Commercial Counsel

Flex•San Francisco, CA

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

Flex is seeking an exceptional commercial attorney to join its Legal & Compliance team as Associate General Counsel, Commercial. This is not a traditional in-house counsel position. The role involves owning the legal architecture of Flex’s most critical go-to-market initiatives, including new product launches, business development, and channel and distribution partnerships. The successful candidate will define how Flex’s commercial legal function operates at scale, setting the roadmap and standards for the team. This position is at the intersection of legal strategy, high-stakes business development, and legal technology innovation. The Associate General Counsel will be a primary architect of Flex’s AI-powered contracting capabilities, acting as both a hands-on practitioner designing and deploying AI-assisted workflows and as the governance owner defining standards, protocols, and oversight frameworks for AI use across the Legal function. They will represent Legal in cross-functional AI working groups with IT, Security, and Compliance. This role requires operating as a strategic partner to Legal & Compliance leadership and senior business leaders across Revenue, Finance, Product, and Operations, influencing company-level decisions. This is a hybrid position with on-site expectations of 3 days per week at the New York City headquarters or San Francisco office, with relocation assistance potentially available for candidates outside the NY/NJ/SF area.

Requirements

10+ years of combined experience at a top-tier law firm and in-house legal department, with deep expertise in commercial transactions, corporate matters, and high-stakes deal negotiation.
Demonstrated experience leading and closing complex financial institution partnerships, program agreements, bank agreements, or structured finance transactions.
Experience structuring and negotiating channel, distribution, reseller, or embedded product partnership agreements preferably at a growth-stage or fintech company.
Hands-on experience with AI-powered legal tools (contract review, CLM, drafting assistance) — not just as a user, but as someone who has designed, deployed, or materially improved AI-assisted legal workflows.
Experience or strong demonstrated aptitude for legal technology governance: defining AI use standards, output review protocols, and cross-functional policy implementation.
Background in fintech, payments, lending, or proptech.
A builder’s mindset; you don’t just operate within existing processes; you redesign them, with an eye toward measurably increasing throughput and reducing risk.
Bias for action, clear and concise communication, and a track record of making sound independent judgment calls under ambiguity and time pressure.
JD from an accredited law school and member in good standing of a US state bar.

Nice To Haves

Experience with consumer lending, structured finance, and/or asset-based lending is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Own the legal strategy for Flex’s most critical GTM initiatives including financial institution program agreements, channel and distribution partnerships, and new product launches. You are the primary legal owner from deal structure and negotiation strategy through execution, serving as a direct counterpart to senior Revenue and Business Development leadership.
Lead AI-powered contracting as both practitioner and governance owner: design, build, and continuously improve AI-assisted contract review, negotiation support, and contract analytics workflows; simultaneously define the governance framework, acceptable use standards, and output review protocols governing AI use across the Legal function.
Represent Legal in cross-functional AI working groups with IT, Security, and Compliance translating Legal’s risk tolerances and operational requirements into company-wide AI policy, and leading implementation of that policy within the Legal function.
Define and own the commercial legal technology roadmap to evaluate, select, and oversee CLM platforms, AI review tools, and legal analytics systems; drive build-vs-buy decisions with clear-eyed view of team velocity, legal risk, and cost.
Partner directly with senior leadership across Revenue, Finance, and Product to provide proactive, strategic legal counsel, identifying and resolving legal risks before they become business problems, not after.
Set and own the commercial contracting playbooks and standards across the company ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with Flex’s risk posture and regulatory obligations across customer, vendor, and partner agreements.
Lead cross-functional strategic projects with company-wide impact coordinating internal stakeholders and outside counsel, managing complex workstreams, and making consequential legal decisions independently.
Monitor the evolving legal and regulatory landscape consumer lending, fintech regulation, data privacy, AI governance, and translate developments into actionable guidance for the business in real time.
Champion a culture of legal innovation and high standards modeling what exceptional looks like for both legal quality and technology-forward practice, and raising the bar for how the broader organization thinks about legal risk.