--- title: 'Commercial Counsel at Cognition' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/commercial-counsel-cognition-new-york-t2a8kh2hxb8r' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-09' --- # Commercial Counsel at Cognition - **Company:** [Cognition](https://feeny.ai/companies/cognition) - **Location:** New York, NY - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-03-31 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-09 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/cognition/9ff00394-b9cd-4a12-af7b-c409cba15f80/application **Skills:** Commercial contract drafting, Contract negotiation, Legal due diligence, Risk assessment, Experience with high-velocity tech company deals, Inbound and outbound contract experience > The Commercial Counsel manages a high-volume workflow of complex negotiations for AI SaaS licensing, marketing, and partnership agreements. This role involves drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, providing legal guidance to non-legal stakeholders, and ensuring fair and commercially sound closures while bal... ## Job description We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents. We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer. Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro. Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us. ## About the Role As Commercial Counsel for US, you will sit at the centre of a fast-moving commercial legal function, managing a high-volume workflow of complex negotiations across AI SaaS licensing, marketing, and partnership agreements. You will work with enterprise-level deals, balancing risk and reward with pragmatism and speed, and ensuring closures that are both fair and commercially sound. This role carries real weight. You will serve as the connective tissue between the GTM team and technical and operational teams, translating contractual commitments into guidance that non-legal stakeholders can act on. Beyond day-to-day deal work, you will play a meaningful part in the company's growth, working cross-functionally to establish and grow contract compliance mechanisms. If you want a legal role with genuine strategic scope, this is it. In this role you will: - Focus on Enterprise (US) deals and contract work - Manage a high-volume workflow, redlining and negotiating key legal documents, including Licensing, SaaS agreements, and NDAs - Provide crucial legal guidance, balancing risk/reward, with an understanding of national and international requirements and parlaying that to the technical and operational team - Engage with enterprise-level counsel, ensuring swift and fair deal closures Ideally you have: - 7+ years experience drafting and negotiating commercial contracts - Experience with high-velocity, high-growth tech company preferred - Diverse body of work, including inbound and outbound contracts Our Commitment Equal Opportunity. Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any. Cognition also considers applicants with criminal histories consistent with the SF Fair Chance Ordinance and similar local laws. Data Privacy and Arbitration: By submitting your application, you agree to our [Global Applicant and Job Candidate Privacy Notice](https://cognition.com/documents/Cognition-Global-Applicant-and-Job-Candidate-Privacy-Notice.pdf). For US applicants, by submitting your application, you agree to the [Applicant Arbitration Agreement](https://cognition.com/documents/Cognition-Applicant-Arbitration-Agreement.pdf). ## About Cognition ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Cognition is an applied AI lab that operates Devin, the first autonomous AI software engineer capable of planning, writing, testing, and shipping production code. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series D – latest funding round closed ~June 2026) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (550 Third Street) - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed in available sources; the founding team includes multiple IOI gold medalists and builders from Google DeepMind, Scale AI, Cursor, and Waymo. ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Artificial Intelligence / Software Engineering - **Target customers**: B2B, primarily large enterprises and government institutions (“some of the largest and most complex institutions in the world”) - **Mission**: “To expand human capacity — not by replacing meaningful work but by working alongside people as an exponential collaborator, helping them think deeper and move faster.” ## Products & Services - **[Devin](https://cognition.ai/)**: An autonomous AI software engineer that plans, writes, tests, and ships production code. It integrates with existing codebases and toolchains. Available as a cloud platform and via Devin Desktop. Deployed at major enterprises and government agencies. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: $1.596B (implied by latest Series D round, ~June 2026) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cognition-ai) - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – $1.596B (Series D) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cognition-ai) *(Note: The company’s own website previously stated “over $400M” raised; CB Insights reports a higher total as of mid-2026.)* - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, Bain Capital Ventures, Avenir, Elad Gil, and 42+ others [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cognition-ai) - **Growth Signals**: - Rapid global expansion with offices in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Washington D.C., London, Singapore, Tokyo, and more. - Launched “Cognition for Government” (Feb 2026) and an “AI Productivity Guarantee” (June 2026). - Named a Highflier in the AI 100 (2024) by CB Insights. - Active hiring across Sales, Customer Engineering, R&D, Marketing, and GTM roles in multiple regions. ## Competitive Advantages - **First-mover in autonomous AI software engineering** – Devin is widely recognized as the first AI agent that can independently complete end-to-end software tasks. - **Elite founding team** – 10 IOI gold medals; alumni from DeepMind, Scale AI, Cursor, Waymo, Nuro, etc. Of the initial 35 team members, 21 had previously founded a company. - **Massive capital backing** – Over $1.5B raised enables aggressive R&D and go-to-market expansion. - **Enterprise traction** – Deployed at “some of the largest and most complex institutions in the world,” including government agencies. ## Strategic Focus - **Deepening autonomous reasoning** – Continuously improving Devin’s ability to handle complex, multi-step engineering tasks (e.g., FrontierCode benchmark). - **Global scale** – Building out sales and deployment teams in APAC, Europe, LATAM, and the Middle East. - **Government & regulated sectors** – Dedicated federal team and FedRAMP-oriented offerings (e.g., “Cognition for Government”). - **Product ecosystem** – Expanding from cloud to desktop and offering productivity guarantees to reduce customer risk. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: “Talent-dense,” interdisciplinary, low-ego, and urgency-driven. The team works on “the hardest problems in AI” and values shipping real impact. - **Work model**: Hybrid/office-first with major hubs in San Francisco, New York, Austin, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and others. Many roles list specific locations, suggesting in-office presence is expected. - **Benefits**: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision insurance; unlimited PTO; meals in primary offices; wellness stipend; commuter benefits; 401(k); HSA/FSA; fertility and family building support. - **Engineering culture**: Strong emphasis on applied AI, customer proximity (“we work alongside our customers”), and building infrastructure that redefines software engineering. ## Sources 1. [cognition.ai](https://cognition.ai/) – Company homepage and product overview 2. [cognition.ai/careers](https://cognition.ai/careers) – Careers page with benefits and open roles 3. [cognition.ai/about](https://cognition.ai/about) – About page with team background and principles 4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cognition-ai) – Funding, valuation, and competitor data ## Other roles at Cognition - [Program Manager - Field CTOs - US](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-field-ctos-us-cognition-san-francisco-4zwnjqh5gskm) — San Francisco, CA - [Program Manager - Field CTOs - EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-field-ctos-emea-cognition-london-1qzrcgc906fa) — London, United Kingdom - [Partner Deployed Engineer - Europe](https://feeny.ai/job/partner-deployed-engineer-europe-cognition-london-0s17t8j05gjv) — London, United Kingdom - [Head of Events](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-events-cognition-san-francisco-2rkdv7qqnyn9) — San Francisco, CA - [Global Security Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/global-security-manager-cognition-san-francisco-fc5dfx3tt41f) — San Francisco, CA - [Recruiting Coordinator - UK](https://feeny.ai/job/recruiting-coordinator-uk-cognition-london-1b21qqdyrtgx) — London, United Kingdom - [Recruiting Sourcer - Europe](https://feeny.ai/job/recruiting-sourcer-europe-cognition-london-evf9pxg43bms) — London, United Kingdom - [Recruiter - Europe](https://feeny.ai/job/recruiter-europe-cognition-london-sktykgymaxm7) — London, United Kingdom - [Technical Recruiter - Japan](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-japan-cognition-tokyo-41tzzsch4jmp) — Tokyo, Japan - [Technical Recruiter - APAC](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-apac-cognition-singapore-am9yr3etcfwt) — Singapore