Commercial Counsel

Decagon

$235K — $300K *
Legal & Accounting
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Qualified attorney with 4-8+ years of legal experience in-house or at a top-tier law firm.
  • Extensive experience in drafting and negotiating a high volume of commercial agreements, including SaaS, MSAs, and NDAs.
  • Proficient understanding of legal frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA) and AI governance.
  • Ability to balance legal risk with business needs and tailor advice based on context.
  • Experience thriving in cross-functional environments and serving as a legal resource for various teams.
  • Strong communication skills to simplify legal complexities for non-legal stakeholders.
  • Flexible and eager to learn in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

Responsibilities

  • Review and negotiate commercial agreements, balancing legal risk with business outcomes.
  • Build relationships across teams to provide solution-oriented legal guidance.
  • Establish legal best practices and processes tailored to a hypergrowth startup.
  • Design, update, and enforce contracting policies and controls.
  • Adapt and grow with the team while taking on new challenges outside of commercial legal.

Benefits

  • Flexible vacation policy allowing employees to take what they need off.
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and families.
  • Life insurance and disability benefits provided.
  • Retirement plan options available, such as 401K or pension.
  • Generous parental leave policies.
  • Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.
  • Daily lunches and snacks provided in the office.
Full Job Description
About the Role

We're looking for experienced Commercial or Senior Commercial Counsel to join Decagon and help shape the legal foundation of our fast-growing AI company. As a key early hire in this role, you will join a team of legal professionals working as trusted partners to teams across Sales, Security, Product, and Leadership. From negotiating complex enterprise SaaS agreements to streamlining contract operations, you'll play a pivotal role in accelerating revenue, protecting the business, and building scalable legal infrastructure from the ground up.

In this role, you will
  • Be a part of a team reviewing and negotiating our commercial agreements, working cross functionally to balance legal risk with business outcomes, tailoring your guidance based on context and deal stage.
  • Build relationships throughout our company, and serve a solutions oriented partner to provide guidance to sales teams based on our technology, market norms, and your experience.
  • Define what excellent looks like on a legal team in a hypergrowth startup - establish working norms and process to provide top-tier service.
  • Work to design, update, and enforce policies and controls over Decagon's contracting process.
  • Grow with the team as Decagon scales, and be open to taking on new challenges outside of Commercial legal as appropriate.


Your background looks something like this
  • Are a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction with 4 - 8+ years of legal experience, including time at a top-tier law firm and/or a relevant in-house role.
  • Have deep experience drafting, negotiating, and closing on a high volume of commercial agreements, including SaaS, MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, DPAs, and partner/reseller deals.
  • Are fluent in legal frameworks (like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA), security concepts, AI governance, and intellectual property concerns that arise in SaaS transactions.
  • Understand how to balance legal risk with business outcomes, and can tailor guidance based on context and deal stage.
  • Thrive in cross-functional environments and are comfortable being the go-to legal resource for Sales, Finance, Product, and RevOps as we build out a global contracting process.
  • Can leave your ego at the door and communicate clearly and effectively, translating legal complexity and abstract risk into actionable guidance for internal non-legal stakeholders - and do the same with counterparties who may not be at the same level of sophistication.
  • Are flexible, eager to learn and grow, and are energized by fast growth, ambiguity, and the opportunity to build scalable legal systems that drive velocity.


Even better if you have
  • Have in-house legal experience at a high-growth SaaS or technology company.
  • Have a process-building mindset, and have worked closely with RevOps or LegalOps on CLM tools and Salesforce integrations.
  • Are experienced leading customer-facing contract negotiations directly with enterprise clients, and especially highly-regulated customers (financial services, healthcare, SLED & FED).
  • Have negotiated AI terms with counterparties - and can articulate common issues with brevity.
  • Have built and maintained legal playbooks, fallback clause libraries, and approval workflows.
  • Have trained commercial teams on contract review, negotiation strategy, or compliance topics, and are eager to mentor junior colleagues.

Comp: $235,000 - $300,000 + Equity

Benefits

We proudly offer the following benefits for our full-time employees:
  • Take what you need vacation policy (subject to local requirements; UK employees receive 25 days of statutory leave)
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits for you and your family
  • Life Insurance and Disability Benefits
  • Retirement Plan (e.g., 401K, pension)
  • Parental Leave
  • Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot
  • Daily lunches and snacks in the office to keep you at your best

These benefits are described in more detail in Decagon's policies, may vary by location, and can change at any time according to applicable compensation and benefits plans.

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