Director Commercial Legal, Silicon Valley (999-SLS)

Our client is a rapidly growing technology company at the forefront of AI infrastructure. Its innovative products support advanced AI workloads through integrated hardware and cloud solutions. Following a highly successful recent initial public offering, the company is entering an important new stage of expansion, with growing customer demand, increasingly sophisticated commercial relationships and significant investment in its platform and operations. This is an exciting time to join a company that is scaling rapidly while helping shape the future of AI computing.

The company seeks a sophisticated commercial transactions lawyer to join its legal team as Director, Commercial Legal. Reporting to the Vice President of Legal, Commercial and Privacy, this attorney will work independently on the company’s most complex transactions. The core of the role is negotiating large hardware sales and related services agreements, together with cloud services transactions and other IP-intensive commercial arrangements. The attorney will also support select supply-side and strategic transactions.

This is a highly visible senior role for an experienced deal lawyer who can understand technical products, structure practical solutions and lead negotiations to closure with limited oversight. The successful candidate will work closely with senior executives and teams across sales, engineering, product, finance, security, privacy and supply chain. As the company and legal department continue to grow, this attorney will have meaningful opportunities to expand the scope of the role, assume broader leadership responsibilities and advance within the organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead and negotiate the company’s most complex commercial transactions, with primary emphasis on high-value hardware sales, combined hardware and services arrangements, and cloud services agreements.
• Draft and negotiate IP-intensive agreements involving technology licensing, data rights, performance commitments, security, privacy, warranties, indemnities and limitations of liability.
• Support select supply-side, joint development, strategic partnership and other complex technology transactions.
• Serve as a trusted legal advisor to senior business and technical leaders and guide transactions from initial structuring through execution.
• Coordinate closely with sales, engineering, product, finance, information security, privacy and supply chain teams to address legal and commercial issues efficiently.
• Build and refine templates, playbooks, approval processes and other tools that support a growing volume of sophisticated transactions.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to other members of the commercial legal team and manage outside counsel effectively.

Qualifications

• Approximately 10 to 15 years of combined law firm and in-house experience negotiating complex commercial and technology transactions.
• Substantial experience negotiating large-scale hardware sales agreements is required, together with meaningful experience in cloud services transactions.
• Experience in semiconductors, AI infrastructure, cloud computing or another technically complex hardware business is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and negotiate difficult IP, licensing, data, privacy and security issues within commercial agreements. The successful candidate will be a deal lawyer rather than a privacy specialist.
• Excellent commercial judgment and the ability to advise senior executives, work directly with technical teams and lead negotiations without established guardrails.
• Ability to operate independently, learn new subject areas quickly and remain hands-on in a lean, fast-moving legal department.
• JD and active bar membership required. California bar membership is preferred.

Location and Compensation

• The role is based in Sunnyvale, California. Bay Area candidates are preferred, although the company has flexibility regarding both location and the in-office schedule for the right candidate. The compensation package includes a targeted base salary of approximately $243,000–$297,000, an annual bonus and a substantial restricted stock unit grant. Final compensation will depend on the candidate’s experience, qualifications and final leveling.

Solutus Legal Search has been exclusively engaged on this search. Resumes submitted directly to our client will be forwarded to Solutus for review and evaluation.

Ref. #999-SLS