This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Commercial Counsel based in United Kingdom.
As Commercial Counsel, you’ll be the first dedicated legal hire supporting a rapidly growing AI business with complex commercial and regulatory needs.
You’ll take ownership of customer, supplier, and partner agreements, handling drafting and negotiations under US law from initial review through signature or resolution.
A key part of the role will be addressing emerging AI-contracting questions around data use, training, output ownership, liability, and warranties.
You’ll also provide practical guidance on data protection, enterprise deals, diligence, and legal readiness across a cross-border organization.
Working closely with Finance, founders, customers, and external advisers, you’ll build reusable templates, negotiation positions, and workflows that make legal work more efficient.
You’ll have significant autonomy in a small, high-trust environment where decisions are made by owners and legal judgment directly influences commercial outcomes.
This is an opportunity to build a legal function from the ground up while staying deeply involved in the business and the deals it signs.
Accountabilities
- Review, draft, and negotiate customer, supplier, and partner agreements under US law, including SaaS terms, order forms, NDAs, and DPAs.
- Provide clear, commercially practical legal recommendations and remain involved with matters through signature, resolution, or final escalation.
- Own AI-specific contracting issues, including data use and training, ownership of outputs, liability allocation, warranties, and related commercial risks.
- Lead legal readiness for enterprise transactions and due diligence processes.
- Develop and maintain practical contract templates, negotiation positions, and an organized contract archive covering recurring commercial, AI, and data issues.
- Own practical data-protection work by translating regulatory and specialist advice into clear actions, owners, deadlines, and follow-up.
- Manage relationships with external counsel, including preparing briefs, coordinating advice, monitoring budgets, and engaging jurisdiction-specific or specialist advisers when required.
- Support fundraising and corporate transactions, including maintaining records, approvals, filing deadlines, and authorities across US, Polish, and German entities.
- Coordinate legal matters across jurisdictions while recognizing the limits of US-law expertise and involving appropriate local or specialist counsel when necessary.
- Improve legal intake, drafting, obligation tracking, and administrative workflows through approved AI tools combined with appropriate human review.
- Track legal obligations after contracts are signed and ensure relevant teams understand material commitments and follow-up actions.
- Build and maintain a prioritized legal-readiness roadmap covering enterprise reviews, data protection, and relevant AI regulatory requirements.
- Establish practical workflows for external-counsel briefs, budgets, advice, and outstanding corporate-support matters.
Requirements
- Admission to practice in a US state with substantial hands-on experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements governed by US law.
- Demonstrable experience personally handling agreements such as SaaS contracts, order forms, NDAs, DPAs, and other B2B commercial agreements.
- Strong commercial judgment and the ability to distinguish material business risks from non-critical drafting preferences.
- Ability to propose practical, workable alternatives that support commercial objectives while appropriately managing legal risk.
- Proven ability to own matters end to end, including negotiation, resolution, obligation tracking, administrative follow-through, and escalation.
- Strong understanding of when US-law expertise is sufficient and when local or specialist counsel should be involved, particularly across European jurisdictions.
- Experience working with cross-border businesses and multiple legal entities is highly valuable.
- Excellent written and spoken English, with the ability to communicate clearly with customers, founders, finance teams, and external advisers.
- Highly organized, discreet, proactive, and comfortable working independently with limited process or supervision.
- Ability to identify legal issues early and communicate them together with a proposed course of action.
- Familiarity with GDPR and practical data-protection matters is advantageous.
- Experience with B2B software, AI products, or AI/data contracting is a strong plus.
- Experience working with venture-backed companies, fundraising, or financing rounds is beneficial.
- Familiarity with enterprise procurement processes and security reviews is advantageous.
- Experience with multi-entity or cross-border corporate management is a plus.
- Comfortable using approved AI tools to improve legal intake, drafting, tracking, and other workflows while maintaining appropriate human oversight.
- Willingness to work in a hands-on legal role rather than focusing primarily on corporate governance or delegating drafting and negotiations.
Benefits
- Top-of-the-market salary.
- Meaningful ownership and responsibility within an early-stage, growing environment.
- Remote work available within Europe.
- Warsaw preferred, with remote flexibility across Europe.
- Opportunity to build the first dedicated legal function and establish its processes, templates, and workflows.
- Direct involvement in commercial deals, enterprise transactions, AI contracting, and strategic legal matters.
- High level of autonomy in a small, high-trust team with minimal bureaucracy.
- Opportunity to shape how the legal function evolves as enterprise and cross-border requirements grow.
- Close collaboration with founders, Finance, customers, external counsel, and other business stakeholders.
- Exposure to emerging legal questions around AI, data, SaaS, and cross-border technology operations.
- Opportunity to introduce practical AI-assisted workflows into legal operations.
- Meaningful ownership of legal matters rather than a primarily administrative or governance-focused remit.