Senior Corporate Counsel, Commercial (Privacy)

The Senior Corporate Counsel, Commercial (Privacy) at Yelp is responsible for independently drafting and negotiating complex, high-stakes technology and business development deals, with a primary focus on privacy and data protection. The role involves architecting AI licensing agreements, structuring data flows, and translating regulatory obligations into contract terms. Candidates must have a Juris Doctor, state bar membership, and at least 8 years of legal experience, including hands-on expertise in privacy law (US State, TCPA, CIPA, CAN-SPAM, HIPAA, PCI), SaaS contract law, and IP law. Strong negotiation, cross-functional collaboration, and risk management skills are essential. The position is full-time, remote, and offers a competitive salary range of $153,000 - $287,000 annually, with additional benefits and bonus opportunities. The Senior Corporate Counsel, Commercial (Privacy) at Yelp is a pivotal legal role responsible for shaping complex commercial structures and driving strategic partnerships to advance the company’s mission of connecting millions with local businesses. This position leads high-stakes technology and business development negotiations, focusing on privacy and data-protection issues, and architecting innovative AI licensing agreements. The role requires deep expertise in privacy law, SaaS contract law, and cross-functional collaboration. Compensation ranges from $153,000 to $287,000 annually, with benefits including medical, vision, dental, paid time off, parental leave, wellness subsidies, 401(k), stock purchase plan, and work-from-home reimbursement. The position offers opportunities for professional growth within a startup culture.

Summary

Yelp is seeking an exceptional commercial attorney eager to collaborate across teams to bring together deals that move our business forward. You will join our tight-knit legal team in a role that will shape complex commercial structures and drive strategic partnerships in pursuit of Yelp’s mission to connect millions of people with great local businesses. Demonstrated expertise in negotiating privacy agreements is a must.

This role serves primarily as a critical strategic business partner who will lead complex, high-stakes technology and business development negotiations at the highest levels. We are looking for a commercially-minded leader who thrives in ambiguity, understands the technical intricacies of the digital landscape, takes responsibility for projects from inception to end, and possesses the drive to turn an inch of direction into a mile of solid results. A sense of humor helps too! This role will also have opportunities to work in other legal areas. Although Yelp is a publicly traded company with thousands of employees, the company prides itself on maintaining a startup culture and feel which our small legal team reflects. We are looking for someone with impressive legal experience who shares our commitment to providing innovative solutions.

We welcome a partner eager to learn from, and build on, the successful foundation our Business Development and Legal teams have built over the past 16 years, but you must be entirely comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment without structured oversight. You will integrate seamlessly with our Legal and Business Development teams and rely on your judgment to keep deals moving forward safely, without the need for step-by-step instructions.

We’d love to have you apply, even if you don’t feel you meet every single requirement in this posting. At Yelp, we’re looking for great people, not just those who simply check off all the boxes. This is a full-time remote role based in the United States.

What you'll do:

• Execute Complex Deals:

• Independently draft and negotiate enterprise-level business development and commercial contracts at the highest levels, including SaaS subscriptions, API and data feed integrations, software development agreements, and content licenses, with a heavy focus on the privacy and data-protection issues that surface whenever personal information changes hands.

• Own the Privacy Dimension of Every Deal: Serve as the key person who identifies, weighs and independently resolves privacy and personal-data issues buried inside complex commercial and business development agreements, how data is collected, shared, retained, and monetized on the outbound, revenue-generating side of the business. You will translate complex regulatory obligations into concrete contract terms, data-flow structures, and risk positions that let deals close without creating downstream exposure.

• Pioneer AI & Data Licensing:

• Architect and negotiate novel AI licensing agreements, specifically managing the flow, security, and control of data into LLMs and RAG frameworks, structuring intricate deals where there is no template to follow, including deals that govern how data feeds into LLMs and RAG frameworks. This is frontier work: you will build the terms rather than borrow them, structuring intricate arrangements the market hasn’t standardized yet.

• Provide Strategic Commercial Counsel:

• Apply deep commercial expertise (including a strong grasp of revenue models, pricing structures, and overall business strategy) to align legal solutions with Yelp’s broader business goals.

• Enable Business Growth (Master Risk-Reward):

• Advance company objectives by actively balancing speed with risk. You understand that legal work is about managing risk rather than eliminating it. You know which terms to hold, which to trade, and how to explain the difference to an account executive or a C-suite executive to make practical recommendations that keep deals moving safely while collaborating with your technical and business counterparts.

• Proactive Deal Management:

• Demonstrate a strong, self-managing drive to take responsibility. When given a brief, three-sentence summary of a potential deal, you do not wait passively for more information; you proactively research the counterparty, anticipate issues, and take action yourself to move the project forward.

• Ownership. You consistently demonstrate high-level accountability and prioritize the success of the business. Rather than waiting for ideal conditions or for someone else to clear the way, you take resourceful action to overcome obstacles. You invest deeply in your work and naturally elevate your contributions to meet whatever the situation requires.

• Cross Functional Partnerships:

Interact constantly with other departments to execute agreements and advance business development. You must collaborate seamlessly with Product, Finance, Security, and Engineering to truly understand how our products work and intelligently allocate risk. A proven track record of cross-functional collaboration is essential to success in this role.

What it takes to succeed:

• Qualifications:

• Juris Doctor degree and state bar membership in good standing

• Experience:

• 8+ years of experience as an attorney (In-house counsel experience is a big plus) with a proven track record in complex technology transactions and business development at a very high level.

