Commercial Counsel

About Black Forest Labs We're the team behind Latent Diffusion, Stable Diffusion, and FLUX—foundational technologies that changed how the world creates images and video. We’re creating the generative models that power how people make images and video—tools used by millions of creators, developers, and businesses worldwide. Our FLUX models are among the most advanced in the world, and we're just getting started. Headquartered in Freiburg, Germany with a growing presence in San Francisco, we're scaling fast while staying true to what makes us different: research excellence, open science, and building technology that expands human creativity. Why This Role We are looking for a sharp, motivated, and commercially minded Commercial Counsel to join BFL's legal team. You will support a broad range of commercial transactions spanning our US and EU go-to-market deals, with the majority of deal volume in the United States. This is a high-ownership role in which you will draft and review agreements, lead negotiations, and serve as a trusted advisor to the business on all things commercial. This is an exciting opportunity for a lawyer who wants to work at the cutting edge of AI — advising on novel agreement structures for foundational generative AI models, negotiating complex licensing and API deals, and helping build the legal and commercial infrastructure of a high-growth company. What You’ll Work On Draft and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements, including API licensing, enterprise SaaS, model access and deployment, partnerships, vendor agreements, and NDAs Support US and EU commercial transactions, with a primary focus on US deals across a variety of industry verticals, and advise on matters of German corporate law Partner closely with the GTM, Marketing, FDE, Infrastructure, and Finance teams to provide practical, deal-enabling legal guidance Advise on AI-specific legal considerations, including IP ownership and licensing, training data rights, and evolving regulatory requirements for generative AI Develop and maintain scalable legal frameworks, contract templates, playbooks, and approval workflows Engage with outside counsel on complex or specialized matters and manage those relationships efficiently Contribute to company-wide compliance and legal operations initiatives as the legal team scales What We’re Looking For 7+ years of legal experience, with time spent on commercial transactions in the technology sector; ideally spanning both in-house and external firms. Start-up or high-growth company experience would be advantageous. Demonstrated experience negotiating and closing complex technology agreements, including software licensing, API and platform deals, data and content agreements, and partnership contracts. Prior experience supporting both US and EU commercial deals, with comfort navigating cross-border transactions and a strong awareness of key jurisdictional differences. Excellent drafting and negotiation skills, with the ability to identify material issues quickly and communicate them clearly to non-lawyers. Low ego, high accountability; equally comfortable rolling up your sleeves on routine agreements as you are handling high-stakes or novel deal structures. While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have: Experience with AI/ML, developer platforms, or foundational model licensing Exposure to generative AI in prior roles is strongly preferred; familiarity with how AI products are built, licensed, and deployed will meaningfully accelerate your effectiveness in this role JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction; qualification in a UK or EU jurisdiction is highly preferred Familiarity with German corporate law, the EU AI Act, GDPR, or other international regulatory frameworks relevant to AI and data Background advising on IP, copyright, or data licensing matters in the context of AI training or model development How We Work Together We’re a distributed team with real offices that people actually use. Depending on your role, you’ll either join us in Freiburg or SF at least 2 days a week (or one full week every other week), or work remotely with a monthly in-person week to stay connected. We’ll cover reasonable travel costs to make this possible. We think in-person time matters, and we’ve structured things to make it accessible to all. We’ll discuss what this will look like for the role during our interview process. Everything we do is grounded in four values: Obsessed . We are a frontier research lab. The science has to be right, the understanding deep, the product beautiful. Low Ego. The work speaks. The best idea wins, no matter who said it. Credit is shared. Nobody is above any task. Bold. We take the ambitious bet. We ship, we do not wait for conditions to be perfect. Kind. People over politics. We treat each other with genuine warmth. Agency without empathy creates chaos. If this sounds like work you’d enjoy, we’d love to hear from you. Base Annual Salary: $200,000-$275,000 + Equity