Lead Commercial Counsel

fal; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 225,000 - 275,000; Full time

Job summary

fal is seeking a Head of Commercial Legal in San Francisco to own the end-to-end commercial function as an individual contributor. You will draft and negotiate complex enterprise, SaaS, API, IP, and infra partnerships while building templates, playbooks, and CLM from the ground up.

You must have 8+ years of experience and US bar admission. This role demands in-office work five days a week, collaboration with GTM and leadership, and a track record of handling high-stakes deals with privacy

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant commercial legal experience.
• Top-tier law firm foundation with in-house experience at a technology, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, or AI company.
• Proven track record drafting and negotiating complex commercial deals, buy-side and sell-side.
• Active US bar membership in good standing (California or NY preferred; in-house acceptable).
• An IC operator who wants to own and build the commercial function.
• Based in San Francisco and able to work in-office 5 days/week.

Responsibilities

• Draft and negotiate complex commercial transactions on both buy-side and sell-side: enterprise customer agreements, SaaS and API licensing, IP and model/content licensing, and data center/capacity and hyperscaler/infrastructure partnerships
• Build our commercial legal foundation from scratch — templates, playbooks, contract processes, and CLM
• Partner directly with GTM, sales, and leadership to move deals quickly while managing risk
• Advise on privacy and related matters as the business scales

Skills

Commercial law

Contract negotiation

Risk management

Strategic thinking

Job description

fal is the generative media ecosystem powering the next generation of AI products. We build the infrastructure, tools, and model access that teams need to move from idea to production, and do it at scale without compromise. For developers and enterprises, fal is the foundation that makes generative media not just possible, but practical: a unified platform where high-performance inference, orchestration, and observability come together to unlock new categories of AI-native products.

As generative media reshapes industries across a market projected to grow by hundreds of billions over the next decade, fal is becoming the ecosystem that ambitious teams build on.

About The Role

fal is hiring its Head of Commercial Legal — the first dedicated commercial hire on our legal team. You'll own the commercial legal function end-to-end as an individual contributor: drafting and negotiating the deals that power our business, and building the templates, playbooks, and processes from the ground up. This is a builder's role for someone who wants the ownership of a founding hire without stepping into a department-management seat.

What You'll Do

• Draft and negotiate complex commercial transactions on both buy-side and sell-side: enterprise customer agreements, SaaS and API licensing, IP and model/content licensing, and data center/capacity and hyperscaler/infrastructure partnerships
• Build our commercial legal foundation from scratch — templates, playbooks, contract processes, and CLM
• Partner directly with GTM, sales, and leadership to move deals quickly while managing risk
• Advise on privacy and related matters as the business scales

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of relevant commercial legal experience
• A top-tier law firm foundation combined with in-house experience at a technology, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, or AI company
• Proven track record drafting and negotiating complex commercial deals, both buy-side and sell-side
• Active US bar membership in good standing (California or NY preferred; registered in-house status acceptable)
• An IC operator who wants to own and build the commercial function — not a General Counsel seeking to run a large legal department
• Based in San Francisco and able to work in-office 5 days/week

Bonus

• Experience coming from a model lab, AI startup, or high-growth company (e.g. Series D-stage) where you built systems from scratch rather than inheriting them
• Exposure to infrastructure capacity, data center, procurement, GPU, or model/content licensing

U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY INFORMATION:

fal provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Compensation Range: $225K - $275K