Commercial Counsel

About the Role

Posit Legal is a trusted and impactful business partner, providing proactive, practical, and solution-oriented legal advice to support our open-source mission and commercial objectives. As the second lawyer to join our Posit legal team, you will play a foundational role in building a modern, tech-forward legal function. Because our products encompass software, open source and SaaS solutions and tools, you will navigate a range of legal matters—from standard software licensing to complex inquiries about data privacy, AI and security.

We strive to transform complex legal requirements into a positive experience that impresses every customer and internal stakeholder with our business focus, kindness, and technical expertise. Working in this role will provide you with the opportunity to lead commercial negotiations, inform product improvements based on legal trends, be at the forefront of AI, and help scale a creative and collaborative team.

A bit about you:

• Qualified Legal Professional: JD (or equivalent) and member in good standing of a state bar.
• Commercial Expertise: Proven experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a broad range of commercial contracts, including software, SaaS, and professional services.
• Experience: 4+ years experience working in-house legal and/or for a law firm is a plus.
• AI Enthusiast: Experience with, or a strong desire to learn and implement, AI solutions in our products and in legal activities and processes.
• Business Partner Mindset: Experience in cross-functional work and communication, focusing on improving the customer experience and supporting company growth.
• Adaptable & Entrepreneurial: Comfortable joining a small, growing team where you will need to build processes from the ground up.

What you will own:

• Contract Management: Structure, draft, and close a variety of commercial transactions, including software licenses, SaaS agreements, NDAs, and SOWs.
• AI Integration: Actively experiment with and implement AI-enabled tools to automate routine legal tasks and improve contract lifecycle management.
• Sales Partnership: Act as the primary legal point of contact for the sales organization to ensure deals are closed efficiently and responsibly.
• Corporate Support: Assist with corporate governance, development of internal policies, and Board of Directors matters, including preparing meeting materials and maintaining corporate records.
• Employment Matters: Partner with our incredible People Operations team on a wide variety of US and international employment matters.
• Ownership: Independently manage the commercial contract queue and leading negotiations, as well as identify opportunities for meaningful improvement to legal templates, process and/or AI workflows.
• Cross-Functional: In order to be an effective and valued advisor, develop strong relationships with leaders and team members in Sales, Customer Success, People Operations, Product, Engineering and Finance.