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Salary: USD 186,000 - 203,000 / annual
Waabi is building autonomous trucks and robotaxis. As Managing Counsel, Commercial, you will lead the company's commercial contracting function and serve as the senior legal advisor on deals that drive the business forward.
You will own the full contract portfolio—from routine NDAs and vendor agreements to critical supply chain contracts and high-stakes strategic partnerships with OEMs and Tier 1 manufacturers. Your responsibilities include intake, drafting, negotiation, execution, and post-signature compliance across hardware supply chain agreements, strategic partnerships, software licensing, professional services, consulting, testing agreements, and vendor contracts.
Key responsibilities:
- Lead Waabi's commercial contracting function across all agreement types
- Structure, draft, and negotiate hardware supply chain agreements with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs
- Lead legal work on strategic partnerships, including OEM and platform partnerships supporting autonomous vehicle adoption
- Advise engineering, supply chain, finance, and business development teams in plain language, translating contract risk into actionable guidance
- Work directly alongside technical and business colleagues throughout negotiations to close deals efficiently
- Build and maintain a forms library with templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks to improve contracting consistency and efficiency as the company scales
- Own contract compliance company-wide, partnering with other functions to track and enforce post-signature obligations
- Apply sound risk judgment to distinguish real exposure from noise
- Support additional legal workstreams including IP matters, open-source license review, regulatory questions, and data privacy issues arising from commercial deals
Requirements:
- 8+ years of legal experience with significant in-house time handling complex commercial transactions in automotive, hardware, or technology
- Demonstrated depth in hardware supply chain agreements, including understanding of automotive supply chain practice, IP ownership and licensing structures, warranty and liability allocation, and quality and change-management terms
- Experience structuring and negotiating strategic partnerships or corporate development-style agreements (OEM deals or similar transactions requiring custom deal frameworks)
- Effective communicator able to give legal advice in plain language to engineers, product managers, and finance leads while keeping deals moving
- Comfort working directly alongside technical and business teams throughout deals, engaging with substance and building trust as a partner
- Well-calibrated risk judgment to distinguish real issues from paper tigers and spend credibility on matters that actually matter
- Experience building or maintaining forms libraries, templates, or contracting playbooks with process instincts to make contracting more scalable
- Ability to handle any contract type independently at any complexity level without handoffs
- J.D. and active bar membership in a relevant jurisdiction (US or Canada)
Bonus qualifications:
- In-house experience at an automotive OEM, Tier 1 supplier, or autonomous vehicle company
- Familiarity with automotive supply standards (IATF, AIAG, APQP/PPAP)
- Experience applying AI tools to improve legal workflows and contracting efficiency
- Familiarity with open-source licensing, export control, or data privacy issues in the AV or hardware space
