Managing Counsel, GTM & Commercial

Job description

**About us** HighLevel is an AI-powered business operating system that gives agencies, entrepreneurs and SMBs the infrastructure to build, automate and scale. Today, HighLevel supports SMBs across 150+ countries, fueling community-driven growth rooted in real customer outcomes. To date, businesses operating on HighLevel have generated over $7 billion in ecosystem value, demonstrating the impact of shared infrastructure at scale. By centralizing conversations, automation and intelligence into one system, we help businesses move faster, reduce complexity and execute efficiently. Behind the platform, HighLevel powers more than 4 billion API hits and 2.5 billion message events daily. With 250 terabytes of distributed data, 250+ microservices and over 1 million domain names supported, our architecture is built for performance, resilience and long-term scalability. **Our people** With over 2,000 team members across 10+ countries, HighLevel operates as a global, remote-first organization built for speed and ownership. We value initiative, clarity and execution, creating space for ambitious people to build systems that support millions of businesses worldwide. Here, innovation thrives, ideas are celebrated and people come first, no matter where they call home. **Our impact** Every month, HighLevel enables more than 1.5 billion messages, 200 million leads and 20 million conversations for the more than 1 million businesses we support. Behind those numbers are real people building independence, expanding opportunity and creating measurable impact. We’re proud to be a part of that. Learn more about us on our [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXFiV4qDX5ipE-DQcsm1j4g) or [Blog Posts](https://blog.gohighlevel.com/general-atlantic-joins-highlevel/) **Who You Are:** HighLevel's go-to-market engine moves fast, gets creative, and rarely presents Legal with the same problem twice. That's what makes this role fun! We're looking for an experienced Managing Counsel, GTM & Commercial to lead HighLevel’s go-to-market legal function and commercial contracting team. This role offers the opportunity to develop the GTM and Commercial function, develop other legal professionals, and grow into broader legal leadership as the company scales. You'll be the senior legal partner to our Marketing, Affiliate, Business Development, Enterprise Sales, Product Marketing, and Customer Marketing teams—groups that move quickly, think big, and occasionally come to Legal with ideas that will make you say, "Okay...tell me more." Your job isn't to be the person in the room explaining all the reasons something can't be done. It's to understand what the business is trying to accomplish, spot the risks that actually matter, and help find a smart path forward. You'll also oversee HighLevel's commercial legal function, managing a team that includes a senior commercial counsel and contract management professionals. We want someone who takes the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously: an excellent lawyer, a strong people leader, a creative problem-solver, and someone business partners genuinely want in the room. We're looking for someone with the judgment to know what matters, the confidence to make decisions, and the personality to build relationships across a fast-moving company full of smart, passionate, creative people. You'll probably love this role if…. - You're intellectually curious and genuinely enjoy figuring out weird problems. - You like working with creative, fast-moving business teams and aren't intimidated when someone proposes something you've never seen before. - Your first instinct is "How could we make this work?" rather than "Here are the reasons we can't." - You're comfortable having an opinion and changing it when someone has a better one. - You build the kind of relationships where business leaders call Legal early because they actually want us involved—not because a process told them they had to - You can deliver serious legal advice without making every conversation feel serious. - You enjoy people. You build relationships naturally, communicate like a human, and don't believe being a great lawyer requires sounding like one all the time. - You have high standards and bring the team along with your decisions. You care about getting to the right answer more than getting credit for having it. ### What You Will Do **GTM Legal & Compliance (80%)** - Serve as the senior legal advisor to HighLevel's go-to-market functions, including Marketing, Affiliate, Product Marketing, Business Development, Enterprise Sales, and Customer Marketing - Advise on advertising and consumer protection matters, including FTC requirements, endorsements and testimonials, TCPA and state mini-TCPAs, CAN-SPAM, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, auto-renewal and free-trial requirements, and related state and international laws as applicable. - Counsel on legal issues involving AI in marketing and advertising, including AI-related claims, AI-generated content, and the use of AI tools in customer-facing and promotional contexts. - Help our GTM teams find creative, practical paths forward on marketing campaigns, social influencer and affiliate programs, sponsorships, and other customer-facing initiatives—even when the easy legal answer would be "no." - Build scalable compliance processes, training, playbooks, and escalation frameworks that enable GTM teams to move quickly and engage Legal at the right time. - Enforce and evolve the legal framework for HighLevel's social influencer and affiliate programs, including influencer agreements, FTC disclosure compliance, content review processes, and program governance - Oversee the development and enforcement strategies for key customer-, partner-, and program-facing terms, including Terms of Service, Affiliate Program Terms, contest and promotion rules, and other GTM-related terms. - Manage HighLevel's trademark portfolio and brand-protection program, including coordination of outside trademark counsel, domain management, and DMCA matters. - Partner closely with Product, Privacy, Compliance, Finance, and Legal Operations on issues that cross functional boundaries. - Help set priorities across the GTM & Commercial legal function so that legal resources remain focused on the company's highest-impact and highest-risk work. **Commercial Legal Oversight (20%)** - Oversee and support HighLevel's commercial legal function across the business, setting clear expectations for ownership, judgment, responsiveness, and performance. - In partnership with the VP of Legal, establish and operationalize the company’s commercial risk framework, approve escalated positions within delegated authority, and present material exceptions for executive decision. - Oversee and remove operational or legal roadblocks for custom GTM agreements, including integration and technology partnerships, sponsorships, events, media and talent partnerships, influencer and affiliate arrangements, enterprise customer agreements, and other strategic commercial relationships - Oversee and support the development, implementation, and maintenance of templates, playbooks, negotiation parameters, and escalation standards that allow routine matters to be resolved efficiently at the appropriate level. ### What You Bring - J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar. - 10+ years of progressively responsible legal experience, including substantial in-house technology or SaaS experience and at least 3 years leading attorneys or legal professionals. Exceptional candidates with 8-9 years of directly relevant experience may be considered. - Significant experience independently structuring, drafting, and negotiating commercial and strategic agreements, with a keen eye for clever solutions to complex dealbreakers - Strong working knowledge of advertising and consumer protection laws applicable to GTM activities, including FTC advertising and endorsement requirements, TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and related state laws. Direct experience with social influencer and affiliate marketing programs, including FTC endorsement and disclosure compliance. - Demonstrated experience advising Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Affiliate, Partnerships, or similar GTM organizations. Working knowledge of legal issues related to AI in advertising and marketing. - Experience managing and developing a team of attorneys and legal professionals (3+ direct and indirect reports), with the ability to delegate effectively, create clear ownership and accountability, and mentor/develop highly-capable individuals into broader scopes - Proven ability to advise and influence senior executives, including the judgment and confidence to provide practical recommendations and appropriately push back when necessary. - Exceptional prioritization and business judgment, with a demonstrated ability to distinguish material risk and high-impact work from issues that do not warrant significant legal resources. - Experience building scalable legal processes, including templates, playbooks, negotiation parameters, escalation frameworks, and self-service tools. - Strong communication skills, executive presence, and a business-first mindset focused on finding practical paths forward rather than simply identifying risk. - Comfort operating with ambiguity and making sound, defensible decisions without a perfect playbook or constant oversight. - Experience with international advertising and consumer protection laws is a plus. Familiarity with regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings (e.g., FTC, state AG) is valued. Experience with CLM platforms and brand-protection programs is also a plus.