THE ROLEBaseten is the AI inference infrastructure that serves the traffic and endpoints behind the most innovative AI-native and enterprise products in the market. We're hiring an Assistant General Counsel, Commercial to own our commercial deal surface as we scale from a high-growth startup into an enterprise-grade AI infrastructure platform. You'll be our primary commercial contracts attorney - embedded directly in the business and partnering day-to-day with Sales, Finance, and Engineering.
At Baseten, commercial and product are the same thing. What we build and sell is inference - compute, orchestration, deployment, and optimization delivered as the production backbone for our customers' products. Closing a deal here means understanding multi-tenancy, model deployment, latency and throughput SLAs, and how a customer's workload actually runs on our platform. This is a role for a commercially minded product lawyer who wants to sit at that intersection, not run a siloed contracts function.
You'll own enterprise commercial contracting end to end, and you'll also own several related strategic surfaces, including model marketplace initiatives and go-to-market partnerships. Your center of gravity is the commercial deal surface; like everyone on this team, you'll also flex onto cross-functional and one-off work where you're needed.
RESPONSIBILITIES- Own the full lifecycle of enterprise commercial agreements - MSAs, order forms, DPAs, BAAs, SOWs, and NDAs - at volume, as the primary legal partner to Sales and GTM throughout the deal cycle
- Serve as product counsel to the business: advise on how inference, multi-tenancy, model deployment, data flows, and SLAs map to contract terms, and translate technical architecture into risk positions Sales and customers can act on
- Own the commercial and legal terms for model marketplace and model distribution agreements, including the allocation of responsibility between Baseten and model providers
- Lead the legal workstream for go-to-market and strategic partnerships, structuring collaboration, reseller, and co-sell arrangements that protect Baseten's IP and independence while unlocking distribution
- Build, own, and continuously improve Baseten's commercial templates, playbooks, and standard positions against market feedback and leadership risk appetite
- Partner with Finance on revenue recognition and non-standard deal structures, and with Security and Compliance on data protection, regulated-data, and security commitments in customer contracts
- Drive deal velocity - know which terms to hold, which to trade, and how to explain the difference to an AE, a CFO or the CLO
- Advise the CLO on commercial and contractual risk, and proactively advocate for changes to Baseten's positions, playbooks, and risk posture as the product and market evolve
- May assist on M&A and other strategic or one-off transactions as needed
- Help build and mentor the commercial legal team as it scales, and contribute across whatever the team needs
REQUIREMENTS- JD and active bar membership in good standing
- 8+ years of commercial / technology transactions experience, with meaningful in-house time at a B2B SaaS, cloud, or developer-infrastructure company
- Demonstrated product-counsel instinct: you've advised a technical product org, not just papered deals, and can hold your own in a conversation about how the product actually works
- Proven ability to negotiate sophisticated enterprise agreements at the redline level and manage high deal volume without losing the details
- Strong working knowledge of data privacy (GDPR, CCPA) and security provisions (DPAs, security addenda) as they surface in commercial contracts
- Clear, direct communicator who can translate legal and technical concepts for non-lawyers and push back constructively without creating deal friction
- Comfortable with significant autonomy in a lean, fast-moving legal function; knows when to own and when to escalate
- The ability to learn, build, and master AI tooling and systems to self-serve and operate at breakneck speed
- A desire to become a recognized thought leader in your field
NICE TO HAVE- Experience at an AI, ML, or developer-infrastructure company, or with usage-based / consumption pricing models
- Familiarity with marketplace, model-distribution, or platform / ecosystem agreements
- Experience structuring strategic partnerships, OEM, or co-sell arrangements
- People-management or team-building experience through a high-growth phase
- Comfort with AI-assisted legal tooling and an interest in scaling a lean team through process and technology
BENEFITS- Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity.
- 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
- Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)
- Paid parental leave
- Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot
- Company-facilitated 401(k)
- Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.
Apply now to embark on a rewarding journey in shaping the future of AI! If you are a motivated individual with a passion for machine learning and a desire to be part of a collaborative and forward-thinking team, we would love to hear from you.
