Lead Commercial Legal Counsel

An overview of this role

As Lead Commercial Legal Counsel, you'll play a senior role in GitLab's commercial contracting work across the Americas. Reporting to the Director, Legal, Commercial, you'll help GitLab move complex, high-value deals forward by giving practical legal guidance that supports the business while managing risk. This is a role with significant ownership: you'll independently lead strategic transactions, serve as a trusted legal partner to Sales and cross-functional stakeholders, and help shape how the team handles large-enterprise, technology, and AI-related agreements.

In your first year, you'll take on some of the region's most important contracting work, strengthen consistency in how we approach negotiation and risk, and contribute to the tools and guidance that help the broader team work more effectively. If you enjoy combining strong legal judgment with business context in a fast-moving, all-remote environment, this role gives you the chance to make a clear impact.

What you’ll do

• Negotiate complex commercial and technology agreements, including enterprise software, software as a service, partnership, services, consulting, marketing, licensing, data privacy, and AI-related contracts.
• Own end-to-end legal support for strategic large-enterprise transactions across the Americas, with a focus on AMER Enterprise matters.
• Advise Sales leadership and cross-functional partners on contract structure, negotiation strategy, and risk allocation.
• Assess legal and commercial risk in complex transactions and provide clear recommendations, escalation paths, and practical alternatives.
• Develop and improve templates, playbooks, policies, and supporting documentation that help the team deliver consistent deal execution.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments relevant to commercial contracting and translate them into usable guidance for the business.
• Mentor contract managers and junior legal colleagues by sharing expertise, supporting training, and helping improve team-wide contracting practices.

What you’ll bring

• Hold a J.D. from an accredited law school and active bar membership in at least one U.S. state.
• Bring substantial experience in a law firm and/or in-house legal setting focused on commercial and technology transactions.
• Demonstrate experience negotiating and closing complex enterprise agreements involving software, software as a service, services, partnerships, data privacy, and AI-related terms.
• Show the ability to manage a high volume of strategic legal matters independently and bring them to resolution with limited supervision.
• Apply strong judgment in spotting, evaluating, and mitigating legal and business risk in sophisticated contractual matters.
• Communicate clearly with senior stakeholders and build trusted relationships across Sales and cross-functional teams.