Senior Commercial Counsel

Leadenhall Search & Selection; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Leadenhall Search & Selection in Austin seeks a Senior Commercial Counsel to own complex enterprise SaaS negotiations and shape the commercial legal function.

You will partner with senior business and legal leaders to drive scalable processes, AI-enabled workflows, and governance across privacy, security, and compliance while mentoring junior team members.

Qualifications

• 8-15 years of in-house commercial legal experience in tech or SaaS.
• Experience leading enterprise negotiations independently.
• Strong knowledge of privacy provisions (GDPR/CCPA/CPRA/HIPAA).
• Excellent commercial judgement and stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end negotiation of complex enterprise SaaS, technology, partnership, reseller, services, and vendor agreements.
• Advise senior stakeholders on legal risk, deal structure, and commercial strategy.
• Draft and negotiate provisions covering liability, indemnities, IP, data protection, SLAs, and audit rights.
• Partner with Privacy, Security, and Compliance teams on regulatory matters.
• Develop and maintain commercial legal playbooks, templates, and training materials.
• Mentor junior counsel and legal operations colleagues.

Skills

Commercial law

Contract negotiations

SaaS licensing

Privacy & data protection

Stakeholder management

Mentoring

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

Contract management systems

Job description

A leading AI technology company is seeking an experienced Senior Commercial Counsel to join its legal team and partner closely with senior business and legal leadership. This is an opportunity to take ownership of complex, high-value commercial transactions within a fast-growing global SaaS environment.

The Opportunity

You will act as a key legal advisor across Sales, Finance, Customer Success, Privacy, Security, and Compliance, leading sophisticated commercial negotiations and providing practical, commercially focused legal advice.

Alongside deal work, you will help develop scalable commercial legal processes, playbooks, and AI-enabled workflows, while mentoring junior members of the legal team and supporting the continued development of the function.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end negotiation of complex enterprise SaaS, technology, partnership, reseller, services, and vendor agreements.
• Advise senior stakeholders on legal risk, deal structure, and commercial strategy.
• Draft and negotiate sophisticated provisions covering liability, indemnities, IP, data protection, SLAs, and audit rights.
• Partner with Privacy, Security, and Compliance teams on complex contractual and regulatory matters.
• Support customer escalations, RFPs, security questionnaires, and other high-value commercial matters.
• Develop and maintain commercial legal playbooks, templates, approval processes, and training materials.
• Introduce and develop AI-enabled legal workflows to improve contracting efficiency and consistency.
• Mentor junior counsel and legal operations colleagues.

Ideal Background

• 8-15 years' commercial legal experience, with substantial in-house experience within a technology or SaaS business.
• Strong track record leading complex, high-value enterprise commercial negotiations independently.
• Deep experience with SaaS, technology licensing, professional services, data processing, and cloud/platform agreements.
• Strong understanding of privacy and security provisions relevant to commercial contracts, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and HIPAA.
• Excellent commercial judgement and ability to advise senior business stakeholders.
• Experience developing commercial legal playbooks, processes, templates, and training programmes.
• Interest in, and ideally hands-on experience with, AI-powered legal technology and contract automation.
• Strong mentoring and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Why Consider This Role?

• High-impact role within a rapidly growing AI and SaaS business.
• Significant exposure to complex enterprise and strategic transactions.
• Close partnership with senior commercial and legal leadership.
• Opportunity to shape and scale the commercial legal function.
• Chance to help embed AI and technology into the way commercial legal teams operate.