Senior Commercial Counsel EU

Overview

This role is a remote position based in France with occasional travel.

The organization is seeking a Senior Commercial Counsel to act as a strategic legal partner, leading commercial contract negotiations and providing practical legal guidance that enables global business growth. The position includes end-to-end contract management, with a focus on complex software licensing and SaaS transactions, along with hardware-related contracting as needed. You will also advise cross-functional leaders on commercial and compliance matters and help build a modern, scalable, technology-enabled legal function.

Success in this role means becoming a trusted advisor to business leaders, accelerating deal velocity while maintaining strong risk governance, and establishing efficient, scalable contract practices and legal tooling within 12–18 months.

Responsibilities

Commercial and contract work

• Lead negotiation of complex commercial agreements, including software licensing, SaaS services, OEM arrangements, R&D agreements, and inbound/outbound IP licensing.
• Partner with business leadership and sales to develop and execute commercial contract strategies aligned with organizational goals and designed to minimize legal and business risk.
• Manage the end-to-end contract process for routine and complex transactions, balancing efficiency with risk management.
• Advise on global distributor management, including renewals and terminations of worldwide distributor and agent agreements (taking into account French and local mandatory rules), and provide practical guidance on dispute avoidance and resolution with customers and suppliers.
• Support legal work for other operating companies as business needs require.
• Provide backup coverage for US-side legal work when needed, coordinated with US-qualified counsel as appropriate.

M&A

• Provide legal counsel on business model structuring and corporate matters with clear, actionable guidance.
• Support M&A transactions as needed, including due diligence and transaction documentation.

Legal innovation, AI, and process

• Contribute to the development and deployment of legal AI tools, including use-case identification, prompt and workflow design, testing, and responsible-use guidelines.
• Help build and maintain contract templates, negotiation guidelines, playbooks, and RACI/RACIS frameworks to enable faster contract flow for routine matters and allow legal to focus on high-value work.
• Build strong relationships with R&D and product teams to understand the product roadmap early and anticipate template, terms, and risk positions needed for new products and innovations.

Regulatory anticipation and compliance

• Help build a regulatory watch capability to anticipate developments worldwide, including cybersecurity, AI, data management, and data protection (e.g., GDPR, NIS2, Data Act, EU AI Act), and translate them into practical guidance for the business and product teams.
• Champion compliance by educating business leaders and sales/service teams on commercial law topics, including anti-corruption, EU and national competition rules, and compliant business practices.

Team building and cross-OpCo support

• Help lead potential future recruitment of a nearshore legal resource (likely in Eastern Europe) and coach/develop them toward a future head of a regional Legal Center of Excellence (CoE).
• Collaborate with the broader legal team to share best practices, align legal approaches, and drive continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in law (Master 2 or equivalent) from a French or EU institution.
• Qualified lawyer: admitted to a bar (e.g., French bar/CAPA, or equivalent in another jurisdiction). Current registration or active practice at a bar is not required.
• At least 8 years of experience in commercial law with a strong focus on software licensing, SaaS agreements, and hosted services, gained in an international law firm, a multinational company, or both.
• Demonstrated track record of independently negotiating complex, high-value commercial agreements with large multinational counterparties, in English and under multiple governing laws.
• Experience with anti-corruption compliance programs and competition law, including third-party compliance frameworks (distributors, integrators, OEMs) and EU competition rules.
• Demonstrated interest in and hands-on experience with legal technology and AI tools, with the ability to turn that into practical processes for a legal team.
• Experience building or improving contract templates, playbooks, or other legal operations tools.
• Ability to translate complex legal concepts into clear, practical guidance for non-legal stakeholders at all levels, including technical teams such as R&D.
• Full professional fluency in English (written and spoken). Spanish would be a plus.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as needed, up to 20% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications

• In-house experience in a technology, software, or SaaS company.
• Background in IT security, data privacy, AI regulation, or related frameworks (GDPR, NIS2, Data Act, EU AI Act).
• Experience managing, coaching, or mentoring junior lawyers, ideally in a nearshore or distributed team model, or setting up a legal CoE.
• Familiarity with US commercial law concepts or experience working alongside US legal teams.
• Experience supporting M&A transactions, including due diligence and documentation.
• Experience negotiating with large multinationals in consumer packaging, automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, or electronics.
• Proficiency in an additional language (German, Spanish, Dutch, or others).

Compensation & Benefits

Not specified in the provided job description.

Location

Remote role based in France with occasional travel (up to 20% of the time).