Commercial Counsel
Harness
Legal
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 170k-185k / year + Equity
Harness is the AI Software Delivery Platform company, led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal (founder of AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7B). Harness has raised approximately $570M in funding and is valued at $5.5B, backed by leading investors including Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Unusual Ventures, Citi Ventures, and more. As AI accelerates code creation, the real bottleneck has shifted to everything after the code – testing, deployments, application security, reliability, compliance, and cost optimization. Harness brings AI and automation to this “outer loop,” helping teams ship software faster while maintaining security and governance throughout the entire software delivery lifecycle.
Powered by Harness AI and the Software Delivery Knowledge Graph, the Harness Platform applies deep context and intelligent automation across the software delivery lifecycle with governance and policy-driven controls embedded throughout the platform.
Over the past year, Harness powered over 185M deployments, 82M builds, 18T flag evaluations, 8M security scans, 9.1B optimized tests, 3T protected API calls, and helped manage $2.8B in cloud spend — enabling customers like United Airlines, Morningstar, and Choice Hotels to accelerate releases by up to 75%, reduce cloud costs by up to 60%, and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency.
With a global team across 26 offices and 25 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster.
Position Summary
About the role
- Drive the Deal: Lead end-to-end negotiations for complex enterprise SaaS transactions (MSAs, DPAs, SLAs, AI terms, etc.) and strategic partnership agreements, focusing on Fortune 500 customers and highly regulated industries in the U.S. West and APAC verticals
- Architect the Channel: Partner closely with the Worldwide GTM Partner team to architect and build a world class channel program. This includes drafting and negotiating global reseller, distributor, and referral partner agreements, as well as managing the legal complexities of partner benefits, incentives and corresponding global compliance requirements.
- Scale the GTM Machine: Collaborate deeply with Sales, Finance, Deal Ops, and our Worldwide GTM Partner team to streamline the sales cycle, and help architect a world class channel program. You’ll assist with developing the playbooks, partner frameworks, and automated templates that allow our global partner network to move at the speed of our engineers.
- Global Stewardship: Navigate international regulatory frameworks to support our expanding global footprint, ensuring our commercial strategy is compliant yet competitive, meeting the local needs of our global customers.
- Legal Enablement: Develop and deliver training for both the GTM sales and partner teams, to empower them with the knowledge to handle first-line legal inquiries, and the Sales team, to help them build trust in our terms and speed up deal cycles.
About you
- Experience: 4–7 years of legal experience, ideally beginning at a top-tier law firm followed by a high-growth, "in-the-trenches" in-house SaaS role. You have direct experience with building and managing robust channel motions and understand the nuances of indirect customer sales.
- Tech/Sales Fluent: You understand the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and corresponding sales cycle. You can speak, or quickly learn, the language of DevSecOps and our business. You don't just know the law; you know how the product works and can pave the path to sell it.
- Strategist: You are a master of value negotiations and the interconnectedness between Harness, our partners, and end customers. You know when to stand firm on risk and when to find the solution to get a deal across the finish line.
- Operational Mindset: You enjoy building processes as much as you enjoy redlining. You believe legal should be an accelerator, not a bottleneck.
- Credentials: JD from an accredited law school and an active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. State Bar. Most importantly, a good sense of humor.
Work Location
- This is a Remote-First role with a preference for alignment with PST or MT time zones. Occasional travel to our global hubs (e.g., San Francisco, London) may be required for team offsites and major deal sprints.
What you will have at Harness
- Competitive salary
- Comprehensive healthcare benefits
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
- Flexible work schedule
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Flexible Time Off and Parental Leave
- Monthly, quarterly, and annual social and team building events
- Monthly internet reimbursement
The anticipated base salary range for this position is between $170,000 and $185,000 annually. Salary is determined by a combination of factors including location, level, relevant experience, and skills. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. The compensation package for this position may also include equity, and benefits. More details about our company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.harness.io/company/careers.
Harness in the news:
- Accelerating Our Mission to Bring AI to Everything After Code
- Goldman Sachs leads investment in software delivery startup Harness at $5.5 billion valuation
- How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal
- Harness Research Shows AI Visibility Crisis Fueling Security Nightmare
- Harness has been named to the Inc. Power Partner list for software delivery success
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers
We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers.
Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.
If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at security@harness.io. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.