Director, Commercial Legal

Penguin Solutions; Durham (NC); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

401(k) plan

Job summary

Penguin Solutions seeks a Director, Commercial Legal to serve as the day-to-day owner of the company’s commercial contracting function for large, complex transactions across AI infrastructure and memory-driven computing. The role has significant autonomy to shape strategy and priorities.

You will partner with sales, operations, supply chain, and product teams to structure, negotiate, and execute agreements that support strategic growth and customer expansion.

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school.
• Active bar membership in good standing.
• 12+ years of relevant legal and commercial contracting experience.
• Ability to independently negotiate complex customer and vendor agreements.
• Strong business judgment and ability to translate legal risk into practical guidance.
• Excellent communication with legal and non-legal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead drafting, review, and negotiation of enterprise customer and procurement agreements.
• Own large, complex commercial transactions end-to-end.
• Balance legal risk, deal velocity, and commercial objectives in a fast-moving environment.
• Partner with sales, product, operations, and supply chain teams to align contracts with deployment needs.
• Develop contract templates and playbooks to scale deal volume.

Skills

Commercial contracting

Negotiation

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Legal risk guidance

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

AI tools for legal workflows

Job description

At Penguin Solutions (Nasdaq: PENG) – The AI Factory Platform Company – we’re building a team of innovators who thrive on collaboration, creativity, and the opportunity to help shape the future of AI. As part of the AI technology revolution, our teams design, build, deploy, and manage AI factories for enterprises, sovereign AI initiatives, and neocloud providers worldwide.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Penguin Solutions operates globally through a network of R&D, manufacturing, and sales locations. For nearly three decades, we have operated at the intersection of memory and AI/HPC infrastructure. That engineering expertise positions us to power the next generation of AI workloads, from training to inference and agentic AI at scale.

Penguin Solutions brings together differentiated infrastructure software, advanced memory, compute systems, end-to-end services, and industry-leading partner solutions in a full-stack AI factory platform designed to help customers deploy and scale AI workloads with speed and precision.

At Penguin Solutions, we value ideas over hierarchy and believe in servant leadership, where leaders enable teams to do their best work. We empower employees to take ownership, drive innovation, and grow through challenging work, continuous learning, and exposure to advanced AI tools and technologies. With flexibility where it matters and a strong focus on outcomes, Penguin Solutions is a place to do your best work, grow your career, and make a meaningful impact.

Job Overview

We are seeking a Director, Commercial Legal to serve as a key legal partner supporting high-impact, global commercial transactions across our AI infrastructure, memory, and advanced computing businesses. The level will depend on experience, but the mandate is clear: this person will be the day-to-day owner of the company's commercial legal function for large, complex transactions, with significant autonomy to shape strategy and priorities.

This is a position at the center of a rapidly scaling AI business where you will own and drive large, complex commercial transactions end-to-end, while managing a high-volume, diverse portfolio of commercial deals. Your work will span everything from routine vendor and procurement agreements to complex, high-value transactions that enable production-scale AI deployments for enterprise and next‑generation customers.

You will work closely with sales, operations, supply chain, and product teams to structure, negotiate, and execute agreements that directly support Penguin’s strategic growth and customer expansion.

The ideal candidate brings a strong commercial foundation, thrives in a dynamic environment, and can translate legal risk into business velocity, while knowing when to elevate novel or high-risk issues.

Why This Role

• Front-row seat to the AI infrastructure transformation from training to inference and enterprise deployment
• Direct impact on strategic, revenue-generating transactions
• Ownership of a broad, high-volume deal portfolio spanning routine agreements to strategic, novel transactions
• Exposure to cutting-edge technologies (AI systems, memory architectures, data center infrastructure)
• High visibility across legal leadership and business teams
• Opportunity to help scale contracting frameworks for a rapidly growing global platform company

Responsibilities

• Strategic Commercial Contracting (Core Focus)
• Own large, complex commercial transactions end-to-end, from structuring through negotiation and execution, while independently managing a range of deal complexity from standard to highly customized, strategic transactions
• Lead drafting, review, and negotiation of simple to complex commercial agreements, including:
• Enterprise customer agreements for AI infrastructure and hardware solutions
• Vendor, supplier, and procurement agreements
• Supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, and distribution arrangements
• Balance legal risk, deal velocity, and commercial objectives in a fast-moving environment
• Provide clear, actionable guidance to business stakeholders on contract structure, risk allocation, and negotiation strategy
• AI Infrastructure, Hardware & Supply Chain Focus
• Support transactions involving AI infrastructure deployments, hardware systems, and memory-driven architectures
• Advise on key issues including:
• Delivery, acceptance, and performance standards
• Warranty frameworks and support models
• Liability allocation in complex, multi‑party environments
• Downstream customer and ecosystem obligations
• Partner closely with operations and supply chain teams to ensure contracts align with real-world deployment and scaling requirements
• Identify recurring risk patterns and drive standardization and scalability in contracting approaches
• Business Partnership & Growth Enablement
• Act as a trusted advisor to sales, product, finance, and operations teams
• Enable efficient deal execution by delivering practical, business-oriented legal solutions
• Support Penguin’s expansion into enterprise, neocloud, and sovereign AI markets, including longer-cycle, high-value deployments
• Contribute to development of:
• Contract templates and playbooks
• Scalable processes for increasing deal volume
• Training and enablement for business teams
• Risk Management & Escalation
• Exercise strong judgment in determining when to act independently versus escalation
• Spot and escalation regulatory, compliance, or non-standard risk issues
• Support transactions involving regulated or government‑adjacent customers, as applicable

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school
• Active bar membership in good standing
• 12+ years of relevant legal experience, with substantial commercial contracting expertise
• Demonstrated ability to independently negotiate complex customer and vendor agreements
• Experience supporting technology, hardware, infrastructure, or supply chain-driven businesses
• Strong business judgment and ability to translate legal risk into practical guidance
• Excellent communication skills with both legal and non‑legal stakeholders
• Comfort operating in a remote, fast-paced, and cross‑functional environment
• Comfortable using AI tools in legal workflows, with an interest in identifying opportunities to deploy AI to improve efficiency, quality, and scalability within the legal function.
• Highly pragmatic, business-oriented, and solutions-driven
• Comfortable operating with autonomy and accountability
• Strong collaborator across technical and commercial teams
• Curious and adaptable in a rapidly evolving AI landscape
• Organized and capable of managing multiple priorities
• Positive, low‑ego, and team‑oriented Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in AI infrastructure, data centers, memory systems, or advanced computing environments
• Familiarity with export controls or regulated customer environments
• In-house experience at a high‑growth technology or infrastructure company
• Prior law firm experience handling complex commercial transactions Location

This position is a hybrid position in Durham, North Carolina or Fremont, California. Our hybrid schedule is 3x per week onsite. However, we are open to strong remote candidates in the United States.

Travel

This position may require periodic travel to our headquarters in the California Bay Area for transaction-related work, customer meetings, and team meetings. Travel is purposeful and planned around key business events.

Compensation & Benefits

The base pay range that the Company reasonably expects to pay for this position in the United States is $225,000 - $260,000; the pay ultimately offered may vary based on business considerations, including location, work arrangement, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and education. The position is bonus‑eligible, and there are medical, dental, and vision benefits available. There is a 401k saving plan and other benefits, such as Paid Time Off, Life Insurance, and an Employee Assistance Plan.

Inclusion & Belonging Statement

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment that embraces differences and fosters belonging for all.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are an Affinitive Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, national origin, race, ethnicity, creed, gender, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.