Commercial Counsel

Vinci•Palo Alto, CA

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

Vinci is seeking its first Commercial Counsel to build the company’s commercial legal foundation as it expands relationships with semiconductor, electronics, cloud, and AI companies. This is a hands-on, strategic role working directly with the executive team and cross-functional partners. The Commercial Counsel will establish scalable contracting processes and legal playbooks, negotiate complex commercial transactions, and provide practical guidance that helps the business move quickly while managing risk. The role partners closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership. It covers enterprise customer agreements, strategic partnerships, OEM and cloud relationships, licensing, procurement, and other commercial matters, as well as select corporate governance, board, intellectual property, employment, and company-wide legal initiatives. The position will also determine how to use outside counsel effectively and progressively bring routine commercial legal work in-house. The role is based in or hybrid from Vinci’s Palo Alto office, with three in-office days for the hybrid arrangement, and reports to the Head of Business Operations.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school.
Active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
5–10 years of experience negotiating complex commercial technology agreements.
Demonstrated success supporting enterprise software, AI, semiconductor, cloud infrastructure, or other deep technology companies.
Strong commercial judgment and ability to balance business objectives with legal risk while keeping transactions moving efficiently.
Experience negotiating enterprise AI, software licensing, OEM, cloud infrastructure, strategic partnership, procurement, and other complex technology agreements.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex legal issues in clear, practical business language.
Ability to operate independently in a high-growth startup environment where ambiguity is common and priorities evolve quickly.
A builder’s mindset and interest in creating systems, processes, and operating models.
Collaborative approach and a record of building trusted relationships across Sales, Product, Engineering, Finance, and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

Structure and negotiate strategic commercial agreements in partnership with Sales.
Lead the legal strategy, negotiation, and execution of enterprise customer agreements, strategic partnerships, OEM relationships, cloud partnerships, licensing agreements, procurement contracts, NDAs, and other commercial agreements.
Partner with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success on support and technical provisions in commercial agreements, including SLAs, uptime commitments, and support obligations.
Ensure contractual technical and service commitments are realistic, achievable, and consistent with product and team capabilities.
Build scalable contract templates, negotiation playbooks, clause libraries, approval workflows, and contracting processes.
Provide practical legal guidance to executives and cross-functional teams to support informed, timely business decisions.
Advise executive leadership on strategic partnerships, new business models, pricing models, licensing approaches, ecosystem partnerships, and international expansion opportunities.
Develop policies, decision frameworks, and escalation paths to establish consistent governance for legal risk.
Identify where outside counsel provides unique value, manage those relationships, and progressively bring routine commercial legal work in-house.
Partner with Finance and executive leadership on selected corporate governance, board, intellectual property, employment, and other company-wide legal initiatives.
Define and establish the Legal function’s priorities, processes, systems, tools, metrics, and cross-functional partnerships.
Establish a scalable contracting process, standard agreements, fallback positions, contract intake and approval workflows, and a framework for prioritizing legal risk.
Build relationships with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Finance; take the majority of routine commercial work in-house; and establish criteria for when outside counsel is necessary.