Lead Commercial Counsel

About the role

You will be the foundational commercial lawyer shaping how fal sells, partners, and scales across a rapidly expanding generative media ecosystem. This role owns the commercial legal function end-to-end for a company building infrastructure and model access at scale. You will directly influence product and GTM decisions by embedding legal insight into deal structures and workflows. Your agreements will define the risk posture and commercial terms for enterprise customers, partners, and hyperscalers. You will act as a strategic partner to ambitious teams that need clarity, speed, and durable legal support. This is a ground-floor opportunity with deep responsibility and a clear line of sight to broader impact as the legal function matures.

Key facts

What you'll do

Draft, review, and negotiate the full range of commercial agreements that power fal's business, including enterprise customer contracts, SaaS and API licensing, data center and capacity arrangements, hyperscaler and infrastructure partnerships, model and content licensing, reseller and channel agreements, marketing partnerships, NDAs, and procurement contracts.

Own enterprise deal cycles end-to-end and partner with the GTM team to close revenue, while ensuring fal's legal risk is appropriately managed across the contract portfolio.

Build and own the commercial legal infrastructure, including templates, playbooks, AI tools, and a contract management solution that scales reliably as the company grows.

Monitor regulatory and policy developments most relevant to fal - AI regulation, data protection, export controls, and cross-border data transfer - and translate them into practical guidance and contract positions.

Manage outside commercial counsel and legal service providers, including budget and performance tracking, to secure leverage where needed and keep costs disciplined.

Be a "Generalized Specialist" by contributing beyond your primary area of expertise on matters across the business while learning new skills to support the team's mission.

Provide clear, practical legal advice to non-lawyers, distilling complex issues into actionable options that keep deals moving without compromising compliance or risk standards.

Evaluate and prioritize competing demands from sales, product, and operations so that the company can move fast while maintaining strong governance.

Partner with product and engineering teams to embed appropriate legal and compliance requirements into fal's platforms and workflows.

Champion process discipline by introducing tools, checklists, and documentation standards that reduce friction and improve consistency across the contract lifecycle.

Act as the primary point of contact for enterprise buyers, partners, and vendors on contractual matters, ensuring alignment with fal's commercial objectives.

Identify and mitigate emerging legal and regulatory risks in AI, data infrastructure, and cloud services, translating them into proactive controls and policies.

Support the design and negotiation of strategic partnerships, joint go-to-market initiatives, and collaboration frameworks that expand fal's market reach.

Contribute to the development of best practices for data licensing, model rights, and content permissions as the ecosystem evolves.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing of at least one U.S. state bar (California or New York preferred; registered in-house status acceptable).

8+ years of relevant legal experience, ideally combining a top-tier law firm foundation with in-house experience at a technology, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, or AI company.

Proven track record drafting and negotiating complex commercial and technology transactions on both the buy-side and the sell-side, including enterprise customer agreements, infrastructure or supply agreements, and IP licensing.

Strong working knowledge of enterprise software licensing, SaaS, intellectual property, data protection and privacy (including cross-border transfer), and the security and compliance frameworks customers care about (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001).

Substantive privacy experience advising on GDPR, CCPA, and U.S. state privacy laws; CIPP/US or CIPP/E certification a plus.

Excellent legal and business judgment - you can explain complex issues clearly to non-lawyers, take a position under uncertainty, and find practical paths forward in ambiguous situations.

Genuine curiosity about AI, infrastructure, and the fal products and services, not just papering the deal.

A doer's instinct - highly responsive, accountable, comfortable juggling multiple high-priority deals on tight timelines, and willing to roll up your sleeves on whatever the company needs.

Excellent verbal and written communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice to have

Experience inside an infrastructure-as-a-service, cloud, or AI/ML company, particularly with GPU capacity, data center, or hyperscaler agreements.

Experience with hardware supply chain, manufacturing, or procurement transactions.

Experience with debt financing or revenue-based financing agreements.

Product counseling experience on AI-specific legal issues - data processing, model training data and outputs, and emerging responsible-AI frameworks.

Experience advising on open-source licensing, model licensing, or content/data licensing.

Hands-on experience selecting, deploying, and operating modern legal tech and contract management systems.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Francisco and is a full-time position.