company strategy. You will work with Sales, Leadership, Security, Product, and Engineering to translate obligations into practical decisions and scalable processes.

You will lead contract strategy, develop templates and playbooks, and monitor AI and privacy regulations to support rapid growth while managing risk.

Qualifications

• Qualified as a legal counsel in a relevant jurisdiction.
• Experience negotiating complex commercial agreements.
• Strong experience in technology, SaaS, data, privacy, or related commercial legal matters.
• Practical understanding of GDPR and data protection regulations.

Responsibilities

• Review, draft, and negotiate customer agreements, MSAs, and DPAs with privacy provisions.
• Represent Maki in negotiations with customer legal and procurement teams.
• Clarify contractual commitments for the commercial team before execution.
• Develop negotiation positions, fallback clauses, and contracting standards.
• Coordinate with Sales, Leadership, Security, Product, and Engineering to ensure clear commitments.

Skills

Legal negotiation

Regulatory compliance

Privacy & data protection

Cross-functional collaboration

Clear written/verbal communication

Tools

MSA templates

DPA knowledge

Job description

As Legal Counsel, you’ll help shape and build Maki’s legal function. This is a broad, hands‑on role spanning commercial contracts, legal operations, privacy, product, regulatory matters, and company strategy.

Your mission is to create a scalable legal function that supports clear rules, fast decisions, and responsible growth. You’ll work closely with Sales, Leadership, Security, Product, and Engineering to turn legal obligations into practical decisions across the company.

What you’ll do

Lead commercial contracting

• Review, draft, and negotiate customer agreements, including master services agreements (MSAs), data processing agreements (DPAs), security and privacy provisions, and related commercial documentation.

• Represent Maki in negotiations with customer legal and procurement teams, using sound commercial judgment to determine which requirements to accept, mitigate, or challenge.

• Help the commercial team understand the practical implications of contractual commitments before they are made.

• Develop negotiation positions, fallback clauses, and contracting standards that make enterprise contracting more efficient while managing risk.

• Coordinate with Sales, Leadership, Security, Product, and Engineering to ensure commitments are clear and achievable.

Build scalable legal operations

• Develop and maintain standard agreements, terms and conditions, privacy policies, and other core legal documentation.

• Create processes for contract review, approvals, renewals, and legal requests, with clear ownership and decision‑making responsibilities.

• Build templates, playbooks, clause libraries, and internal guidance to help teams handle common legal questions consistently.

• Select and implement legal tools and workflows as the volume and complexity of legal work grow.

• Make legal knowledge and contractual obligations accessible to the teams responsible for acting on them.

Advise on product, privacy, and regulation

• Monitor developments in AI, privacy, employment, data protection, and other regulations affecting Maki and its customers.

• Translate regulatory and contractual obligations into practical product and operational requirements.

• Work with Product and Engineering to identify necessary features, controls, workflows, and technical capabilities.

• Advise the commercial team on how legal requirements affect product positioning, sales, and deployment.

• Help leadership assess emerging legal risks and make informed strategic and operational decisions.

• Develop practical policies and processes that meet legal obligations without unnecessarily slowing teams or customers.

What you’ll bring

• Qualification as a legal counsel in a relevant jurisdiction.

• Experience negotiating complex commercial agreements.

• Strong experience in technology, SaaS, data, privacy, or related commercial legal matters.

• A practical understanding of GDPR, data protection, and the regulatory environment surrounding technology and AI.

• Sound judgment in distinguishing material legal and commercial risks from theoretical concerns.

• The ability to explain legal issues clearly to non‑lawyers, both in writing and in conversation.

• A constructive, commercially minded approach to negotiations with sophisticated customer legal teams.

• The ability to work independently and build structure where little currently exists.

Nice to have

• Experience negotiating agreements with large enterprise customers.

• Experience with AI regulation, employment technology, or enterprise software.

• Experience building the legal function of a fast‑growing technology company.

What success looks like

• Enterprise contracts move efficiently, with clear commitments and appropriate risk management.

• Legal documentation, processes, and decision‑making practices scale with the company.

• Teams understand how legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations affect their work and translate them into practical action.