Associate General Counsel, Commercial & Product - Distributed US
Databases are the beating heart of every business in the world.
Cockroach Labs is the creator of CockroachDB, the most highly evolved cloud-native, distributed SQL database on the planet that scales fast, survives anything, and thrives anywhere. We created CockroachDB to unshackle teams from the constraints of their database. Join us on our mission to enable every developer to build world-changing applications!
About the Role
The Associate General Counsel, Commercial & Product will be an early member of the Legal team at Cockroach Labs and play a large role in shaping the Legal organization. You will be responsible for a broad portfolio of cutting-edge and complex cross-border licensing, product development, and contractual matters. You will be a trusted partner to the Revenue and Product teams and develop a deep understanding of Cockroach Labs’ product and strategy. You will work closely with internal clients at all levels of leadership to assess legal and business risks and make sound decisions under tight deadlines. The Associate General Counsel will be on the ground floor of a newly formed function at a high-growth startup and will have significant opportunities for growth.
You Will
- Lead complex, cross-border, commercial negotiations with some of the biggest brands in technology, e-commerce, banking, and other industries.
- Build best-in-class runbooks and processes to allow our rapidly growing sales team to scale their go-to-market efforts quickly and responsibly.
- Partner with operations teams to drive more efficient use of legal resources in sales efforts.
- Support Product and Engineering teams in developing and launching new products and features.
- Ensure compliance with a variety of laws and regulations impacting database offerings, including intellectual property, privacy, security, and government contracting.
- Continually improve our standard form agreements and online T&Cs, legal processes, policies, and training.
The Expectations
In your first 30 days, you will develop a strong understanding of our product offerings and the structure of our various internal functions. You will meet and begin to develop relationships with leaders within our Revenue, Product, and Finance organizations. You will become very familiar with our contracts and policies. You will begin drafting and negotiating various customer contracts.
In your first 60 days, you will have a firmer understanding of Cockroach Labs’ Revenue and Product teams’ legal needs. You will begin to integrate more closely with the Revenue and Product functions, attending various of their team meetings and meeting with functional leaders. You will lead negotiations of various of our commercial contracts and begin developing legal requirements for our existing and future products. You will begin identifying areas of improvement for legal support, including new internal policies, processes, and updates to our customer-facing T&Cs.
After 3 months, you'll be fully integrated into the team. You will be working on the legal team’s core priorities and start identifying new opportunities for the team’s initiatives. You will closely track functional objectives and plan ahead to ensure legal is prepared to effectively support those objectives where needed. You will regularly liaise with key stakeholders in Cockroach’s Revenue and Product functions.
You Have
- Experience successfully supporting fast-moving sales teams to close complex cross-border enterprise software licenses and SaaS contracts with large enterprise customers (experience negotiating with financial institutions is a plus).
- A proven track record of working with product and engineering teams to bring innovative new products to market (familiarity with open source licensing is a plus).
- Working knowledge of intellectual property, international contracting, data governance, and privacy matters.
- Experience identifying and implementing new processes and systems to drive operational efficiencies.
- Excellent negotiating skills with both legal and financial/commercial issues.
- Exceptional interpersonal and presentation skills and an ability to communicate effectively with others at all levels of the organization.
- An entrepreneurial spirit and passion for technology and team building.
- Ability to offer clear and concise business-minded guidance around legal issues.
- Minimum 5 years experience at a top-tier law firm and in-house legal department. Prior tech experience is a plus.
- Member in good standing of at least one state bar; New York preferred.
The Team
Reporting to Melissa Lor - Deputy General Counsel
Melissa has always enjoyed collaborating on innovative solutions to paradigm shifts confronted by technology companies. At Cockroach Labs, she leads the commercial and product legal support functions to address such challenges, and is dedicated to helping others achieve their growth potential. When not working, Melissa can be found spending quality time with her young kids, traveling, playing tennis, and trying new restaurants.
Our Benefits
- 100% health insurance coverage (for you and your dependents!)
- Paid parental leave (with baby bucks)
- Flex Fridays
- Flexible time off & flexible hours
- Education reimbursement
- Relocation support
Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at [email protected].