Commercial Counsel

About the role

Join the frontier of shaping generative AI video and its legal landscape as an early lawyer at Runway. We are looking for a Commercial Counsel who has a strong background in B2B SaaS commercial negotiations along with experience or interest in privacy, strategic partnerships, and/or product counseling. You are proactive and a self-starter who thrives at getting things done in fast-paced environments. You will help set a strong foundation for scalable success across our commercial and other legal support workstreams.

You will also serve as a strategic thought partner to cross-functional teams from sales to partnerships to product to marketing, and to other members of the Runway Executive Team as appropriate. Comfort working within a highly technical, rapidly evolving area of the law is a must.

In short: you’ll wear many hats, and the role will evolve. No two days will be the same.

What you’ll do

• Lead negotiations of commercial contracts on Runway’s behalf in a strategic, risk-appropriate manner; these include B2B SaaS customer contracts for our generative AI products, DPAs, partnership agreements, and vendor agreements

• Recommend and implement commercial processes, tools, and infrastructure appropriate for our size, scale, and growth trajectory, whether with respect to drafting templates and internal documentation (e.g., playbooks) or implementing our legal tech stack (e.g., contract management system)

• Empower the sales team with tools and knowledge to close deals quickly

• Manage (or support) Runway’s privacy program, as appropriate based on expertise and bandwidth

• Provide legal guidance regarding the development and marketing of Runway’s generative AI products and services, including advising on regulatory, data privacy and intellectual property matters

• Dive into the technical aspects of our generative AI products to learn them inside and out, to inform your advice to the business

• Closely follow technical, legal, and policy developments in the generative AI space

What you’ll need

• A J.D. and admission in good standing with at least one state bar

• 6+ years of experience in commercial, privacy, and/or product counseling, ideally with experience in-house at a fast-paced startup environment

• Experience in commercial contract negotiations, and ideally, strategic partnerships, privacy, and/or product counseling

• Experience working with B2B SaaS legal issues and preferably B2C legal issues as well

• Strong business acumen with the capacity to think big; a bias for action; and a willingness to take ownership

• Growth mindset that prioritizes continuous operational improvement and service excellence

• Experience with scaling business processes globally and operating in environments that have achieved significant scale

• Excitement about generative AI and motivation to continuously learn more about the legal landscape governing a new and exciting industry

Runway strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on competitive market rates for our size, stage and industry, and salary is just one part of the overall compensation package we provide.

There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range.

Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change in the range, which again, will be communicated to candidates.

Salary range: $190,000-240,000