Managing Counsel, Commercial: Auto Tech Partnerships

ProducePay; United States; Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 203,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness

Unlimited vacation

Work from Home support

Daily meals & snacks

Team building events

Job summary

Waabi, a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, seeks a Managing Counsel, Commercial, to own the full contract portfolio from intake to post-signature compliance. You will draft, negotiate, and execute agreements spanning hardware supply, software licensing, and strategic partnerships with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

You will translate complex contract risks into actionable guidance for engineering, finance, and business teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of legal experience, with significant time in-house, handling complex commercial transactions in the automotive, hardware, or technology space.
• Demonstrated depth in hardware supply chain agreements — you understand automotive supply chain practice, IP ownership and licensing structures, warranty and liability allocation, and quality and change-management terms.
• Experience structuring and negotiating strategic partnerships or corp-dev-style agreements — OEM deals or similar transactions where the deal framework required building from scratch.
• Effective communicator, with the ability to give legal advice in plain language. You make contract risk understandable to engineers, product managers, and finance leads, and you keep deals moving rather than creating delays.
• Comfort working directly alongside technical and business teams throughout a deal — you engage with the substance, build trust as a partner, and help get agreements across the finish line.
• Well-calibrated risk judgment — you know the difference between a real issue and a paper tiger, and you spend your credibility on the things that actually matter.
• Experience building or maintaining a forms library, templates, or contracting playbooks, and the process instincts to make contracting more scalable without adding unnecessary overhead.
• The range to handle any contract type independently, at any level of complexity or stakes, without handoffs.
• J.D. and active bar membership in a relevant jurisdiction (US or Canada).

Responsibilities

• Lead Waabi's commercial contracting function, managing agreements across the full portfolio: hardware supply chain, strategic partnerships, software licensing and SaaS, professional services, consulting, testing, NDAs, vendor contracts.
• Structure, draft, and negotiate hardware supply chain agreements with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.
• Lead the legal work on strategic partnerships, including OEM and platform partnerships and corporate development engagements supporting robotaxi and autonomous truck adoption and use.
• Advise engineering, supply chain, finance, and business development teams in plain language — translate contract risk into clear, actionable guidance that keeps deals on track.
• Work directly alongside technical and business colleagues throughout negotiations — know what we're building and how the business works, know what's worth pushing back on, and help close deals efficiently.
• Build and maintain a forms library — templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks across contract types — so the company contracts more consistently and efficiently as it scales.
• Own contract compliance company-wide, partnering with other functions to track and enforce obligations after signature.
• Apply sound risk judgment across the portfolio — distinguish real exposure from noise.
• Support additional legal workstreams as needed, including IP matters, open-source license review, regulatory questions touching commercial agreements, and data privacy issues arising from commercial deals.

Skills

8+ years legal experience

In-house experience

Commercial contracts

Negotiation

IP ownership and licensing

Education

J.D. and bar membership (US/Canada)

Job description

Waabi, a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, seeks a Managing Counsel, Commercial, to own the full contract portfolio from intake to post-signature compliance. You will draft, negotiate, and execute agreements spanning hardware supply, software licensing, and strategic partnerships with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

You will translate complex contract risks into actionable guidance for engineering, finance, and business teams.