Director, Commercial Counsel

What you'll do

• Lead end-to-end complex commercial contract negotiations supporting the demand business including strategic enterprise deals with ad agencies, brands, and ad tech partners
• Partner closely with Sales to understand deal economics and structure revenue provisions, fee arrangements, and performance clauses
• Review and advise on deal financials ensuring contract terms align with revenue recognition, SOX controls, and audit readiness
• Act as trusted advisor to Sales, Business Development, Product, Engineering, and Account Management teams
• Operate with quarterly urgency to accelerate legal review without compromising risk management
• Serve as internal subject-matter expert on adtech platforms, programmatic ecosystem, ad agency and brand commercial relationships, and industry-standard deal structures
• Advise on data licensing agreements, data use rights, and audience data monetization arrangements
• Ensure all commercial contracts comply with data privacy regulations including CCPA, GDPR, and emerging state-level privacy laws
• Collaborate with Finance on revenue recognition, audit readiness, SOX compliance related to contracts
• Maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, and fallback positions to enable faster deal execution
• Identify and flag legal and business risks proactively and present solutions
• Mentor and support other counsel and contracts specialists, provide quality control and handle escalations

Requirements

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active bar membership (Illinois preferred or willingness to waive in)
• 10+ years of commercial legal experience in a nationally or internationally recognized law firm and/or in-house legal department
• Experience in adtech, martech, advertising agency, media, or data company preferred
• Expertise in complex commercial contract negotiation including MSAs, SOWs, IOs, data licensing agreements, SaaS agreements, and agency-of-record arrangements
• Strong financial literacy including understanding of P&L, SOX compliance, and impact of deal terms on margin structures
• Familiarity with SOX compliance requirements related to commercial contracting and revenue recognition
• Hands-on knowledge of the adtech ecosystem including DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, CDPs, programmatic buying, and audience segmentation
• Working knowledge of global data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA) and ability to negotiate privacy-compliant data licensing terms
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced, quota-driven environment where legal enables business
• Exceptional communication skills to explain complex legal concepts to non-legal audiences
• Demonstrated people leadership skills including mentoring and quality control

Tech stack

Benefits