Vice President Legal Commercial

An overview of the role

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.

What You’ll Do

• 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

What You’ll Bring

• 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

About the Team

The Commercial Legal team partners with the Sales organization and other cross-functional stakeholders across GitLab to support how we sell and deliver our products and services. You’ll join our globally distributed team that works asynchronously and closely with internal clients customers and outside counsel to review draft and negotiate complex commercial and technology agreements improve templates and playbooks and provide practical guidance that helps teams move quickly while managing risk. Our focus includes scaling consistent contracting processes across regions keeping pace with evolving legal requirements including data privacy and artificial intelligence-related terms and strengthening enablement through clear documentation and training.

What We Do

GitLab is an open core software company that develops the most comprehensive DevSecOps Platform used by more than 100000 organizations. Our mission makes it clear that we believe in a world where everyone can contribute. We make that possible at GitLab by running our operations on our product and staying aligned with our values. We strive to create a transparent environment where all team members around the world feel that their voices are heard and welcomed. We also aim to be a place where people can show up as their full selves each day and contribute their best.

Why Work With Us

We’ve got big ambitions to make GitLab the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps platform and need skilled contributors to get us there. At GitLab your contributions shape the future of software development at a time when AI is changing the way software is built. Together we're building the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps platform.

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