Overview
This role is responsible for the organization’s commercial contracting function and serving as the senior legal advisor on commercial deals that drive the business forward.
The organization builds autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Commercial relationships span component supply agreements with Tier 1 manufacturers through strategic OEM partnerships that shape how technology reaches the market. The position manages the full commercial contract portfolio and owns the contract lifecycle end to end: intake, drafting, negotiation, execution, and post-signature compliance. The role also builds contract templates, playbooks, and processes to support scalable contracting.
Responsibilities
- Lead the commercial contracting function across the full contract portfolio, including:
- Hardware supply chain agreements
- Strategic partnerships
- Software licensing and SaaS
- Professional services, consulting, testing
- NDAs and vendor agreements
- Structure, draft, and negotiate hardware supply chain agreements with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.
- Lead legal work on strategic partnerships, including OEM and platform partnerships and corporate development engagements supporting robotaxi and autonomous truck adoption and use.
- Advise engineering, supply chain, finance, and business development teams in plain language by translating contract risk into clear, actionable guidance that keeps deals on track.
- Partner directly with technical and business colleagues throughout negotiations, understanding what is being built and how the business operates to help drive efficient agreement execution.
- Build and maintain a forms library, including templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks across contract types.
- Own company-wide contract compliance by partnering with other functions to track and enforce obligations after signature.
- Apply sound risk judgment across the contract portfolio, distinguishing real exposure from noise.
- Support additional legal workstreams as needed, including:
- IP matters
- Open-source license review
- Regulatory questions touching commercial agreements
- Data privacy issues arising from commercial deals
Qualifications
Required
- 8+ years of legal experience, with significant time in-house, handling complex commercial transactions in the automotive, hardware, or technology space.
- Demonstrated depth in hardware supply chain agreements, including understanding automotive supply chain practice, IP ownership and licensing structures, warranty and liability allocation, and quality and change-management terms.
- Experience structuring and negotiating strategic partnerships or corp-dev-style agreements, including OEM deals or similar transactions where the deal framework required building from scratch.
- Effective communication skills, with the ability to provide legal advice in plain language; able to make contract risk understandable to engineers, product managers, and finance leads while keeping deals moving.
- Comfort working directly alongside technical and business teams throughout a deal.
- Well-calibrated risk judgment to distinguish real issues from low-impact concerns.
- Experience building or maintaining forms libraries, templates, or contracting playbooks, with process instincts to make contracting more scalable without adding unnecessary overhead.
- Ability to handle any contract type independently, at any level of complexity or stakes, without handoffs.
- J.D. and active bar membership in a relevant jurisdiction (US or Canada).
Preferred Qualifications
- In-house experience at an automotive OEM, Tier 1 supplier, or autonomous vehicle company.
- Familiarity with automotive supply standards (e.g., IATF, AIAG, APQP/PPAP).
- Experience applying AI tools to improve legal workflows and contracting efficiency.
- Familiarity with open-source licensing, export control, or data privacy issues in the AV or hardware space.
Compensation & Benefits
- US yearly salary range for this role: $186,000 - $203,000 USD
- Competitive perks & benefits, including:
- Competitive compensation and equity awards
- Health and Wellness benefits encompassing Medical, Dental and Vision coverage (for full-time employees only)
- Unlimited Vacation
- Flexible hours and Work from Home support
- Daily drinks, snacks and catered meals (when in office)
- Regularly scheduled team building activities and social events both on-site, off-site & virtually
- Additional compensation for employees in this role, including equity incentive awards and an annual performance bonus
Location
Offices are in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. The role requires active bar membership in a relevant jurisdiction (US or Canada).