Lead and scale a global commercial legal function for AI infrastructure: negotiate high-value software and infrastructure deals, create global contract playbooks and AI-specific terms, ensure regulatory alignment (EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA), build legal ops/CLM and a distributed commercial counsel team, and drive metrics to accelerate GTM velocity.
Description
VAST Data is looking for a Global Head of Commercial Legal to design, scale, and lead our global technology transactions function. As the provider of the foundational AI Operating System powering the world’s largest GPU neoclouds, enterprise AI factories, and sovereign AI initiatives, VAST is operating at an unprecedented scale.
In this role, you will transition our existing commercial legal frameworks from a highly successful high-growth model into a world-class global enterprise architecture. You will serve as the chief legal architect for multi-million and billion-dollar infrastructure transactions while building an international team capable of supporting exponential GTM velocity across AMER, EMEA, and APAC. This is a rare opportunity to define the commercial legal playbook for the entire AI infrastructure sector.
Key Responsibilities
Global Commercial Strategy & Deal Architecture
- Lead High-Value Transactions: Act as the primary executive legal partner on VAST’s most strategic, complex multi-year software and infrastructure commitments (e.g., foundational model builders, major neocloud providers, sovereign AI funds, and Fortune 100 enterprises).
- Scale Commercial Playbooks: Design, implement, and continuously refine global commercial contract templates, including master software agreements, product-specific AI terms, and vendor procurement frameworks.
- Accelerate Velocity: Establish standardized fallback positions and tiered risk-escalation matrices to enable the global GTM and Revenue Operations teams to close deals quickly without compromising corporate governance.
AI Data Governance & Frontier Risk Management
- Navigate Deep Tech Architecture: Address novel legal questions at the intersection of parallel computing, massive data ingestion, and real-time data processing.
- Global Regulatory Alignment: Ensure commercial terms proactively align with changing international compliance landscapes, including the EU AI Act, global privacy frameworks (GDPR, CCPA), and cross-border data transfer limitations.
Team Leadership & Operational Scale
- Build the Function: Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing, geographically distributed team of commercial counsel and legal specialists across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
- AI-First Legal Operations: Build Legal Ops to enable cutting-edge legal AI and CLM infrastructure. Implement automated triage, playbooks, and contract intelligence tools to drive reductions in deal cycle times.
- Cross-Functional Enablement: Develop structured enablement and training programs for the enterprise sales teams to systematically handle common inquiries.
- Metrics-Driven Management: Establish and monitor team KPIs, evaluating contract volumes, cycle times, and negotiation friction points to optimize resource allocation.
- Experience: 12+ years of legal experience, combining top-tier law firm training with significant in-house leadership at a hyper-growth enterprise SaaS, deep tech, or AI infrastructure company. Experience leading a commercial team through rapid international scale or a pre-IPO transition is highly desirable.
- Transactional Mastery: Exceptional background drafting and negotiating complex software licenses, technology partnerships, and cloud infrastructure agreements with highly sophisticated counterparties.
- Technical Fluency: A strong interest in and clear understanding of modern AI stacks, data storage architectures, GPU-accelerated environments, and enterprise data lifecycle management.
- First-Principles Mindset: Outstanding ability to make rapid, pragmatic business decisions in an ambiguous, evolving regulatory environment where clear legal precedents do not yet exist.
- Education: JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing.
VAST Data New York, New York, USA Office
New York, NY, United States
VAST Data New York, New York, USA Office
240 37th St, New York, NY, United States, 11218
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