Senior Corporate Counsel, Commercial (US East)

Kong; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking an experienced commercial attorney to join as an early member of its legal team in the Americas East region. You will draft, negotiate, and close a variety of customer contracts for leading brands and government clients, while advising on privacy, security, IP, and AI-related matters.

The role reports to the Sr. Director, Head of Global Commercial Legal and is based in New York, Chicago, Austin, or Toronto.

Qualifications

• Must have a law degree and be in good standing with the applicable state bar (or eligible to be registered as in-house counsel).
• 7–10 years of experience in private practice and in-house, preferably with late-stage private and/or early-stage public tech companies.
• Strong track record negotiating and closing complex SaaS and software contracts with large, sophisticated customers.
• Collaborative and team-oriented; able to build something together with others.
• Experience with federal government procurement and government customers.
• Excellent judgment; able to build and maintain strong professional relationships.
• Working knowledge of intellectual property, data governance and information security/privacy matters.
• High professional and personal standards; committed to inclusiveness.
• Attention to detail and ability to view legal issues in business context.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex SaaS and on-premises commercial negotiations.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to Kong’s Americas sales team, primarily in the US East market.
• Review, draft, and negotiate a wide variety of other commercial agreements.
• Help ensure compliance with laws and regulations impacting SaaS and on-premises offerings (privacy, security, IP, etc.).
• Partner with Finance, Revenue Operations and Customer Assurance to support end-to-end contract close process.
• Advise internal teams on legal matters and provide general commercial legal advice.
• Assist with development of positions on AI and products as they relate to customers’ infrastructure.

Skills

SaaS contracts

Software contracts

Private practice & in-house

Federal government procurement

Intellectual property

Data governance & information security

Collaboration

Risk assessment

Attention to detail

Education

Law degree

Job description

About The Role

We are looking for an experienced attorney to join as an early member of Kong’s commercial legal team, responsible for helping support Kong’s strategic sales growth in the Americas East region and provide support to the AMER team as it grows. In this role, you will be a trusted strategic partner to the Americas East revenue team. You will draft, structure and negotiate customer contracts with some of the world’s biggest brands in financial services, technology, e-commerce and other industries. You will also play a primary role in supporting our US federal government customers. You will be called on to assess legal and business risks, make sound decisions, and provide advice on a broad range of issues in areas such as privacy, security, open-source software and intellectual property, and assist with other issues as they come up. You will report to Kong’s Sr. Director, Head of Global Commercial Legal. The position is based in New York, Chicago, Austin TX, or Toronto.

What You'll Do

• Lead complex SaaS and on-premises commercial negotiations
• Serve as a trusted advisor to Kong’s Americas sales team, primarily in the US East market
• Review, draft, and negotiate a wide variety of other commercial agreements
• Help ensure compliance with a variety of laws and regulations impacting our SaaS and on-premises offerings, including regarding artificial intelligence, intellectual property, privacy, security and government contracting
• Partner with Finance, Revenue Operations and Customer Assurance to support the end-to-end contract close process
• Advise internal teams on legal matters and provide general commercial legal advice
• Assisting with the development of our positions with respect to artificial intelligence and our products as they relate to our customers’ infrastructure.

What You’ll Bring

• Law degree, and member in good standing of the applicable state bar or eligible to be a registered in‑house counsel
• Minimum 7-10 years of experience practicing law both in private practice and in‑house, preferably with late‑stage private and/or early‑stage public technology companies
• Demonstrated experience in negotiating and closing complex SaaS and software contracts with large, sophisticated customers
• Collaborative, and willing to build something together as a team
• Experience with federal government procurement and customers
• Great judgment, and an ability to build and maintain strong professional relationships within the company, with customers, and others
• Working knowledge of intellectual property, data governance and information security/privacy matters
• High professional and personal standards, and a commitment to inclusiveness
• Attention to detail and an ability to view legal issues within the context of business objectives

Location

• Any of New York, Chicago, Austin TX or Toronto

About Kong

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.