Commercial Legal Counsel, Public Sector

About the role

This position will support GitLab's growth by ensuring commercial agreements are clear, consistent, and scalable. You will act as a key advisor, partnering with internal teams and external parties to manage complex contracts and assess legal risks. Your work will help shape efficient deal execution and compliance with regional legal requirements.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Negotiate, draft, and review various agreements including those for partnerships, services, consulting, marketing, licensing, data privacy, and artificial intelligence.
• Manage significant and high-priority contract matters, working directly with internal departments and external entities.
• Provide guidance to Sales and other GitLab teams on contract structure, risk distribution, and negotiation approaches that align with business objectives and protect GitLab's interests.
• Analyze contractual risks and propose solutions, including alternative terms and escalation strategies.
• Develop and maintain contract templates, playbooks, policies, and supporting documents, incorporating regional legal nuances and stakeholder feedback.
• Stay informed about legal and regulatory changes, evaluate their impact on contracting practices, and suggest updates to processes and documents.
• Develop and deliver training to contract managers and Sales personnel to enhance consistency in contracting and day-to-day decision-making.
• Assist the Public Sector sales team with federal, state, local, and education (SLED) transactions, including negotiating agreements subject to FAR/DFARS, GSA Schedule terms, and agency-specific clauses.
• Advise on contractual obligations related to FedRAMP, including data sovereignty commitments, government-specific data handling rules, and authorized use limitations for GitLab's compliant offerings.
• Create and maintain public sector contract templates, playbooks, and order form language that address government procurement rules, FedRAMP conditions, SLED terms, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with Sales, Security, and Compliance teams to communicate the contractual implications of government certification and authorization programs, ensuring contract terms accurately reflect GitLab's authorized configurations and service boundaries.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school and an active bar membership in at least one U.S. state.
• Prior experience in a major law firm or an in-house legal department, with a focus on commercial and technology transactions.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating and drafting complex commercial and technology agreements, covering software, SaaS, services, consulting, marketing, licensing, partnerships, data privacy, and artificial intelligence.
• Ability to independently manage a high volume of strategic and high-priority matters, guiding agreements to completion with internal and external partners.
• Understanding of regional legal requirements and experience working with outside counsel to shape contract terms, templates, and policy enforcement.
• Proficiency in identifying and mitigating risks, providing clear, business-oriented advice that safeguards GitLab's interests.
• Experience in enhancing or establishing templates, playbooks, processes, and documentation to ensure consistent contracting outcomes across teams.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the capacity to influence and serve as a trusted advisor to sales and leadership.
• Capability to develop and deliver training programs for sales teams.
• Comfort working in a remote, globally distributed environment across different time zones, with a willingness to learn and utilize GitLab's products in your work.
• Working knowledge of federal government procurement frameworks, including FAR and DFARS, and experience with negotiating or applying flow-down clauses in commercial technology contracts.
• Familiarity with GSA Schedule contracting procedures, including ordering, pricing, and compliance for software and SaaS vendors.
• Understanding of SLED procurement rules and the legal and structural differences from standard commercial agreements.
• Experience advising on or negotiating FedRAMP-related contractual obligations, including authorized use restrictions, data handling and sovereignty commitments, and agency-specific security requirements.
• Familiarity with data sovereignty concepts in government contracting, including restrictions on data residency, processing, and access for cloud services sold to government clients.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI-related legal considerations and contracting.

Skills & tools

• GitLab (used in daily work)

Practical notes

• GitLab provides benefits for health, finances, and well-being, flexible paid time off, Team Member Resource Groups, equity compensation, an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, a Growth and Development Fund, parental leave, and home office support.
• We encourage applications from candidates with varied experience levels; not all listed qualifications are mandatory.
• The base salary range for this role in the US is between $150,000 and $250,000 per year. This range does not include bonuses, equity, or other benefits. Salary is determined based on factors including interviews, education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, equity with other team members, market data, and geographic location.