--- title: 'Managing Counsel, Commercial at Waabi' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/managing-counsel-commercial-waabi-san-francisco-gmayce6qbr9d' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-05' --- # Managing Counsel, Commercial at Waabi - **Company:** Waabi - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-09-24 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/waabi/1cc40e03-fa34-4b6e-a3bf-c5d20fcb0861 ## Job description Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech. With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai ## About the role As Managing Counsel, Commercial, you will be responsible for Waabi's commercial contracting function and serve as the senior legal advisor on the deals that drive the business forward. Waabi builds autonomous trucks and robotaxis, and the commercial relationships behind that work range from component supply agreements with Tier 1 manufacturers to landmark OEM partnerships that define how Waabi's technology reaches the market. You will manage the full contract portfolio — routine NDAs and vendor agreements alongside critical supply chain contracts and high-stakes strategic partnerships — and own the process end to end: intake, drafting, negotiation, execution, and post-signature compliance. You will also build the templates, playbooks, and processes that allow Waabi to contract more efficiently as it scales. You will... - Lead Waabi's commercial contracting function, managing agreements across the full portfolio: hardware supply chain, strategic partnerships, software licensing and SaaS, professional services, consulting, testing, NDAs, vendor contracts. - Structure, draft, and negotiate hardware supply chain agreements with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs. - Lead the legal work on strategic partnerships, including OEM and platform partnerships and corporate development engagements supporting robotaxi and autonomous truck adoption and use. - Advise engineering, supply chain, finance, and business development teams in plain language — translate contract risk into clear, actionable guidance that keeps deals on track. - Work directly alongside technical and business colleagues throughout negotiations — know what we're building and how the business works, know what's worth pushing back on, and help close deals efficiently. - Build and maintain a forms library — templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks across contract types — so the company contracts more consistently and efficiently as it scales. - Own contract compliance company-wide, partnering with other functions to track and enforce obligations after signature. - Apply sound risk judgment across the portfolio — distinguish real exposure from noise. - Support additional legal workstreams as needed, including IP matters, open-source license review, regulatory questions touching commercial agreements, and data privacy issues arising from commercial deals. ## Qualifications Required: - 8+ years of legal experience, with significant time in-house, handling complex commercial transactions in the automotive, hardware, or technology space. - Demonstrated depth in hardware supply chain agreements — you understand automotive supply chain practice, IP ownership and licensing structures, warranty and liability allocation, and quality and change-management terms. - Experience structuring and negotiating strategic partnerships or corp-dev-style agreements — OEM deals or similar transactions where the deal framework required building from scratch. - Effective communicator, with the ability to give legal advice in plain language. You make contract risk understandable to engineers, product managers, and finance leads, and you keep deals moving rather than creating delays. - Comfort working directly alongside technical and business teams throughout a deal — you engage with the substance, build trust as a partner, and help get agreements across the finish line. - Well-calibrated risk judgment — you know the difference between a real issue and a paper tiger, and you spend your credibility on the things that actually matter. - Experience building or maintaining a forms library, templates, or contracting playbooks, and the process instincts to make contracting more scalable without adding unnecessary overhead. - The range to handle any contract type independently, at any level of complexity or stakes, without handoffs. - J.D. and active bar membership in a relevant jurisdiction (US or Canada). Bonus if you have: - In-house experience at an automotive OEM, Tier 1 supplier, or autonomous vehicle company - Familiarity with automotive supply standards (e.g., IATF, AIAG, APQP/PPAP) - Experience with applying AI tools to improve legal workflows and contracting efficiency - Familiarity with open-source licensing, export control, or data privacy issues in the AV or hardware space The US yearly salary range for this role is: $192,000 - $250,000 USD in addition to competitive perks & benefits. Waabi US Inc.’s yearly salary ranges are determined based on several factors in accordance with the Company’s compensation practices. Note: The Company provides additional compensation for employees in this role, including equity incentive awards and an annual performance bonus. ## Perks & Benefits - Competitive compensation and equity awards. - Health and Wellness benefits encompassing Medical, Dental