Senior Counsel, Strategic Partnerships

Coursera and Udemy are now one company, bringing together two mission-driven brands to create the world’s most powerful platform for turning learning into progress. Together, we help more than 300 million learners and 12,000+ enterprise customers build the skills they need for a world being reshaped by AI. Read more about the combined company by visiting our blog.

By joining our team, you’ll have the opportunity to reshape how the world learns and applies skills—and help millions of people participate in the new economy. Bring your ideas, expertise, and perspective to meaningful work that can make a difference at global scale.

Udemy is a global company headquartered in San Francisco, with additional U.S. offices in Denver and Austin, and international hubs in Australia, India, Ireland, Mexico, and Türkiye. 

This is a senior in-house legal role for a commercially driven lawyer ready to take commercial legal programs work with partners and negotiate technology deals. The role reports directly to the Head of Commercial Legal, Strategic Growth.
 
We operate a hybrid go-to-market model that combines demand-led direct sales, solution-led growth, and indirect distribution through a tiered partner and channel ecosystem. We reach organizations globally through technology alliances, GSI relationships, channel partners, and reseller arrangements — powering learning and capability-building at scale. Legal sits at the center of all three motions.
 
You will be a dedicated legal partner for B2B Enterprise, Technology Alliances, and Channel and Distribution Partnerships, supporting the development and negotiation of the indirect partner ecosystem that underpins our scalable distribution. This is a role for someone who combines deep transactional expertise with strong business instincts, operates with a high degree of independence, and is ready to grow into broader leadership responsibility within a scaling legal function.

• Exceptional business judgement and a proven ability to balance legal risk with commercial objectives in fast-moving deal environments.

• Executive-level communication skills: able to distill complex issues into clear, actionable guidance and influence stakeholders from SMB to large enterprise and C-suite.

• A track record of using approved AI tools to increase legal productivity, and staying current on AI governance obligations.

• Take primary ownership of drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial agreements across global system integrator arrangements, channel partner and reseller agreements, technology alliance and co-sell agreements, enterprise SaaS and platform licensing, API and technical integration agreements, and distribution and go-to-market partnerships.

• Advise senior business stakeholders, including GTM leadership, and Product teams, on deal structuring, risk allocation, commercial terms, and multi-jurisdictional GTM considerations, serving as the day-to-day legal lead who positions Legal as a genuine business enabler.

• Partner with the Product Legal team to develop and refine legal frameworks that support a self-serve and low-touch commercial motion, including API access agreements, developer terms, usage-based licensing structures, and SMB onboarding frameworks, contributing to a standardized, scalable approach that enables businesses to engage and onboard with speed and minimal friction.

• Provide clear, solution-focused guidance on AI-related commercial arrangements, data-sharing agreements, and emerging technology implementations as they enter the enterprise deal mix.

• Own and continuously develop the suite of enterprise and channel contracting templates, playbooks, negotiation guidelines, and approval frameworks used across the partnerships function.

• Design scalable legal infrastructure that empowers fast-moving deal teams to execute efficiently while maintaining sound risk controls across both direct and indirect channels.

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• Act as a primary legal partner for the commercialisation of GTM products, advising on go-to-market structures, route-to-market models, pricing and packaging frameworks, and the legal terms that govern how products are brought to market directly and through third parties.

• Draft and negotiate agreements that govern the embedding, bundling, or distribution of our products within third-party platforms, marketplaces, and ecosystems, including white-label arrangements, OEM agreements, co-branded offerings, and platform integration terms.

• Advise on licensing boundaries and revenue-sharing constructs as the product suite evolves and is commercialised through an expanding range of direct and indirect channels.

• Work closely with Product, Product Legal, Marketing, and Sales to ensure commercial and legal structures keep pace with product development and new route-to-market initiatives, flagging and resolving legal considerations early in the product lifecycle.

• Genuinely commercial in your approach: able to identify and manage risk pragmatically, find workable solutions under pressure, and avoid being a blocker to growth.

• An effective communicator and influencer, comfortable advising and challenging senior stakeholders across Sales, Product, and Executive leadership.

• Qualified lawyer with 10+ years of post-qualification experience, including meaningful in-house tenure at a technology, SaaS, or enterprise software company.

• A proven track record negotiating complex B2B technology agreements including GSI, channel, reseller, alliance, and enterprise platform deals, ideally within or alongside global organisations.

• Demonstrable experience advising on product commercialisation, route-to-market strategy, or third-party distribution and embedding arrangements.

• Comfortable operating across both high-touch enterprise deals and high-volume standardised indirect channel frameworks, understanding that each requires a different legal posture.

• Highly organised and self-directed, with a demonstrated ability to manage a high-volume deal workload across competing priorities and deadlines with minimal supervision.

• A collaborative team player who understands their place in a broader legal function and actively supports those around them, including upward to leadership