Commercial Counsel

Posit creates world-class software and open-source toolchains that empower people to understand data and make better decisions. By building tools for R and Python, we support data science teams across government, academia, nonprofits, and industry, ensuring our products remain accessible, inclusive, and sustainable for everyone-regardless of their economic means. Our mission is to provide the foundation for data science that improves the world, making high-impact analysis available to all.

About the Role

Posit Legal is a trusted and impactful business partner, providing proactive, practical, and solution-oriented legal advice to support our open-source mission and commercial objectives. As the second lawyer to join our Posit legal team, you will play a foundational role in building a modern, tech-forward legal function. Because our products encompass software, open source and SaaS solutions and tools, you will navigate a range of legal matters-from standard software licensing to complex inquiries about data privacy, AI and security.

We strive to transform complex legal requirements into a positive experience that impresses every customer and internal stakeholder with our business focus, kindness, and technical expertise. Working in this role will provide you with the opportunity to lead commercial negotiations, inform product improvements based on legal trends, be at the forefront of AI, and help scale a creative and collaborative team.

A bit about you:

• Qualified Legal Professional: JD (or equivalent) and member in good standing of a state bar.
• Commercial Expertise: Proven experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a broad range of commercial contracts, including software, SaaS, and professional services.
• Experience: 4+ years experience working in-house legal and/or for a law firm is a plus.
• AI Enthusiast: Experience with, or a strong desire to learn and implement, AI solutions in our products and in legal activities and processes.
• Business Partner Mindset: Experience in cross-functional work and communication, focusing on improving the customer experience and supporting company growth.
• Adaptable & Entrepreneurial: Comfortable joining a small, growing team where you will need to build processes from the ground up.

What you will own:

• Contract Management: Structure, draft, and close a variety of commercial transactions, including software licenses, SaaS agreements, NDAs, and SOWs.
• AI Integration: Actively experiment with and implement AI-enabled tools to automate routine legal tasks and improve contract lifecycle management.
• Sales Partnership: Act as the primary legal point of contact for the sales organization to ensure deals are closed efficiently and responsibly.
• Corporate Support: Assist with corporate governance, development of internal policies, and Board of Directors matters, including preparing meeting materials and maintaining corporate records.
• Employment Matters: Partner with our incredible People Operations team on a wide variety of US and international employment matters.
• Ownership: Independently manage the commercial contract queue and leading negotiations, as well as identify opportunities for meaningful improvement to legal templates, process and/or AI workflows.
• Cross-Functional: In order to be an effective and valued advisor, develop strong relationships with leaders and team members in Sales, Customer Success, People Operations, Product, Engineering and Finance.

What you will assist with:

• Department Strategy: Setting the direction for the legal function and fostering a culture of psychological safety, technical excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Scalable Processes: Creating team-wide processes that allow the legal function to scale alongside our global growth.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Communicating with other teams across the company to ensure legal strategies are aligned with product and business planning.

Posit offers competitive compensation with extensive human-first, people-focused benefits to prioritize your personal and financial well-being. Individual pay decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, and skillset. This hiring range reflects base salary and assumes that the job will be performed in the United States.

Hiring Range

$146,000-$192,720 USD

Working at Posit:

• We welcome all talented colleagues and are committed to a culture that represents diversity in all its forms .
• We prioritize giving ourselves "focus time" to get deep work done. We minimize meetings and attempt to operate asynchronously.
• We are a learning organization and take mentorship and career growth seriously. We hope to learn from you and we anticipate that you will also deepen your skills, influence, and leadership as a result of working at Posit.
• We operate under a unique sustainable business model : We have over 50% of our engineering dedicated to creating free and open source software. We are profitable and we plan to be around decades from now.
• Posit is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) and a Certified B Corporation®, which means our open-source mission is codified into our charter. As a result, our corporate decisions balance the community's interests, customers, employees, and shareholders. Hear more about why we think this matters here.

Notable:
We offer competitive compensation with extensive human-first, people-focused benefits to prioritize your personal and financial well-being. These benefits apply to full-time positions only.

• 100% of medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums are covered for employees and their families! Fertility and gender-affirming healthcare is included in all of our plans.
• Supplemental mental health and wellness benefits are available via Ginger even if you don't opt in to our insurance plans, including Ginger for teen family members.
• Posit's gender-neutral paid parental leave policy covers all new parents, including foster and adoptive parents.
• All full-time employees are eligible for 401k enrollment starting on day one.
• After six months of employment, Posit provides a substantial yearly match to employee 401K contributions.
• An annual profit-sharing bonus for employees recognizes our team's contributions to company performance across the year.
• We are a 100% distributed team. You are also welcome to come into our Boston office.
• We offer a $400 monthly reimbursement for coworking space rental if you prefer to work away from home.
• Our Lifestyle Savings Account offers an initial deposit of $1800 and then an additional quarterly stipend of $375 to cover the costs of professional development, wellness, financial health, charitable giving, and remote work support.
• We provide a flexible environment with a generous vacation policy that encourages a minimum of four weeks PTO per year plus 15 paid company holidays.

Are you excited about this role but not sure if your experience aligns with every qualification in the job description? That's okay. We know multiple perspectives are essential for a thriving organization and we'd still love to hear from you!

Posit is committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applicants of different backgrounds, cultures, genders, experiences, abilities, and perspectives to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, physical disability, or length of time spent unemployed.

Posit Software, PBC participates in the federal E-Verify program, which confirms employment authorization of newly hired U.S. based employees. E-Verify is not used as a tool to pre-screen candidates and is only initiated upon hire.

E-Verify Participation Notice (English/Spanish)

Right to Work Notice (English/Spanish)

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