Senior commercial counsel

About Watershed

Watershed is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting including CSRD, and drive real decarbonization. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team.

We have offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City (launching soon!) and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you'll be interested in joining us!

The role

We are looking for an experienced commercial attorney to be the primary legal support for Watershed’s growing European Sales team. As a key member of the Legal and Sales organisations, you will take ownership for negotiating and closing deals with enterprise customers in the UK and EMEA and must have an excellent track record for practical, creative and business-focused legal guidance and drafting. Solid judgement, responsiveness, speed, and flexibility are critical in this role.

You will:

• Partner closely with Watershed’s European Sales and other Watershed teams across the global organisation to negotiate and close deals for Watershed’s SaaS platform in the UK and EMEA. Our customers represent a variety of industries with a wide range of complexities in their licensing requirements and procurement processes, so experience negotiating complex strategic deals across the UK/EMEA are required.

• Develop deal structures, templates and processes that will serve as a scalable foundation for the Watershed deal-flow over the years to come.

• As the first non-US Legal hire, from time to time assist with other European or global legal matters as needed. 

You might be a fit if you are:

• A strong transactional attorney, a “closer,” with more than five years of commercial contracting experience, largely in-house and including complex enterprise SaaS deals

• Focused on problem-solving and minimizing transaction friction, prioritizing deal closure and customer relationship over winning points 

• Are a strong collaborator and love working with diverse stakeholders and leaders 

• An exceptional communicator, negotiator, and plain English drafter

• Are conversant in data privacy and other enterprise regulatory issues

• Have a track record of responsiveness and doing whatever it takes to get things done

• Excited to join a fast-growing startup and know what it takes!

Great if you also: 

• Feel that climate change is a critical issue worth devoting your professional time to

• Fluent/conversant in French or German in addition to English fluency

• Have worked closely with functions such as Revenue Operations and Legal Operations to scale processes and templates; are familiar with Ironclad 

Must be willing to work from an office 4 days per week (except for remote roles)

Watershed has hub offices in San Francisco, New York and London, and satellite offices in Sydney, Paris, Berlin, and Mexico City (opening summer 2025!). Where we have offices, employees are expected to be in office for 4 days per week. Certain jobs are open to being remote and will be specifically noted on the jobs page and in the job description if so.

What’s the interview process like?

It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience interview (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a virtual or in person interview panel. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process.

What if I need accommodations for my interview?

At Watershed, we are dedicated to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. We provide reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health needs, religious observances, neurodivergence, or pregnancy-related support requirements. If you need assistance during your process, please contact your recruiter.