[Hiring] Senior Director of Commercial and Legal Affairs @Backblaze

Role Description

We are seeking a Sr. Director of Commercial and Legal Affairs to lead and oversee Backblaze’s commercial, privacy, and product legal functions. This is a people leader role that will serve as a strategic business partner across Sales, Product, Engineering, Security, and Compliance.

The ideal candidate is a highly experienced commercial lawyer with a strong track record of drafting and negotiating complex technology transactions, including enterprise and strategic partnership deals. This role also requires fluency in privacy and data protection issues and hands-on experience advising product and engineering teams throughout the product lifecycle.

This position will play a critical role in enabling scalable growth while thoughtfully managing legal and regulatory risk as Backblaze continues to expand globally. This role includes people management responsibilities and will lead, mentor, and develop attorney(s) and legal professional(s) supporting commercial, privacy, and product work.

This role reports to the Head of Legal & Compliance and is fully remote (US-based).

Qualifications

• J.D. degree and active U.S. bar membership in good standing.
• 10 or more years of relevant legal experience, with substantial experience negotiating and leading complex technology transactions, including enterprise SaaS agreements and strategic partnerships.
• Meaningful in-house legal experience, preferably at a high-growth technology or SaaS company.
• Strong experience supporting enterprise sales motions, partner and channel relationships, and global commercial operations.
• Working knowledge of global privacy and data protection laws, with experience advising on data protection obligations in commercial agreements and product offerings.
• Experience providing practical legal guidance to product and engineering teams throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Familiarity with, or genuine willingness to develop fluency in, AI and its legal, privacy, and commercial implications, and comfort using AI tools to work more efficiently.
• Prior experience managing, mentoring, or developing legal team members, or demonstrated readiness to take on people management responsibilities.

Requirements

• Deep experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including enterprise customer and strategic partnership transactions.
• Strong understanding of SaaS business models, cloud services, and technology transactions.
• Solid working knowledge of global privacy and data protection laws, with the ability to translate legal requirements into practical business guidance.
• Demonstrated experience providing product counseling to product and engineering teams.
• Fluency in the legal issues raised by AI, including AI in products, AI-assisted contracting, and AI governance, or a strong interest and demonstrated ability to build depth in this area quickly.
• Excellent business judgment and the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Proven ability to lead, influence, and collaborate across functions and levels of seniority.
• Clear and effective communicator who can translate complex legal issues into concise, business-friendly advice.
• Hands-on, pragmatic, and solutions-oriented, with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Prior experience managing, mentoring, and developing legal team members in an in-house environment.

Benefits

• Great healthcare benefits (100% healthcare premiums for family)
• Competitive compensation
• 401K matching
• RSU equity awards
• Flexible vacation policy
• Maternity & paternity leave
• MacBook Pro to use for work plus a generous stipend to personalize your workstation
• Childcare bonus
• Commuter benefits
• Culture that supports a healthy work-life balance