Sr. Director of Commercial and Legal Affairs - Backblaze

About Backblaze

Backblaze is a public company that makes storing and using data astonishingly easy. Today, the Backblaze Storage Cloud provides a foundational platform around the world for a broad community of developers, IT generalists, entrepreneurs, and individuals who seek the easy, affordable, trusted solutions we provide.

We have managed to nurture a team-oriented culture with amazingly low turnover. Our approach is guided by honesty, transparency, and a commitment to doing the right thing. In the most recent “Great Place to Work” survey, 97% of our team rated Backblaze as “a great place to work.”

About the Role

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

What You’ll Do

Commercial Leadership and Deal Execution

• Lead the company’s commercial contracting function, serving as the primary legal owner for complex, high-value, and strategic transactions.
• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of sophisticated commercial agreements, including enterprise SaaS agreements, MSAs, SOWs, partnership and channel agreements, reseller agreements, professional services agreements, consulting agreements, and related technology transactions.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex or high-risk negotiations, providing strategic guidance to Sales, Business Development, and executive stakeholders.
• Ensure commercial terms align with Backblaze’s business objectives, risk tolerance, and long-term growth strategy.

Privacy and Data Protection

• Provide practical, business-oriented legal advice on global privacy and data protection matters, including GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable data protection regimes.
• Oversee and support the development, negotiation, and maintenance of data protection agreements, privacy terms, and related contractual frameworks.
• Partner closely with Security, Compliance, and Product teams to assess privacy risk and ensure data protection obligations are integrated into business processes and products.

Product and AI Counseling

• Serve as a trusted legal advisor to Product and Engineering teams, advising on product design, feature development, and launches from inception through release.
• Counsel on issues related to data use, AI and machine learning, intellectual property, open source, and regulatory considerations impacting product development.
• Advise on the commercial, privacy, and contractual terms for AI features and AI-driven workloads, and help the business adopt AI responsibly and at speed.
• Help teams identify and mitigate legal risk while enabling innovation and speed.

Process, Playbooks, and Scale

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of commercial playbooks, templates, policies, and negotiation frameworks to support efficient scaling.
• Optimize contracting processes to improve speed, consistency, and quality while maintaining appropriate controls, including through the use of AI-enabled contracting and legal tooling.
• Partner with Legal Operations to enhance tooling, workflows, and reporting related to commercial and privacy matters.
• Stay current on legal and regulatory developments relevant to cloud services, SaaS, privacy, AI, and technology transactions.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Act as a trusted partner to Sales, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Security, and other cross-functional teams.
• Provide training and guidance to internal stakeholders on contracting best practices, privacy requirements, and risk awareness.
• Collaborate closely with other Legal and Compliance leaders to ensure alignment across the broader legal function.

People Leadership and Team Development

• Lead and manage legal professionals supporting commercial, privacy, and product counseling functions.
• Provide mentorship, coaching, and performance management to support professional growth and high-quality legal work.
• Set clear priorities, allocate work effectively, and ensure consistent, high-impact legal support across the business.
• Partner with members of the Legal & Compliance team, as well as senior leadership, on team planning, resourcing, and process improvements as the function scales.

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.