Senior Commercial Counsel

Synthesia

New York (NY)

Hybrid

USD 170,000 - 210,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Hybrid work

Medical, Dental & Vision insurance

401k plan with company match

Paid parental leave

Paid annual leave + holidays + sick

Job summary

Synthesia, a leading AI video platform with hybrid roles across the US, seeks a Senior Commercial Counsel to support sales, partnerships, and software license activities in the Americas. You will draft and negotiate service agreements, DPAs, and NDAs, while guiding on IP, privacy, and AI governance with cross-functional teams.

Applicants should have a US law degree and 6+ years in commercial transactions, preferably in tech, with fluency in cloud services contracts and enterprise negotiations.

Qualifications

Completion of a law degree from an accredited U.S. institution, and qualified to practice law as an in-house U.S. attorney.
6+ years of post-qualification experience working on different kinds of commercial transactions (e.g., SaaS, IP licensing, software licensing, product resale, and distribution, working with contractors, outsourcing, facilities, etc.), including with large enterprise companies, companies in regulated industries (e.g., financial services, healthcare, etc.), government, and edu companies.
Experience working in an in-house legal department in the tech sector; bonus points for an AI company.
Comfortable negotiating data processing agreements, including a working knowledge of GDPR and CCPA as they relate to commercial contracts;
Clean and concise drafting of documents, policies, Slack messages, emails, and other communications in a manner that is digestible for non-lawyers;
Experience negotiating with enterprise customers, including on the customer’s form;
Understanding of cloud services, technology, and professional services contracts;
Knowledge of non-legal business processes gained in-house relating to sales operations and revenue recognition (i.e. experience with Order Forms and Statements of Work);
Experience managing workload on tight timelines with multiple competing demands;
Exposure and experience negotiating artificial intelligence terms, including an understanding of AI models, IP ownership of inputs to and output from the models, and the use of training data for building such models.

Responsibilities

Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements to support sales, partnerships, and our purchase of software and services from vendors. Your primary focus will be on our service agreements, software licenses, data processing agreements, and NDAs for our prospective customers.
Advising on a variety of areas ranging from intellectual property, data privacy, data security, software licensing agreements, and go-to-market strategy.
Providing input on processes, policies, and playbooks to help scale the organization and make our team more effective and efficient.
Providing effective advice by staying up-to-date on relevant industry, commercial, open source, IP, privacy, employment, AI, and other laws, regulations, and developments.
Developing the company’s knowledge in areas of special interest, including intellectual property, data protection, financial services, healthcare, AI governance, and other regulatory matters.
Operating independently and providing practical, decisive guidance to our business teams that balances business objectives with legal risk, taking into account our company policies, practices and negotiation positions.

Skills

Commercial transactions

In-house counsel

Data privacy

GDPR/CCPA

Drafting contracts

IP licensing

AI governance

Vendor agreements

Enterprise negotiations

Education

Law degree

Tools

Slack

Job description

Synthesia is the world’s leading AI video platform for business, used by over 90% of the Fortune 100. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in London, with offices and teams across Europe and the US.

As AI continues to shape the way we live and work, Synthesia develops products to enhance visual communication and enterprise skill development, helping people work better and stay at the center of successful organizations.

Following our recent Series E funding round, where we raised $200 million, our valuation stands at $4 billion. Our total funding exceeds $530 million from premier investors including Accel, NVentures (Nvidia’s VC arm), Kleiner Perkins, GV, and Evantic Capital, alongside the founders and operators of Stripe, Datadog, Miro, and Webflow.

As a Senior Commercial Counsel at Synthesia, you will work closely with our Sales, Marketing, Finance, Business Operations, and Go-To-Market organizations. Our team is a network of knowledgeable and supportive professionals who work as a unit, bringing bold ideas to the table and providing collaborative problem-solving. This role will report to the Director, Commercial Legal (NYC-based, overseeing commercial legal work for the Americas), and be responsible for various legal-related matters and projects involved with supporting the teams that sell and build our products.

Responsibilities Include

Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements to support sales, partnerships, and our purchase of software and services from vendors. Your primary focus will be on our service agreements, software licenses, data processing agreements, and NDAs for our prospective customers. We’ll ask you to draw from the experience you’ve gained from supporting hundreds or thousands of commercial transactions to help define business terms and structure deals in an optimal way;
Advising on a variety of areas ranging from intellectual property, data privacy, data security, software licensing agreements, and go-to-market strategy;
Providing input on processes, policies, and playbooks to help scale the organization and make our team more effective and efficient;
Providing effective advice by staying up-to-date on relevant industry, commercial, open source, IP, privacy, employment, AI, and other laws, regulations, and developments;
Developing the company’s knowledge in areas of special interest, including intellectual property, data protection, financial services, healthcare, AI governance, and other regulatory matters;
Operating independently and providing practical, decisive guidance to our business teams that balances business objectives with legal risk, taking into account our company policies, practices and negotiation positions.

You’re a great fit for the role if have the following characteristics:

Completion of a law degree from an accredited U.S. institution, and qualified to practice law as an in-house U.S. attorney;
6+ years of post-qualification experience working on different kinds of commercial transactions (e.g., SaaS, IP licensing, software licensing, product resale, and distribution, working with contractors, outsourcing, facilities, etc.), including with large enterprise companies, companies in regulated industries (e.g., financial services, healthcare, etc.), government, and edu companies;
Experience working in an in-house legal department in the tech sector; bonus points for an AI company.
Comfortable negotiating data processing agreements, including a working knowledge of GDPR and CCPA as they relate to commercial contracts;
Clean and concise drafting of documents, policies, Slack messages, emails, and other communications in a manner that is digestible for non-lawyers;
Experience negotiating with enterprise customers, including on the customer’s form;
Understanding of cloud services, technology, and professional services contracts;
Knowledge of non-legal business processes gained in-house relating to sales operations and revenue recognition (i.e. experience with Order Forms and Statements of Work);
Experience managing workload on tight timelines with multiple competing demands; and
Exposure and experience negotiating artificial intelligence terms, including an understanding of AI models, IP ownership of inputs to and output from the models, and the use of training data for building such models.

At Synthesia we expect everyone to...