and Vision coverage (for full-time employees only). - Unlimited Vacation. - Flexible hours and Work from Home support. - Daily drinks, snacks and catered meals (when in office). - Regularly scheduled team building activities and social events both on-site, off-site & virtually. - As we grow, this list continues to evolve! Waabi is a technology start-up building technologies to transform the way the world moves. Join our talented team to be a part of the future and to make an impact! Waabi is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a supportive, inclusive, and accessible workplace for all our employees. We seek applicants of all backgrounds and identities, across race, color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, age, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, caregiver status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. We make workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please let our recruiting team know. ## About Waabi ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Waabi is pioneering Physical AI for autonomous vehicles, starting with self-driving trucks and expanding into robotaxis, using a breakthrough interpretable AI model and the industry's most realistic neural simulator. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, $1B total funding) - **Headquarters**: Toronto, Ontario, Canada - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Raquel Urtasun ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: Autonomous vehicle technology, truck transportation, logistics, robotaxi services - **Target customers**: B2B – trucking fleets, logistics providers, and eventually ride-hailing operators; enterprise partnerships with OEMs and transportation companies - **Mission**: To empower humanity to build a better tomorrow by fundamentally rethinking how autonomous vehicles are developed, deployed, and scaled – safely and efficiently. ## Products & Services - **Waabi Driver**: An end-to-end, interpretable and verifiable AI system that enables self-driving capabilities for trucks and, soon, robotaxis. The system is designed to be scalable and safe by leveraging a next-generation neural simulator (Waabi World) for validation before deployment on public roads. - **Waabi World**: The industry’s most realistic neural simulator, used for testing and training the Waabi Driver in millions of scenarios, dramatically reducing the time and resources needed to bring autonomous vehicles to market. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metrics**: Annual Revenue: $11.2M (est., from private data providers); Total Funding: ~$1B across four rounds; Headcount: 271 employees (+51% YoY) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures (lead in Series B & C), Uber, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Radical Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm) - **Growth Signals**: - Raised $750M Series C in January 2026 (led by Khosla Ventures) - Expanding from autonomous trucks into robotaxi market (hired Ryan Wallace as GM of Robotaxi in Sept 2026) - 52 active job postings (+62% YoY job posting growth) - Talent influx from Cruise, Aurora, Uber, Waymo, TuSimple, NVIDIA ## Competitive Advantages - **Interpretable & verifiable AI**: Unlike black-box systems, Waabi’s end-to-end model is designed to be transparent and auditable, increasing trust and regulatory viability. - **Neural simulator (Waabi World)**: Enables massive-scale virtual testing that accelerates development while maintaining safety – a key moat over rivals that rely on costly real-world miles. - **Founder-led**: Raquel Urtasun is a world-renowned AI researcher (former Uber ATG chief scientist) with deep expertise in computer vision and autonomous systems. ## Strategic Focus - **Scale the Waabi Driver** for commercial trucking operations and simultaneously **enter the robotaxi market**. - **Deepen OEM and strategic partnerships** (e.g., with Volvo and Uber) to integrate technology into production vehicles. - **Continue aggressive hiring** of AI researchers, software engineers, systems engineers, and policy experts across North America. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Values safety, efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and a "virtuous cycle of innovation." Emphasis on real-world impact and personal growth. - **Remote/Hybrid**: Offers remote flexibility with 5 offices across North America (Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix, Pittsburgh). Many roles are hybrid or remote. - **Engineering culture**: Technical stack includes Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, CUDA, ROS, Linux, Kubernetes, and proprietary simulation tools. 43% of employees are in technical roles, 15% in research. - **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but strong employer rating (4.6/5 on third-party reviews) and high compensation (e.g., Staff Software Developer median ~$151K USD, Systems Engineer ~$124K). - **Growth opportunities**: 51% YoY headcount growth, many leadership hires; career progression from intern to director roles is common. ## Sources 1. [waabi.ai/careers](https://www.waabi.ai/careers) 2. [waabi.ai/company](https://waabi.ai/company) 3. [jobs.lever.co/waabi](https://jobs.lever.co/waabi) 4. [linkedin.com/company/waabi](https://www.linkedin.com/company/waabi) 5. 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