Strategic Commercial Counsel – Auto Tech & Partnerships

Waabi; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 192,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

Health and Wellness benefits

Unlimited vacation

Flexible hours

Work from home support

Daily meals and snacks

Team events

Company growth opportunities

Job summary

Waabi, a leader in Autonomous Transportation, seeks a Managing Counsel, Commercial, to lead the company's commercial contracting function and act as the senior legal advisor on strategic deals. You will manage the full contract portfolio, draft and negotiate across hardware, software, suppliers, and partnerships, and build scalable templates and playbooks.

The role requires 8+ years of legal experience, strong in-house background, and the ability to translate complex contract risk for engineers

Qualifications

• 8+ years of legal experience, with significant in-house time handling complex commercial transactions in automotive, hardware, or tech.
• Ability to translate contract risk into plain language for engineers, product, and finance teams.
• Experience structuring and negotiating OEM and corp-dev–style agreements; building from scratch as needed.
• Experience building or maintaining a forms library, templates, or contracting playbooks.
• Ability to manage a broad portfolio of agreements end-to-end without handoffs.

Responsibilities

• Lead Waabi's commercial contracting function across hardware supply chain, partnerships, software licensing, services, and NDAs.
• Draft, structure, and negotiate hardware supply agreements with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.
• Lead legal work on strategic partnerships, OEM collaborations, and corporate development engagements supporting robotaxi and autonomous trucks.
• Advise cross-functional teams in plain language to keep deals on track and provide clear risk guidance.
• Collaborate with engineers and business teams during negotiations to understand what is being built and how the deal works.
• Build and maintain templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks to scale contracting processes.
• Own contract compliance company-wide and enforce post-signature obligations.
• Apply sound risk judgment to focus on material issues while delegating less impactful items.

Skills

In-house experience

Clear communication

Plain-language legal advice

Risk assessment

Contract playbooks

Education

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

Tools

Contract management software

Job description

Waabi, a leader in Autonomous Transportation, seeks a Managing Counsel, Commercial, to lead the company's commercial contracting function and act as the senior legal advisor on strategic deals. You will manage the full contract portfolio, draft and negotiate across hardware, software, suppliers, and partnerships, and build scalable templates and playbooks.

The role requires 8+ years of legal experience, strong in-house background, and the ability to translate complex contract risk for engineers