About the Role
We are looking for a commercially minded and hands-on Commercial Legal Counsel to join our EMEA legal team. This is a broad in-house role embedded at the heart of our go-to-market motion — you will be the primary legal partner to Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Partner teams across Europe, supporting a high-velocity deal environment in a fast-scaling SaaS business.
Your primary focus will be commercial contracting — negotiating and closing enterprise SaaS agreements, partner and channel agreements, and procurement deals — but you will also contribute across data privacy (GDPR/UK GDPR), subsidiary governance, employment matters, and IP protection. This role offers meaningful autonomy and scope for career progression within a global legal function that values mentorship, pragmatism, and commercial impact.
What You’ll Do
Commercial Contracting
- Draft, review, and negotiate a high volume of enterprise SaaS agreements including MSAs, Order Forms, ELAs, NDAs, RFP/RFI responses, DPAs, and Security Questionnaires.
- Serve as the primary legal point of contact for Sales and Solutions Engineering teams, supporting deal cycles from qualification through signature.
- Negotiate inbound vendor, procurement, and professional services agreements.
- Manage and improve contract templates, playbooks, and fallback positions to enable consistent, scalable contracting at speed.
- Identify and evaluate risk in commercial transactions; provide clear, practical guidance to business stakeholders on legal exposure and recommended positions.
- Partner closely with the channel and alliances team on partner, reseller, and technology alliance agreements — including co-sell, referral, and distribution structures.
Data Privacy & Compliance
- Provide legal guidance on GDPR, UK GDPR, and applicable data protection regulations as they affect commercial transactions, product features, and customer commitments.
- Review and negotiate Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) and international data transfer mechanisms (SCCs, adequacy decisions).
- Support responses to customer security and privacy due diligence questionnaires in partnership with the Security and Trust function.
- Stay current on evolving EU/UK legislation (AI Act, ePrivacy Regulation, NIS2) and advise the business on emerging obligations.
Legal Operations & Cross-Functional Support
- Contribute to the build-out and continuous improvement of legal operations infrastructure, including contract management tooling, approval workflows, and self-service resources.
- Provide legal support on EMEA subsidiary governance, corporate maintenance, and local regulatory matters.
- Advise on employment law matters affecting the European workforce, in coordination with local external counsel where required.
- Collaborate with Finance, Sales Operations, and Compliance on deal structuring, revenue recognition considerations, and policy adherence.
- Manage relationships with and instructions to external counsel across European jurisdictions.
What You’ll Bring
Required
- Qualified lawyer with an active legal qualification in your country of residence (e.g., solicitor, Rechtsanwalt, avocat, advogado, or equivalent).
- Approximately 5 years of post-qualification experience, with a meaningful portion spent in-house at a technology, SaaS, or software company (or advising such companies from private practice).
- Demonstrable expertise in commercial contract negotiation — SaaS agreements, MSAs, and partner/channel structures — with the ability to move quickly without sacrificing quality.
- Strong working knowledge of GDPR and practical experience negotiating DPAs and data transfer mechanisms.
- Fluency in English (written and spoken) at a professional legal standard.
- Comfortable working independently in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and tight timelines.
- Excellent communication skills: able to translate legal complexity into clear, actionable guidance for non-legal stakeholders.
Preferred
- Proficiency in a second European language — French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, or Dutch particularly valued given our key market footprint.
- Experience with partner ecosystem legal structures: reseller, referral, ISV, GSI, or OEM agreements.
- Familiarity with enterprise procurement processes, including RFP/RFQ response workflows and public sector contracting.
- Exposure to AI-related legal considerations, including the EU AI Act and emerging AI governance frameworks.
- Experience with legal technology platforms such as Ironclad, Juro, DocuSign CLM, or Salesforce-integrated contract tools.
- Background in contact centre, CCaaS, or enterprise SaaS businesses is a plus but not required.
What We Offer
- Remote-first working model with flexibility to work across European time zones.
- Mentorship from an experienced General Counsel and a globally connected legal team.
- Broad exposure: this is not a narrow contracting role — you will touch privacy, employment, corporate, and IP across a growing international footprint.
- Significant scope to shape legal processes and tooling as we scale.
- Competitive compensation benchmarked to local market; equity participation.
Talkdesk is pioneering a new era of Customer Experience Automation (CXA), redefining how the world’s most admired brands interact with their customers through AI. Our global team of courageous innovators is customer-obsessed, building AI-first solutions that put empathy, trust, and transparency at the center of every interaction. We foster an inclusive culture where diverse perspectives drive our success and every voice belongs. Combining the stability of a global leader with the agility of a disruptor, Talkdeskers are empowered with the autonomy to drive meaningful impact, while giving back to the communities and environment around us.
Talkdesk has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) and in the G2 Overall Grid® Reports for AI Agents and Contact Center. With seven consecutive years on the Forbes Cloud 100 and multiple AI Breakthrough awards, there has never been a more exciting time to join us as we shape the future of customer experience automation!
Work Environment and Physical Requirements:
Primarily office-environment work, extended periods of sitting or standing, computer-based work. Limited lifting, and equipment usage limited to computer-related equipment (keyboards, mouse, etc.)
The Talkdesk story hinges on empathy and acceptance. It is the shared goal among all Talkdeskers to empower a new kind of customer hero through our innovative software solution, and we firmly believe that the best path to success for our mission is inclusivity, diversity, and genuine acceptance. To that end, we will hire, promote, work along, cheer for, bond with, and warmly welcome into the Talkdesk family all persons without regard to ethnic and racial identity, indigenous heritage, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status.
Talkdesk London, England Office
2-6 Boundary Row, London, United Kingdom, SE1 8HP
