Commercial Counsel

Location: Remote
Annual salary: USD 190,000– USD 215,000
Type: Full-time
Reports to: General Counsel

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced commercial attorney to lead legal support for Nex's content and partnerships ecosystem - the agreements and relationships that bring games, experiences, and brand collaborations onto the Nex Playground platform. You will be the primary legal partner to our Content, Partnerships, and Business Development teams, negotiating content and IP licensing deals, developer and publishing agreements, and strategic partnerships that grow our content catalog and platform reach. You'll also provide secondary support on our commercial vendor, retail/distribution, and hardware supply chain agreements as needed, in partnership with the GC and outside counsel.

This is a hands-on role for someone who wants to build the playbook for a growing platform business, not just execute one that already exists.

What You'll Do

Content & Developer Agreements

• Draft, review, and negotiate developer and publishing agreements for third-party studios and content creators building games and experiences for the Nex Playground platform, including revenue share, IP ownership, quality/certification requirements, and platform terms.
• Structure and negotiate Play Pass content licensing and distribution agreements, balancing catalog growth with sustainable economics and IP protection.

Brand & Strategic Partnerships

• Lead negotiation of brand and content licensing agreements with entertainment and children's media partners, including royalty structures, approval rights, marketing commitments, and IP/trademark compliance obligations.
• Serve as the go-to legal partner to Business Development and Partnerships teams on strategic collaborations, co-marketing arrangements, and platform integrations, functioning as a strategic advisor embedded in partnership planning rather than a late-stage reviewer.
• Independently lead complex, multi-party negotiations involving revenue-sharing arrangements, joint go-to-market plans, and cross-promotional commitments.

Commercial, Vendor & Hardware Support (Secondary)

• Support retail, distribution, vendor, and marketing agreements as needed, partnering with Legal Operations on templates and process.
• Provide secondary review and negotiation support on manufacturing, supply chain, and OEM/ODM agreements alongside the GC and outside counsel.
• Partner with Product Counsel to identify commercial, product liability, regulatory, and privacy issues arising from any transaction you touch. Flag privacy/COPPA-relevant terms to Product Counsel, who owns Nex's privacy program and day-to-day privacy advisory work - you are not expected to advise on these substantively yourself.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Process

• Build trusted relationships with [Content, Partnerships, Business Development, Product, and Marketing] - you'll be known as the attorney teams want in the room when a deal is taking shape, not just when paper needs signing.
• Partner with Legal Operations on intake triage, template design, and CLM workflow design for content, developer, and partnership agreement types.
• Manage and coordinate outside counsel on specialized or high-stakes IP, regulatory, or hardware/supply chain matters, with Legal Operations administering the underlying vendor relationship and spend.
• Use AI-powered legal tools to accelerate contract review, drafting, and analysis, and help identify opportunities to further integrate AI into the team's workflows.
• Contribute to Nex's broader legal function build-out over the next 18 months - templates, policies, and training - as one of the company's early in-house attorneys.

You Might Thrive in This Role If You

• Hold a J.D. and active bar membership in good standing (California or another U.S. state, as applicable).
• Have 7-10+ years of combined law firm and in-house experience, including meaningful time supporting a content/media partnerships business.
• Have direct experience negotiating publishing/content licensing deals; experience with brand/entertainment IP licensing is a strong plus.
• Understand partnership economics: how revenue share and attribution work, and how to structure incentives that align interests between Nex and its content and brand partners.
• Are comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial environment with little existing precedent. You are proactive, independent, and energized by building rather than maintaining.
• Communicate with clarity and business judgment, tailoring advice to enable responsible, fast-moving growth, and are comfortable presenting partnership strategy to business leaders.
• Demonstrate sound judgment in ambiguous or fast-changing situations, and can distinguish real risk from theoretical risk.
• Are willing and able to flex into commercial, vendor, or hardware-adjacent agreements when the business needs it, even though that's not the core of the role.
• Bring genuine curiosity about AI tools and how they're reshaping commercial legal practice.

Nice to Have

• Experience at a gaming or consumer content/media company. Experience negotiating with entertainment studios, media brands, or children's content licensors.
• Working knowledge of children's privacy frameworks (e.g., COPPA) or international data privacy regimes as applied in a commercial/platform context.
• Some exposure to hardware, manufacturing, or supply chain agreements - helpful for the secondary scope of this role, though not the primary focus.
• Familiarity with CLM systems (Spotdraft, Ironclad, or similar) from a heavy end-user or template-owner perspective.

What Success Looks Like

• [Content, Partnerships, and Business Development] teams have a legal partner they trust to move deals forward quickly and with confidence.
• Developer, content, and brand partner agreements are negotiated efficiently, with clear risk framing and business-enabling solutions.
• Brand and licensing partnerships are structured to protect Nex's IP and reputation while still closing quickly.
• Privacy and platform compliance issues are surfaced early and routed to Product Counsel, not resolved after the fact.
• Templates and negotiation playbooks scale with the business so Legal doesn't become a bottleneck as Nex's content and partnership ecosystem grows.