[Hiring] Senior Commercial Counsel @Accela

Role Description

Accela is looking for a dynamic, business-minded attorney ready to grow their career by driving the company's continued growth. This role is a key legal partner to our sales, business development, and partner teams, working closely with colleagues across the company to move deals forward. If you want to join a growing legal team and make a visible impact on the business, we'd like to talk with you.

This role is fully remote and can be based anywhere in the U.S. It may occasionally require travel for team or company events.

This position is exclusively focused on revenue-generating activity, direct sales, partner transactions, and services, giving the right candidate a deep focused ownership over the deal lifecycle and best in class sales/deals skills.

A successful candidate will have solid grounding in SaaS enterprise agreements, is results-driven, and is energized by the challenges of scaling a global business. This role negotiates directly with customers and partners on a win-win basis and serves as a trusted advisor to multiple departments throughout the deal lifecycle.

Specific Responsibilities

• Partner closely with the Sales, Business Development, and Services organizations to accelerate revenue operations, defining and implementing best practices in Accela's contracting processes.
• Serve as the primary point of contact and subject-matter expert for complex transactions including direct sales, resellers, ISVs, and other global partners, reducing friction to help close deals faster.
• Draft and negotiate SaaS agreements, partner and reseller agreements, software license and maintenance agreements, services agreements, RFP responses, and other commercial legal documents.
• Coordinate with outside counsel and legal team members to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations across jurisdictions.
• Contribute to ad hoc company projects as needed, including M&A, compliance, and other corporate initiatives.

Qualifications

• Genuine enjoyment of complex deal-making; you thrive working with a diverse team of colleagues with professionalism, transparency, and a good sense of humor.
• Minimum of 5-7 years of relevant experience, including hands-on work with SaaS enterprise agreements (direct sales agreements, partner/channel agreements, or services agreements).
• Self-driven, collaborative, and business-focused, with a "team first" mindset invested in the company's success and in building an inclusive environment.
• Strong desire to engage directly with customers and internal teams to negotiate win-win outcomes alongside sales.
• Juris Doctorate from an ABA-accredited U.S. law school.
• Active member in good standing of a U.S. State Bar.
• Ability to quickly triage situations, think creatively, and drive transactions to close.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with government technology (govtech) contracting, including cooperative purchasing vehicles such as GSA, SEWP, NASPO, or TX-DIR.
• Familiarity with software revenue recognition rules.
• Experience negotiating professional services engagements alongside SaaS agreements.
• Exposure to privacy or government relations compliance matters.

Benefits

• The annual base salary range for this full-time position is $145,000-$165,000 (less applicable taxes).
• The actual annual base salary offered may be adjusted based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, location, education, skills, training, and experience.
• This position is eligible for an annual bonus target, which is a discretionary bonus awarded based on company and individual goal achievement.
• Accela’s U.S. team members will receive a generous benefits package consisting of options including flexible time off, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, family planning benefits, 401(k) retirement savings plan with company match, health savings account with company contributions, flexible spending account, life, accident, and disability coverage, business travel insurance, employee assistance programs, and other well-being benefits.

Company Description

For nearly 20 years, Accela has been an industry leader in designing and delivering government software to improve efficiency, increase citizen engagement and enable the development of thriving communities. Today, citizens are savvy to how services should be delivered, and expect a consistently convenient, openly transparent view into their local government.

While government agencies struggle to do more with less, our mission has never been more critical. Accela provides a robust, cloud-based platform of government software solutions that accelerate growth, efficiency, and transparency in communities of all sizes. From planning, to building, to service request management and more, Accela’s SaaS offerings level the playing field for small and medium governments and enable smaller agencies to leverage larger city technologies. Our open and flexible technology helps agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are well prepared for the emerging challenges of the future.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Accela believes in developing and nurturing a workplace community where our differences are celebrated, and everyone feels a sense of psychological safety and belonging. Accela is committed to putting resources and attention towards evolving our practices, policies, and philosophies to enable diversity to thrive and to support equity in opportunity for everyone.

Accela is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer and will respond to requests for job accommodations. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status, or based on disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation.