Commercial Counsel

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

Why this role is on the menu

Instacart is solving incredibly hard problems and growing, and that growth runs on commercial arrangements with partners, including retailer, partnerships, and vendor agreements. This role exists to work closely with business development, partnerships, product, and operations to solve thorny legal problems and enable the business to scale and grow. Without it, commercial terms and business strategy lack sound legal advice and creative solutions to tough legal problems. A year from now, partner agreements are drafted, negotiated, and implemented across the business, and internal teams have a proactive legal partner who works well cross-functionally.

What you'll cook up in your first year

• Draft, negotiate, and implement major enterprise and partner agreements across all areas of the business
• Lead negotiations with retailers and other strategic partners, aligning internal stakeholders and driving deals to close
• Provide strategic legal advice to internal business clients, including whether to approve, approve with conditions, decline, or escalate
• Lead special legal and cross-functional projects from start to finish
• Implement best practices for integrating AI into your work
• Stay current on advertising, competition, IP, consumer protection, gig economy, international, and privacy laws and regulations, and translate them into practical compliance advice
• Draft terms, policies, and disclosures, and build the processes that support them
• Advise internal clients on the application of executed agreements
• Create and update our form legal agreements and playbooks
• Train clients and colleagues on legal issues
• Think ahead, see around corners, and help the business prepare for future legal issues

The secret ingredients we're looking for

Must-have pantry staples (Minimum Qualifications)

• A J.D. from a top-tier law school and membership with at least one state bar (preferably California)
• A minimum of 6 years of related experience working at a leading law firm or in-house legal department
• Strong experience with legal issues affecting the Internet and e-commerce spaces, particularly privacy, SaaS, and payments
• A strong history of managing strategic partner negotiations and contract drafting from start to finish
• Strong negotiation presence and the ability to lead teams working towards a goal
• Sound and practical business judgment and ability to manage multiple, high priority, competing priorities
• The ability to provide clear, concise legal advice, work effectively cross-functionally to drive to results
• A team player

Optional garnishes (Preferred Qualifications)

• In-house experience, especially at a tech company or retailer
• Experience in alcohol law, international law, and/or privacy and data security laws (including GDPR and CCPA/CPRA)
• Experience with AI governance and privacy-by-design in ML/AI product development
• Experience in AdTech

Your Recipe for Impact

• Initiative. You take ownership, spot issues before they become problems, and move work forward without waiting to be asked.
• Sound judgment. You know when to approve, approve with conditions, decline, or escalate, and you can explain your reasoning to both lawyers and business stakeholders.
• Cross-functional partnership. You build trusted relationships with business development, partnerships, product, and operations, and you thrive in a fast-moving environment.
• Clear, articulate communication. You make complex legal concepts accessible to non-legal audiences, including senior leadership.
• Fast learning and range. You pick up new products, industries, and legal areas quickly and enjoy a varied docket.
• Creative problem-solving. You think outside the box, are comfortable in ambiguous, novel territory, and find workable solutions beyond the standard playbook.

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