Commercial Counsel

The Commercial Counsel serves as a trusted legal advisor across the company’s Procurement, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance functions. This role is responsible for negotiating, drafting, and managing a broad range of commercial agreements while mitigating risk, ensuring compliance, and enabling business growth. The individual in this position will also develop and maintain contract templates, playbooks, and processes to improve efficiency and consistency, while supporting the company’s strategic initiatives and maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards.

This is a hybrid position located in Omaha, NE or Naperville, IL.

Essential Functions

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function of the job.

• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide variety of commercial agreements, including vendor, customer, distribution, manufacturing, supply, and licensing agreements.
• Advise internal stakeholders on contract interpretation, risk allocation, compliance, and approval processes.
• Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain on vendor onboarding, sourcing programs, SLAs, quality/warranty terms, and risk mitigation.
• Support Sales and Marketing on customer terms, promotions, content/IP licensing, and distribution strategies.
• Develop and maintain standard templates, clause libraries, and negotiation playbooks to streamline contract processes.
• Provide legal support for strategic initiatives, including technology, data privacy, ESG, and regulatory projects.
• Assist with M&A activity, including due diligence and integration of acquired entities.
• Manage outside counsel for specialized matters to ensure value and cost control.
• Provide training to business teams on contracting best practices, policies, and compliance topics.
• Track, analyze, and report on contract trends, claims, and compliance initiatives to support continuous improvement.
  
  

Marginal Functions

The individual may be asked to perform other duties.

Required Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Strong judgment, discretion, and integrity.
• Proven commercial contract negotiation and drafting skills.
• Strong understanding of contract lifecycle management.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to balance legal risk with business objectives.
• Clear, concise writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Process improvement mindset with focus on efficiency and consistency.
• Technologically adept; proficiency in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and in a team environment.
• Strong legal research skills with the ability to analyze UCC, antitrust/competition law, data privacy, and international trade/import/export considerations, and apply findings to provide practical, effective counsel
  
  

Education And Experience

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school; active bar membership in good standing.
• 5 years of experience in commercial transactions, preferably with a mix of law firm and in-house roles.
• Strong legal research writing, and negotiation skills.
• Str ong computer skills; proficient with Microsoft Office Suite including familiarity with Excel, Power Point and Word.
• Experience in manufacturing, distribution, or automotive-adjacent industries preferred.
• Exposure to supply chain, procurement, and logistics agreements strongly desired.
• Experience supporting M&A transactions is a plus.
• Experience negotiating with large retailers and distributors preferred.
  
  

Environmental Conditions & PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The list below includes the environmental conditions and physical demands representative of those that an individual performing the essential functions of this job will encounter and be able to perform.

• The individual will work primarily in an office setting in the same room as other individuals. Noise levels are average for an office and include conversation and/or office equipment noise.
• While performing duties at manufacturing and distribution facilities, the individual may be exposed to hazardous physical or chemical conditions, including mechanical parts, electrical currents, vibrations, fumes, odors, dusts, gasses, poor ventilation, extreme temperatures, and intense noise.