Director, Commercial Legal

Penguin Solutions•Newark, NJ

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Penguin Solutions, we are seeking a Director, Commercial Legal to be a key legal partner for high-impact, global commercial transactions within our AI infrastructure, memory, and advanced computing businesses. This role involves day-to-day ownership of the company's commercial legal function for large, complex transactions, offering significant autonomy. You will be at the center of a rapidly scaling AI business, owning and driving complex commercial transactions end-to-end while managing a high-volume, diverse portfolio of commercial deals. Your responsibilities will range from routine vendor and procurement agreements to high-value transactions enabling production-scale AI deployments. You will collaborate closely with sales, operations, supply chain, and product teams to structure, negotiate, and execute agreements that support Penguin’s strategic growth and customer expansion. The ideal candidate will possess a strong commercial foundation, thrive in a dynamic environment, and be adept at translating legal risk into business velocity, knowing when to escalate novel or high-risk issues.

Requirements

JD from an accredited law school
Active bar membership in good standing
12+ years of relevant legal experience, with substantial commercial contracting expertise
Demonstrated ability to independently negotiate complex customer and vendor agreements
Experience supporting technology, hardware, infrastructure, or supply chain-driven businesses
Strong business judgment and ability to translate legal risk into practical guidance
Excellent communication skills with both legal and non-legal stakeholders
Comfort operating in a remote, fast-paced, and cross-functional environment
Comfortable using AI tools in legal workflows, with an interest in identifying opportunities to deploy AI to improve efficiency, quality, and scalability within the legal function.
Highly pragmatic, business-oriented, and solutions-driven
Comfortable operating with autonomy and accountability
Strong collaborator across technical and commercial teams
Curious and adaptable in a rapidly evolving AI landscape
Organized and capable of managing multiple priorities
Positive, low-ego, and team-oriented

Nice To Haves

Experience in AI infrastructure, data centers, memory systems, or advanced computing environments
Familiarity with export controls or regulated customer environments
In-house experience at a high-growth technology or infrastructure company
Prior law firm experience handling complex commercial transactions

Responsibilities

Own large, complex commercial transactions end-to-end, from structuring through negotiation and execution, while independently managing a range of deal complexity from standard to highly customized, strategic transactions.
Lead drafting, review, and negotiation of simple to complex commercial agreements, including: Enterprise customer agreements for AI infrastructure and hardware solutions, Vendor, supplier, and procurement agreements, Supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, and distribution arrangements.
Balance legal risk, deal velocity, and commercial objectives in a fast-moving environment.
Provide clear, actionable guidance to business stakeholders on contract structure, risk allocation, and negotiation strategy.
Support transactions involving AI infrastructure deployments, hardware systems, and memory-driven architectures.
Advise on key issues including: Delivery, acceptance, and performance standards, Warranty frameworks and support models, Liability allocation in complex, multi-party environments, Downstream customer and ecosystem obligations.
Partner closely with operations and supply chain teams to ensure contracts align with real-world deployment and scaling requirements.
Identify recurring risk patterns and drive standardization and scalability in contracting approaches.
Act as a trusted advisor to sales, product, finance, and operations teams.
Enable efficient deal execution by delivering practical, business-oriented legal solutions.
Support Penguin’s expansion into enterprise, neocloud, and sovereign AI markets, including longer-cycle, high-value deployments.
Contribute to development of: Contract templates and playbooks, Scalable processes for increasing deal volume, Training and enablement for business teams.
Exercise strong judgment in determining when to act independently versus escalate.
Spot and escalate regulatory, compliance, or non-standard risk issues.
Support transactions involving regulated or government-adjacent customers, as applicable.