Senior Legal Counsel, Commercial

About the role

BetterUp seeks a Senior Legal Counsel, Commercial to own the full lifecycle of enterprise contracting and commercial negotiations in a fast-scaling SaaS environment. This role requires a lawyer who operates at the intersection of legal rigor and commercial enablement, shaping how agreements are structured, executed, and optimized for growth. You will be responsible for managing high-value deals across US and international markets while simultaneously building the frameworks and systems that scale the commercial organization. The ideal candidate brings market-aware judgment to every negotiation, ensuring that legal risk is understood, mitigated, and aligned with business objectives. You will translate complex legal concepts into actionable guidance for sales and leadership, enabling deals to move forward without unnecessary friction. Ultimately, this role owns the durability and performance of BetterUp's commercial agreements, from initial engagement through long-term relationship management.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own end-to-end negotiations of enterprise SaaS agreements, Professional Services contracts, Statements of Work, and strategic partnerships across BetterUp's US and international customer base, ensuring terms reflect commercial intent and legal compliance.
• Manage complex, high-value deals on customer paper, navigating structural amendments, bespoke enterprise terms, and sophisticated procurement processes with speed, precision, and consistent follow-through.
• Partner closely with Sales leadership as a trusted commercial advisor, providing real-time guidance on deal structure, risk allocation, and positioning throughout the sales cycle to accelerate closure without compromising governance.
• Manage the in-life legal relationship on BetterUp's most strategic accounts, where commercial obligations extend beyond signature, including change management, renewal strategy, and ongoing governance.
• Bring a market-informed perspective on what enterprise customers expect in commercial contracting, proactively updating BetterUp's terms to remain competitive, balanced, and aligned with industry standards.
• Support cross-functional teams on product-aligned commercial terms, data commitments, and AI-related contractual provisions, ensuring that innovation is deployed within clearly defined legal and risk frameworks.
• Own and continuously improve commercial contract playbooks, translating live negotiation experience into clear fallback frameworks and guidance that empower the team to move decisively while protecting the company.
• Implement and optimize Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) systems to track agreements, key terms, obligations, and renewal cycles, creating a single source of truth for commercial operations.
• Build dashboards and reporting that provide real-time visibility into deal flow, bottlenecks, and contract health, enabling leadership to make informed commercial and operational decisions.
• Lead the development of templates, automation, and workflows that streamline the commercial lifecycle, reduce manual effort, and standardize best practices across teams.
• Lead the refresh of contract templates to reflect new products, AI capabilities, data governance requirements, and evolving regulatory expectations, ensuring documentation stays current and actionable.
• Collaborate with Product, Finance, and Customer Success to align contracting practices with business strategy, ensuring that legal processes support rather than hinder growth.

Requirements

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing.
• 3-5 years of post-admission experience in commercial law, with a focus on enterprise SaaS agreements and complex B2B transactions.
• Demonstrable experience managing high-volume deal flows independently, including deals on customer paper involving structural amendments and multi-party negotiations.
• A track record of building operational solutions, not just advising on legal risk, including the creation of templates, playbooks, and systems.
• Genuine fluency in legal technology; experience with CLM platforms such as Ironclad, Salesforce, or similar systems is essential.
• Strong drafting skills for commercial agreements, with the ability to balance legal precision with business practicality under tight timelines.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with Sales and GTM leaders, translating legal constraints into commercially viable solutions.
• Experience with enterprise SaaS deal terms, including but not limited to liability caps, data provisions, change control, and renewal mechanics.
• Commitment to acting with integrity and empathy, aligning BetterUp's core values of Courage, Craftspersonship, Playfulness, Grit, Empathy, and Zest in every decision.

Nice to have

• Experience advising mission-driven, high-growth companies where speed and clarity are equally important.
• Familiarity with AI-related commercial terms and data governance considerations in enterprise contracts.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We are a hybrid company with a focus on in-person collaboration when necessary. Employees are expected to be available to work from our San Francisco hub at least two days per week, or eight days per month. Please ensure you can realistically commit to this structure before applying.