Applied Methods
~The MetaLegal & ComplianceCommercial Counsel

Commercial Counsel

Commercial Counsel roles at AI companies involve drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a high volume of commercial agreements—from enterprise SaaS and licensing deals to vendor and partnership contracts—while serving as a trusted advisor to sales, product, and leadership teams. These positions distinguish themselves by requiring fluency in AI-specific legal considerations like data governance, security compliance, and responsible AI frameworks, alongside traditional technology transaction expertise. Commercial Counsel typically sit within rapidly scaling legal teams embedded in hypergrowth companies, working closely with go-to-market functions to balance legal risk with business velocity, establishing scalable contracting processes, and providing pragmatic guidance that translates complex legal concepts for non-lawyer stakeholders.

$ titles --canonical
Commercial CounselSenior Commercial CounselAssociate Commercial Counsel
Open Jobs55
Companies Hiring28
$02

Skills

What companies are looking for in this role.

$ skills --core

Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial technology agreements and contracts

98%

Providing practical, business-oriented legal advice that balances risk management with deal velocity

96%

Collaborating cross-functionally with sales, product, engineering, and business teams to support commercial objectives

95%

Managing and negotiating enterprise SaaS agreements and master services agreements

94%

Identifying, analyzing, and mitigating legal and commercial risks in transactions

93%

Building and maintaining scalable commercial legal infrastructure including templates and playbooks

92%

Leading negotiations on high-value, complex enterprise deals and strategic partnerships

91%

Managing contract lifecycle operations including implementation of contract lifecycle management systems

85%

Advising on data protection, privacy compliance, and regulatory frameworks within commercial transactions

81%

Structuring and negotiating partnership, reseller, and channel agreements

80%

Handling non-disclosure agreements and managing NDA processes at volume

76%

Supporting vendor and procurement agreement negotiations

74%

Advising on intellectual property ownership, licensing, and allocation in commercial transactions

70%
$ skills --emerging

Managing legal aspects of AI-specific contract terms, including data usage, model restrictions, and AI liability provisions

82%

Negotiating and structuring infrastructure and compute capacity agreements with hyperscalers and cloud providers

78%

Operating across multiple jurisdictions and managing international contract considerations

73%

Structuring and negotiating power purchase agreements and energy procurement arrangements

72%

Supporting hardware development, manufacturing, and supply chain commercial agreements

68%

Negotiating real estate transactions, ground leases, and data center facility agreements

65%

Leading negotiations on dark fiber, wavelength capacity, and network infrastructure agreements

65%

Advising on telecom regulatory compliance including FCC authorizations and submarine cable landing licenses

58%
$ skills --soft

Building strong relationships and serving as trusted business partner to cross-functional teams

89%

Communicating complex legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders and business teams

88%

Operating with autonomy and sound judgment in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with minimal oversight

87%

Prioritizing and managing multiple competing demands and deal timelines efficiently

85%

Translating business objectives into executable legal strategies and priorities

84%

Coordinating with external counsel and managing outside legal resources effectively

79%

Identifying opportunities for process improvement and implementing scalable contracting solutions

77%

Managing team of commercial legal professionals and mentoring junior attorneys

75%

Recruiting, developing, and scaling legal teams in high-growth environments

72%
$03

Technology

The tools and technologies that define this role.

$ tech --platform
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) systemsmoderate
$ tech --concept
Master Services Agreements (MSAs)very high
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) agreementsvery high
Confidentiality and security addendahigh
Data Protection Agreements (DPAs)high
Indemnification and limitation of liability clauseshigh
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)high
Reseller agreementshigh
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)high
Statements of Work (SOWs)high
AI-specific addenda and provisionsmoderate
Capacity reservation agreementsmoderate
CCPAmoderate
Cloud Service Agreements (CSAs)moderate
Colocation and hosting agreementsmoderate
Construction contractsmoderate
Dark fiber agreementsmoderate
GDPRmoderate
Hyperscaler agreementsmoderate
Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreementsmoderate
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)moderate
Intellectual property assignment agreementsmoderate
IP transit and peering agreementsmoderate
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)moderate
Real estate purchase and sale agreementsmoderate
Subsea cable agreementsmoderate
FCC Section 214low
Hardware as a Service (HWaaS)low
HIPAAlow
Synthetic leaseslow
Utility interconnection agreementslow
$04

Open Jobs

55 open Commercial Counsel jobs across 28 companies.

ElevenLabs1d
Commercial Counsel - Partnerships
New York·Legal & Compliance
ElevenLabs1d
Commercial Counsel - LATAM
Mexico·Legal & Compliance
ElevenLabs1d
Commercial Counsel - APAC
Australia·Legal & Compliance
Databricks1d
Legal Counsel, EMEA Commercial
London, United Kingdom·Legal & Compliance
Graphcore5d
Transactional Attorney
Austin, Texas, United States; US - Milpitas·Legal & Compliance
OpenAI1w
Senior Counsel, Commercial
San Francisco·Legal & Compliance
Cognition1w
Commercial Counsel - Europe
London·Legal & Compliance
Black Forest Labs2w
Commercial Counsel
Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, San Francisco, California, United States·Legal & Compliance
fal2w
Commercial Legal
San Francisco·Legal & Compliance
Scale AI2w
Lead Counsel, Global Public Sector
Dubai, UAE; London, UK·Legal & Compliance
Anthropic2w
Commercial Counsel, Infrastructure Security
New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Washington, DC·Legal & Compliance
CoreWeave2w
Senior Counsel, Global Supply Chain
Sunnyvale, CA /Bellevue, WA·Legal & Compliance
xAI3w
Senior Commercial Counsel
Austin, TX; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Palo Alto, CA·Legal & Compliance
ElevenLabs3w
Commercial Counsel - EMEA
United States·Legal & Compliance
Anthropic3w
Manager, Commercial Counsel, GTM
San Francisco, CA·Legal & Compliance
Anthropic3w
Commercial Counsel, Networking & Datacenter Operations
New York City, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Washington, DC·Legal & Compliance
Harvey3w
Commercial Counsel — Chicago
Chicago·Legal & Compliance
Reflection4w
AI Compute and Infrastructure Counsel (Legal)
San Francisco·Legal & Compliance
Crusoe1mo
Senior Legal Counsel, Cloud Sales
San Francisco, CA - US·Legal & Compliance
Fundamental1mo
Legal
San Francisco·Legal & Compliance