Vice President, Legal Commercial

GitLab

9h•Remote

About The Position

As Vice President, Legal Commercial, you'll own the vision, strategy, and execution of GitLab's global commercial legal function at the most senior level below the CLO. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, you'll be a key member of the Legal leadership team and a trusted executive partner to the CRO, CFO, and broader GTM organization. You'll set the tone for how commercial legal operates as a strategic business enabler, accountable for the people, programs, and infrastructure that allow GitLab to transact at scale, with speed and integrity, across every market we operate in. This role spans commercial contracting, strategic partnerships, AI governance, FedRAMP, and Public Sector contracting and procurement legal, leading a globally distributed team of 15–20 legal professionals, including managers organized by geography and subject matter expertise. This is a role for a seasoned legal leader who has already built something, who knows what great looks like at scale, and who is ready to shape the commercial legal function for a company operating at the intersection of DevSecOps, AI, and enterprise SaaS.

Requirements

15+ years of combined law firm and in-house experience, with substantial tenure in a senior commercial legal leadership role at a global SaaS or enterprise technology company
J.D. or U.S. law degree equivalent with bar admission in good standing in at least one U.S. state
5+ years leading and scaling teams of attorneys and contract managers, with a track record of developing legal talent and building high-functioning commercial legal organizations with managers as direct reports
Hands-on experience owning or leading a CLM implementation or expansion, with working knowledge of Quote-to-Cash process integration across Sales, Finance, and Revenue Operations
Demonstrated fluency in AI governance and product legal issues, including drafting or negotiating AI-specific contractual terms and advising on AI regulatory requirements; proven track record deploying AI-powered legal workflows at the team level, not just awareness of the tools
Deep expertise in enterprise SaaS contracting, strategic partnerships, data privacy, and complex partner, channel, and public sector agreements, including familiarity with FedRAMP, FAR/DFARS, or equivalent frameworks
Visionary but execution-oriented: someone who operates effectively at the strategy level without losing sight of the operational details that make a legal function run
A genuine champion for AI-enabled legal work, with hands-on experience driving adoption of tools and workflows that make teams faster and smarter
Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with a proven ability to influence at the C-suite level and represent legal as a business growth partner
Demonstrated ability to lead geographically distributed teams in a fully remote, asynchronous environment

Responsibilities

Define and execute the long-term strategy for GitLab's global commercial legal function, aligning legal priorities with company-wide revenue growth, market expansion, and product evolution
Serve as the primary legal executive partner to the CRO, CFO, and GTM leadership, advising on commercial strategy, enterprise deal structures, pricing and packaging risk, and AI-related contracting at the highest levels of complexity and materiality
Build, lead, and develop a world-class team of commercial attorneys, contract managers, and legal ops professionals across multiple regions, fostering a high-performance, async-first culture with managers as direct reports organized by geography and subject matter expertise
Set enterprise-wide standards for commercial contracting, including risk tiering, escalation frameworks, template governance, and playbook strategy that scale consistently across regions and deal types
Benchmark AI-specific contractual terms across the enterprise SaaS market to ensure GitLab's standard positions reflect current market practice; lead GitLab's negotiating posture on AI deal issues, including data usage, model training, output ownership, liability allocation, and transparency obligations
Work in sync with the CLO Chief of Staff on the continuous improvement and optimization of GitLab's CLM system with full integration across the Quote-to-Cash process, and champion AI tools and legal operations capabilities to drive contracting efficiency, pipeline visibility, and data-driven decision-making
Lead GitLab's most significant strategic partnerships, including hyperscaler relationships, structuring and negotiating complex co-sell, reseller, and marketplace agreements in coordination with GitLab Ecosystems and Strategy Teams
Oversee AI governance contracting across customer, partner, and supplier agreements, and translate evolving global AI regulations, including the EU AI Act and emerging U.S. frameworks, into practical contracting positions and contribute to policy guidance in concert with the Sr. Dir Public Policy
Lead legal support for GitLab's facility clearance requirements and public sector commercial contracting, including federal and SLED agreements, FAR/DFARS compliance, and government contract vehicle requirements
Lead the procurement legal function covering global vendor contracting, inbound SaaS, professional services, and infrastructure agreements, partnering with Finance, Security, and Privacy on vendor risk frameworks
Serve as a senior voice on cross-functional initiatives involving Legal, Finance, Product, Revenue Operations, and Procurement, influencing decisions that shape how GitLab goes to market globally