Lead Commercial Counsel

Lawrence Harvey Search & Selection; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Lawrence Harvey Search & Selection partners with a venture-backed AI infrastructure company in San Francisco to hire its first dedicated Commercial Counsel. You will own the commercial legal function and work closely with Sales/GTM, Product, Engineering and senior leadership to scale the business.

This is a ground-floor opportunity to build templates, playbooks, and AI-enabled workflows, while advising on privacy, data protection, IP and regulatory matters across cloud infrastructure and

Qualifications

• JD and active U.S. state bar membership.
• 8+ years of relevant legal experience in commercial/tech transactions.
• Experience negotiating enterprise technology transactions on buy and sell sides.

Responsibilities

• Own complex commercial and technology transactions from negotiation to execution.
• Partner with Sales/GTM to close strategic enterprise customers.
• Draft and negotiate enterprise customer agreements, SaaS/API and licensing agreements.
• Build templates, playbooks, and CLM/AI-enabled workflows for the legal function.
• Advise on privacy, data protection, IP, AI, security and regulatory issues.
• Support cloud, data centers, and other strategic provider relationships.
• Manage outside counsel and legal service providers as needed.
• Operate as an individual contributor while shaping the longer-term strategy.

Skills

Complex transactions

Commercial negotiations

SaaS licensing

IP / data protection

Privacy compliance

Regulatory awareness

Cross-functional collaboration

Legal risk management

Infrastructure agreements

External counsel management

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) and bar admission

Tools

Contract lifecycle management (CLM)

Job description

We are partnering with a rapidly scaling, venture-backed AI infrastructure company to hire its first dedicated Commercial Counsel.This is a ground-floor opportunity to join a lean legal team and take ownership of the commercial legal function as the company continues to scale. You’ll work closely with Sales/GTM, Product, Engineering and senior leadership, balancing a high volume of sophisticated transactions with the opportunity to build the processes, playbooks and systems that support the company's next phase of growth.

The Role

• Own complex commercial and technology transactions from initial negotiation through execution.
• Partner directly with Sales/GTM to help close strategic enterprise customers while balancing commercial objectives with legal risk.
• Draft and negotiate enterprise customer agreements, SaaS/API and technology licensing agreements, infrastructure and capacity arrangements, strategic partnerships, supplier/procurement agreements, data/content licensing and other commercial contracts.
• Build the commercial legal function's infrastructure, including templates, negotiation playbooks, contracting processes, CLM and AI-enabled legal workflows.
• Advise cross-functional teams on issues involving privacy, data protection, IP, AI, security and evolving regulatory requirements.
• Support sophisticated infrastructure and technology relationships involving cloud, compute, data centers and other strategic providers.
• Manage outside counsel and legal service providers as needed.
• Operate as a highly hands-on individual contributor while helping shape the longer-term commercial legal strategy.

What We’re Looking For

• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• 8+ years of relevant legal experience.
• Strong commercial and technology transactions background, ideally combining law firm training with in-house experience.
• Experience within a high-growth technology, AI/ML, developer platform, cloud infrastructure, SaaS or similarly technical business.
• Proven experience negotiating sophisticated enterprise technology transactions across both the buy and sell side.
• Strong understanding of SaaS/software licensing, APIs, IP, privacy and data protection.
• Experience partnering directly with Sales/GTM, Product and Engineering teams.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment where you will be expected to personally execute the work while simultaneously building the function around you.
• Commercially minded and able to make pragmatic decisions in situations where there isn't an established playbook.
• Cloud infrastructure, compute, GPU capacity or data center agreements
• AI/ML or developer infrastructure
• Model, content, data or open-source licensing
• Privacy and cross-border data matters
• Hardware, supply chain or procurement transactions
• Building a commercial legal function during a period of significant company growth
• Implementing CLM, contracting automation or AI-enabled legal workflows

This is not a traditional commercial counsel role within an established legal department. You'll have the opportunity to build the commercial legal function from the ground up, work directly with senior leadership and play a meaningful role in how a rapidly growing AI company sells, partners and scales. There is also significant potential for the scope of the position to grow alongside the business, including the opportunity to take broader ownership of the commercial legal function over time.

Location: San Francisco – 5 days onsite