• Deep, Applied Privacy Expertise: Years of hands-on experience with the privacy and data-protection regimes that govern how personal information is collected, shared, and monetized, including US State privacy law regimes, TCPA, CIPA, CAN-SPAM, HIPAA, and PCI compliance. What matters is not textbook familiarity but applied fluency: you understand how these frameworks actually operate inside live products and deals, how privacy exposure arises on the outbound, revenue-generating side of the business (not just in procurement), and how it winds its way through contract structure, data flows, and negotiated terms. This is the hardest and least teachable part of the job, and it is the part that keeps us up at night.

• Additional Subject Matter Expertise: Extensive knowledge of SaaS contract law and IP law, and a strong command of the broader regulatory landscape as it applies to commercial and business development work.

• Enough Technical Literacy to Spot the Risk: A working, practical grasp of how data actually moves, APIs, data feeds, databases, and the systems that pass personal information between parties, sufficient to recognize where privacy and security exposure lives in a deal and to ask the right questions. You do not need to be an engineer or arrive fluent in our stack or AI-specific architecture; that layer can be picked up quickly on the job.

• True Negotiation Skills (Not Just Review):

• A proven track record of actively negotiating complex agreements, not merely reviewing and redlining them. You must be able to think strategically about give-and-take, develop creative fallback positions, and independently resolve issues without escalating to outside counsel.

• Work Well With Others: Strong work ethic, with a team player mentality and experience successfully working cross-functionally with multiple teams of stakeholders.

• Efficiency and Practical Risk Balancing:

• The ability to expertly balance speed with risk. You understand that hesitation or over-indexing on perfection can kill deals; you must know when 90% certainty is good enough to move the business forward safely.

• Intense Ownership:

• High-level accountability without the ego. You care deeply about not letting down the team or Yelp’s user base of businesses and consumers, take pride in your work, and are willing to step outside of your direct job description to do whatever it takes to make Yelp better for everyone.

• Genuine Passion for the Field:

A true legal and technology “nerd" who actively follows tech and legal issues (such as emerging AI trends and privacy shifts) because you love it, not just because you have to.

What you'll get:

• Effective your first day: Full medical, vision, and dental
• 15 days PTO (accrual begins on date of hire and increases with 2+ years of tenure thereafter), 12 paid holidays, plus one floating holiday
• Up to 14 weeks of parental leave
• Monthly wellness subsidy
• Work from home reimbursement
• Flexible spending account
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Compensation range for this position is $153,000 - $287,000 annually. You may also be offered a bonus, Restricted Stock Units, and benefits.

Closing

At Yelp, we believe that diversity is an expression of all the unique characteristics that make us human: race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, and education — and those are just a few. We recognize that diverse backgrounds and perspectives strengthen our teams and our product. The foundation of our diversity efforts are closely tied to our core values, which include “Playing Well With Others” and “Authenticity.”

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, medical condition or disability.

Actual salary offered may vary based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, an individual's location and experience.

We will consider for employment qualified candidates with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law (including, for example, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and the California Fair Chance Act for roles based in California).

Where required by law, a criminal background check will not be conducted until after a conditional offer of employment is made, and any evaluation of a candidate's criminal background check will be subject to an individualized assessment that takes into account the candidate's specific criminal records and the responsibilities and requirements of the particular role.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in our job application process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at accommodations-recruiting@yelp.com or 415-969-8488.

Note: Yelp does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to any recruiting alias or employee. Yelp is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

US Recruiting and Applicant Privacy Notice

[Notice to Washington Applicants

• Washington State Fair Chance Act](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTGyXsWXm4zjJFrUhtqagO8G9c5QWvBd4BaE5_tfP5SC0AA0McQLFMgOQjzAWOXWw7vIbXvJRJzYSoG/pub?urp=gmail_link "Washington State Fair Chance Act")

• Summary Yelp is seeking an exceptional commercial attorney eager to collaborate across teams to bring together deals that move our business forward. You will join our tight-knit legal team in a role th Responsibilities
• Independently draft and negotiate enterprise-level business development and commercial contracts, including SaaS subscriptions, API integrations, software development agreements, and content licenses, with a focus on privacy and data-protection.
• Serve as the key person who identifies, weighs, and independently resolves privacy and personal-data issues within complex commercial agreements.
• Translate complex regulatory obligations into concrete contract terms, data-flow structures, and risk positions to ensure deals close safely.
• Architect and negotiate novel AI licensing agreements, structuring intricate deals governing data flow, security, and control into LLMs and RAG frameworks.
• Apply deep commercial expertise to align legal solutions with Yelp’s broader business goals and enable business growth by balancing speed with risk.
• Demonstrate a strong, self-managing drive to take responsibility for projects from inception to completion.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Finance, Security, and Engineering to execute agreements and advance business development.
• Take ownership of high-level accountability and prioritise the success of the business without structured oversight. Skills
• Demonstrated expertise in negotiating privacy agreements and hands-on experience with privacy and data-protection regimes such as US State privacy law, TCPA, CIPA, CAN-SPAM, HIPAA, and PCI compliance.
• Extensive knowledge of SaaS contract law, IP law, and the broader regulatory landscape for commercial and business development work.
• Proven ability to negotiate complex agreements, develop strategic positions, and resolve issues independently.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and experience working with multiple teams of stakeholders.
• Ability to balance speed with risk, prioritise accountability, and demonstrate a genuine passion for the field.
• Technical literacy to recognise privacy and security exposure in deals and to ask the right questions about data flows and systems. Education
• Juris Doctor degree and state bar membership in good standing.