Legal Counsel, Commercial - EMEA (France remote)

Every day we tackle new and exciting challenges to empower developers to build modern cloud, mobile, and edge applications that deliver a premium user experience. Couchbase delivers unmatched performance, scalability, flexibility and financial value across cloud, on premises, hybrid, mobile and edge deployments. The database market is undergoing a generational shift and is one of the largest market opportunities in enterprise software due to big trends like the need for digital transformation, acceleration to the cloud and innovation at the edge. Join Couchbase to be a part of a greater change. Here you’ll have the opportunity to learn and grow with some of the most innovative, passionate and humble individuals in the database industry.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an incredible legal team, reporting to our Head of Legal - EMEA & APAC!

This is a remote role based in the UK or France. If based in London, the ability to be in the office at least once a week is preferred.

We are looking for a resourceful and team-oriented commercial lawyer with a passion for technology to support our EMEA and APAC business functions. Must have near-Native fluency in French, excellent problem-solving skills, and an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.

Responsibilities:

Drafting and Negotiation:

• Leveraging excellent writing and negotiation skills to present Couchbase’s positions persuasively and drive deals to close.
• Proven experience in drafting and negotiating a wide range of inbound (vendor) and outbound (sales) commercial contracts, including large-scale enterprise software license agreements, SaaS agreements, order forms, professional services, channel partner, non-disclosure and other commercial and technology related agreements.
• Creating, maintaining and improving Couchbase’s templates for outbound and inbound transactions, contract negotiation playbooks and legal processes to allow Couchbase to continue scaling globally.
• Negotiating data processing agreements (DPAs) and other similar agreements directly with customers, partners and vendors to support Couchbase’s sales, operations and compliance obligations.
• Advising on deal terms and contract structure with multinational customers, including understanding nuances between English, US, and other governing laws.

Strategic Advising and Leadership:

• Serve as a trusted legal advisor and business partner on a variety of complex, cross-functional projects in furtherance of Couchbase’s overall strategy and goals.
• Ability to use excellent judgment and communication skills to partner with both internal business stakeholders, as well as external customers and partners to address complex issues across diverse subject matters.
• Leading cross-functionally to drive deals to close, improve Couchbase’s internal processes and procedures, and achieve company objectives.
• Providing advice and guidance related to new and existing features and products, privacy compliance, intellectual property and other legal matters as needed by the business.
• Supporting and driving improvements in Couchbase’s regulatory compliance programs.
• Remaining current on applicable laws and regulations surrounding privacy, security and IP.
• Supporting ad hoc requests from across the organization of almost any size and type.

Operational Rigor:

• Understanding, demonstrating and honing operational best practices set by the Couchbase Legal Team while striving for constant improvement and efficiency.
• Continuously improve the design and implementation of internal Couchbase processes as the business scales.
• Providing training to stakeholders on relevant topics.
• Solving complex issues cross-functionally and creatively from start to finish.
• Working effectively with colleagues in multiple time zones across EMEA, US and APAC as needed.

Expectations:

Within 30 days, understand Couchbase inbound and outbound agreement, order form and statement of work templates terms; understand key commercial and legal positions and approval escalation procedures; drive some inbound agreement and order form reviews with supervision/visibility of the Head of Legal; understand key policies and procedures; collaborate with sales and procurement personnel with significant contributor roles in commercial matters; and build and maintain trusted relationships with key stakeholders within your assigned region.

Within 60 days, drive 100% of order reviews for your assigned regions; drive inbound and outbound agreement negotiations with some supervision from the Head of Legal; understand when to escalate key risks or action items for decision; demonstrate ability to clearly communicate business risk while proposing effective solutions; and establish being the point of contact with collaborating teams for commercial legal matters within your assigned region.

Within 120 days, drive 100% of inbound and outbound deals independently for your assigned region; serve as the key point of contact to manage and collaborate with teams for all commercial legal matters within your assigned region; act as key contributor and liaison to other teams for cross-functional projects; begin assisting on strategic projects within commercial matters.

Requirements:

• UK, French, or Common Law qualified lawyer.
• Experience in negotiating English law and US law governed agreements.
• Fluency in English and French (written and spoken) required, another European language (in particular German, Spanish, or Italian) is highly desirable.
• Minimum 2 years of post qualification experience with strong academic credentials.
• Experience in technology contracts, including software licensing, SaaS or DbaaS and cloud service agreements.
• Experience working in either the technology transactions or commercial practice of a law firm, and/or working in-house at a technology company.
• Experience in handling issues related to intellectual property and data privacy.
• Passion for closing high-quality deals while working collaboratively with our customers.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with significant attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to be organized, work efficiently, prioritize workflow, meet deadlines, and manage cross-functional projects
• Sound and practical business judgment with an awareness of when issues need to be escalated
• Proven track record of learning quickly, taking initiative, working proactively, being resourceful and taking on additional responsibility.
• Proven ability to operate independently and effectively across a variety of operational areas in several jurisdictions and within multiple time zones.
• Flexibility to work with colleagues in Europe, APAC and the US to accommodate meetings and deadlines aligned to their time zones.

**Why Couchbase?**Modern customer experiences need a flexible cloud database platform that can power applications spanning from cloud to edge and everything in between. Couchbase’s mission is to simplify how developers and architects develop, deploy and consume modern applications wherever they are. We have reimagined the database with our fast, flexible and affordable cloud database platform Capella, allowing organizations to quickly build applications that deliver premium experiences to their customers– all with best-in-class price performance. More than 30% of the Fortune 100 trust Couchbase to power their modern applications and build innovative new ones. See our recent awards to learn why Couchbase is a great place to work.We are honored to be a part of the Best Places to Work Award for the Bay Area and the UK. Couchbase offers a total rewards approach to benefits that recognizes the value you create here, so that you in turn may best serve yourself and your family. Some benefits include:

• Generous Time Off Program - Flexibility to care for you and your family
• Wellness Benefits - A variety of world class medical plans to choose from, along with dental, vision, life insurance, and employee assistance programs*
• Financial Planning - RSU equity program*, ESPP program*, Retirement program* and Business Travel Insurance
• Career Growth - Be valued, Create value approach
• Fun Perks - A Monthly Lifestyle Spending Account credit, an ergonomic and comfortable in-office / WFH setup. Food & Snacks for in-office employees.
• And much more!

*Note: some programs are not applicable to all countries. Please discuss with a Couchbase recruiter to learn more. Learn more about Couchbase:
News and Press Releases
Couchbase Capella
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Investors**Disclaimer:**Couchbase is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Join an impact initiative group and experience the amazing feeling of Couchbase can-do culture. By using this website and submitting your information, you acknowledge our Candidate Privacy Notice and understand your personal information may be processed in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Notice following guidelines in your country of application.