Technology & Commercial Counsel

Technology & Commercial Counsel

Location: Overland Park, Kansas
Work Arrangement: In-office, professional flexibility
Reports To: Vice President of Finance
Compensation: Up to $170,000 base salary DOE, plus an 8% annual bonus
Licensure: Active Kansas bar admission required

Position Summary

We are seeking a commercially minded and forward-thinking Technology & Commercial Counsel to support the continued growth of a higher education SaaS company. Reporting to the Vice President of Finance, this attorney will serve as a strategic legal partner to Sales, Client Success, Product, Security, Finance, Engineering, and Executive Leadership.

The successful candidate will combine strong SaaS contracting experience with practical knowledge of data privacy, responsible AI use, and technology-related risk. This individual must be able to identify legal and regulatory exposure while helping the business develop practical, scalable solutions that support revenue growth and responsible innovation.

This opportunity is suited for an intellectually curious and engaging attorney who communicates confidently, builds credibility across business and technical teams, and translates complex legal considerations into clear recommendations. Experience with higher education, EdTech, public-sector procurement, or regulated institutional customers is strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial and Technology Contracting

• Draft, review, and negotiate a broad range of commercial and technology agreements, including:
  • SaaS licensing agreements
  • Master services agreements
  • API agreements
  • Order forms, schedules, amendments, renewals, and termination agreements
  • Data processing and data-use agreements
  • AI addenda and AI-related contractual provisions
  • Professional services agreements
  • Partner and reseller agreements
  • Vendor agreements
  • Privacy policies
• Partner closely with Sales and Client Success to support revenue objectives while managing appropriate legal, regulatory, and commercial risk.
• Understand the business purpose behind each transaction and offer practical alternatives when proposed terms create unacceptable exposure.
• Lead negotiations with colleges, universities, public institutions, and other regulated customers.
• Ensure contractual commitments accurately reflect the company’s products, technical capabilities, security controls, and business practices.
• Advise internal stakeholders on contract terms, deal structures, escalation issues, and acceptable risk.
• Develop and maintain standard templates, fallback positions, approval workflows, and negotiation playbooks.
• Coordinate and prioritize legal workstreams to meet business deadlines and risk objectives.
• Manage outside counsel and other legal resources when necessary.

AI Governance, Data Privacy and Responsible Innovation

• Advise the business on the responsible development, deployment, procurement, and commercial use of AI-enabled technologies.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, and Executive Leadership to evaluate AI use cases, identify legal exposure, and establish practical safeguards.
• Provide guidance regarding institutional data, personal information, intellectual property, model training, automated decision-making, transparency, human oversight, and acceptable data use.
• Draft and negotiate AI addenda, data-use provisions, model-training restrictions, representations, warranties, indemnities, and related risk-allocation terms.
• Help develop and maintain internal AI governance policies, risk-assessment processes, approval standards, and responsible-use guidance.
• Monitor emerging AI, privacy, and data-governance requirements affecting SaaS providers, higher education institutions, and public-sector customers.
• Maintain consistency among customer contracts, product functionality, privacy notices, security representations, and internal AI practices.
• Counsel stakeholders on the collection, use, retention, disclosure, and protection of institutional, student, customer, and product data.
• Support privacy-by-design, data-minimization, vendor-risk, subprocessor, and incident-response initiatives.
• Communicate AI and privacy risks in practical business terms and recommend proportionate solutions.

Legal and Regulatory Support

• Advise internal stakeholders on:
  • SaaS and technology transactions
  • Data privacy and information security
  • FERPA and institutional data requirements
  • Higher education and public-sector procurement
  • WCAG accessibility requirements
  • Intellectual property and licensing
  • State privacy and consumer-protection laws
• Support compliance initiatives involving FERPA, GDPR, state privacy laws, accessibility standards, and information-security obligations.
• Provide contract support for regulated institutional clients, including TxRAMP, StateRAMP, FedRAMP-aligned, SOC 2, NIST, or similar expectations.
• Support strategic initiatives, product launches, vendor relationships, and operational scaling.
• Assist with the development of internal policies and legal best practices.
• Provide practical guidance on other legal matters affecting the company as needs evolve.

