Senior Commercial Counsel – First AGC, SaaS/AI

Canals, Inc.; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Canals, Inc. is seeking its first AGC to own end-to-end commercial contracts, advise across the business, and build scalable processes. You will draft complex enterprise agreements, shape templates, and drive data privacy and governance in a high-growth, remote-first environment across North and South America.

You'll partner with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Finance to balance risk and velocity, while creating playbooks and privacy controls that support rapid scaling.

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school and active state bar membership in good standing.
• 4-8 years of experience, including 2-3 years at an Am Law 100 law firm in transactional/commercial practice.
• Deep expertise in commercial contract drafting and negotiation.
• Ability to work independently, prioritize competing demands, and make judgment calls.
• Clear, direct communicator who writes and speaks in plain language.

Responsibilities

• Draft, negotiate, and close enterprise SaaS/AI agreements, including addenda and schedules.
• Build and maintain contract templates and a negotiation playbook for the sales team.
• Triage inbound redlines and establish contract review SLAs.
• Own day-to-day privacy compliance and data governance strategy.
• Manage vendor and partner agreements, including software licenses and professional services contracts.
• Serve as the embedded legal partner for Sales & Marketing, Product, Engineering and Finance.
• Identify legal risks early in the product development cycle and advise on mitigation.
• Build and refine the legal ops infrastructure, including contract management tooling.
• Help identify when to use outside counsel and manage those relationships.

Skills

SaaS agreements

Contract negotiation

Legal ops

Privacy compliance

Data governance

Cross-functional collaboration

Plain-language communication

Education

JD from an accredited law school

Job description

Canals, Inc. is seeking its first AGC to own end-to-end commercial contracts, advise across the business, and build scalable processes. You will draft complex enterprise agreements, shape templates, and drive data privacy and governance in a high-growth, remote-first environment across North and South America.

You'll partner with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Finance to balance risk and velocity, while creating playbooks and privacy controls that support rapid scaling.