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.
• Contribute experience creating or improving templates, playbooks, processes, and documentation that support consistent outcomes at scale.
• Work effectively in a remote, globally distributed environment, and we welcome candidates with transferable experience from different legal and business backgrounds.

About the team

The Legal, Commercial team supports GitLab's go-to-market work by helping the business structure, negotiate, and close commercial agreements in a way that balances growth, customer needs, and risk. This team works closely with Sales and partner functions across regions in an asynchronous, all-remote environment, with shared ownership of contracting guidance, templates, and process improvements that help GitLab scale. For this role, the focus is on leading complex transactions in the Americas while contributing to team-wide consistency and practical legal support across evolving areas such as enterprise technology and AI-related contracting.

How GitLab will support you

• Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
• Flexible Paid Time Off 
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave 
• Home office support

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application.