Contract Lifecycle Management

• Oversee the full contract lifecycle from intake and review through execution, amendment, renewal, and termination.
• Maintain a centralized contract repository that supports renewals, audits, reporting, and compliance tracking.
• Support RFP submissions, including required redactions, public-records considerations, and communications with institutional legal counsel.
• Improve approval workflows and standardize contracting practices.
• Identify opportunities to reduce negotiation time and contracting friction while preserving appropriate safeguards.
• Help implement and improve contract lifecycle management processes and tools.
• Track contractual commitments related to privacy, security, accessibility, AI, renewals, and compliance.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Build trusted relationships across Sales, Product, Engineering, Security, Finance, Client Success, and Executive Leadership.
• Lead solutions-oriented discussions involving commercial priorities, legal risk, data use, privacy, and responsible innovation.
• Translate complex legal and technical issues into concise recommendations that nonlegal stakeholders can understand and act upon.
• Challenge assumptions constructively, facilitate informed decisions, and build consensus among teams with different priorities.
• Approach Legal as a business partner that protects the company while helping stakeholders identify a responsible path forward.
• Communicate with confidence and sound judgment when legal and commercial considerations do not fully align.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school.
• Active Kansas bar admission in good standing is required.
• Approximately 4 to 7+ years of relevant legal experience supporting SaaS, technology, EdTech, higher education, or another data-intensive business.
• Demonstrated experience independently drafting and negotiating SaaS agreements, MSAs, licensing agreements, DPAs, API terms, professional services agreements, or AI-related contractual provisions.
• Meaningful experience advising on data privacy, information security, data use, or technology-related regulatory risk.
• Working knowledge of the legal considerations associated with AI-enabled products, including privacy, data use, model training, transparency, intellectual property, security, and contractual risk allocation.
• Ability to discuss how AI can be used responsibly to support business and product objectives while establishing practical safeguards.
• Strong commercial judgment and a solutions-oriented approach to legal risk.
• Confident and engaging communication style with the ability to build credibility across legal, commercial, technical, and executive teams.
• Working knowledge of FERPA, GDPR, state privacy laws, consumer-protection requirements, or WCAG accessibility standards.
• Experience with higher education, public-sector procurement, institutional contracting, or regulated customers is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with TxRAMP, StateRAMP, FedRAMP-aligned requirements, SOC 2, NIST, or similar security frameworks is preferred.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management tools, templates, playbooks, or scalable legal processes is preferred.

The Successful Candidate

The successful candidate is intellectually curious, commercially aware, and comfortable operating in evolving areas of technology law. This individual brings a thoughtful perspective to discussions about AI, privacy, and responsible innovation while remaining open to business and technical viewpoints.

They are confident enough to identify material risk, pragmatic enough to recommend a path forward, and engaging enough to build trust across Sales, Product, Security, Engineering, Finance, and Executive Leadership.

Performance Measures

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Efficiently negotiating agreements while protecting the company’s legal, commercial, privacy, security, accessibility, and AI-related interests.
• Providing practical and well-reasoned guidance on AI-enabled technologies, institutional data use, privacy, and emerging legal requirements.
• Building credibility and productive working relationships across business, technical, and executive teams.
• Translating complex legal risks into clear decisions, practical safeguards, and scalable processes.
• Improving contract consistency, negotiation speed, responsible AI governance, and privacy-risk management.
• Supporting compliant and mutually beneficial outcomes for institutional customers.

All inquiries and applications will be handled confidentially.

For more information, contact Shannon Flower at 986-999-4419 or send your resume to shannon.flowergogpac.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, age, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable laws or regulations.

GPAC (Growing People and Companies) is an award-winning search firm specializing in placing quality professionals within multiple industries across the United States since 1990. We are extremely competitive, client-focused and realize that our value is in our ability to deliver the right solutions at the right time.