Company Description
Shopify is a leading global commerce company, providing trusted tools to
start, grow, market, and manage a retail business of any size. Shopify makes
commerce better for everyone with a platform and services that are engineered
for reliability, while delivering a better shopping experience for consumers
everywhere. Shopify powers millions of businesses in more than 175 countries
and is trusted by brands such as Allbirds, Gymshark, PepsiCo, Staples, and
many more.
Job Description
It takes a whole team of dedicated legal professionals working behind the
scenes to help Shopify create a platform that makes commerce better for
everyone. Our Legal Team must be able to apply their knowledge and experience
to novel scenarios and provide the best possible advice on sometimes
unprecedented legal issues, in ways that allow Shopify’s business to stay
agile and competitive. Every person on our team is committed to making
commerce better for everyone, and it truly shows.
**About the team**
Within the Shopify Legal and Governmental Affairs Team, the Partnerships Legal
Team is focused on supporting Shopify’s partnerships teams by negotiating
strategic transactions and key partnership agreements, while identifying and
mitigating critical legal risks. From providing legal support on innovative
new partner integrations to negotiating with some of the biggest companies in
the world, our work is challenging, varied and constantly evolving.
To be successful on our team, collaboration and engagement are key. Our team
members regularly collaborate with each other and with internal stakeholders,
effectively guiding business strategies and communicating legal risk. We build
trust with the internal business team, and show up for our clients both
proactively, to ensure our business teams don’t run into problems, and
reactively, when issues do come up. Practicing at the top of your game with
smart, dedicated and highly-engaged colleagues and clients is incredibly
fulfilling and a great catalyst for personal growth.
**About you**
Our team is looking for a passionate, experienced, and driven senior
commercial lawyer with a strong interest in technology and deal-making who
will be committed to helping Shopify’s partnerships organization grow. This
role is all about partnerships to provide merchants with the best commerce
tools they need as well as to connect Shopify and its merchants with the
world. You have to be a contracts geek and an effective and confident
negotiator, with strong drafting skills and excellent attention to detail. You
must have an aptitude for diving into the details of projects, whether it’s
data flows in cross-platform product integrations, product offerings in
regulated spaces, or software tools that help us build and operate our
platform. You should be able to identify issues and propose practical,
actionable solutions. And you must be adept at using a product-forward
mindset, creativity and collegiality (with both internal and external parties)
to identify, explain and address legal risks in a way that propels your
client’s business forward.
Success on the Shopify Legal and Government Affairs Team requires intellect,
humility, and a sense of humour (or humor if you’re in the U.S.). You need to
take the work seriously, but not take yourself too seriously. You also need to
be comfortable with being uncomfortable, able to work with many different
types of personalities, really connect with people, and work as a team player.
Agility is the name of the game. Above all, you must have grit: the ability to
persevere in the face of adversity, deal with being challenged, and come
through the other side stronger and with your optimism intact, ready to do it
all over again.
**Here’s what will keep you busy:**
* Support our partnerships teams’ needs with: strategic partners, including developers, and apps, access to Shopify's APIs, governance, and marketing
* Advise on a spread of ecommerce features and launches in the B2B space
* Counsel on projects for discovering Shopify merchants on third-party marketplaces worldwide
* Advise on technology integrations with partners doing offline and native checkout experiences
* Support our partnerships team with the development of applications by large partners, such as social media and aggregators, to allow Shopify merchants to advertise and sell their products on these channels
* Shopify collaborates with a range of partners to offer as complete a product/service to our merchants as possible. An off-shoot of this work includes managing the intake/review/sign-off process required to update the policies that govern these partners
Qualifications
* A J.D. or LL.B
* A license to practice law in any common law province in Canada or any U.S. state
* 8-10 years of relevant legal experience, ideally having started out at a law firm, and honed in-house at a technology company
* Proven experience with SaaS agreements, reseller and other partnership agreements
* Substantial experience drafting and negotiating complex legal agreements, such as strategic partnerships, software and other licensing arrangements, including those related to SaaS and other cloud-based services, API, SDK and other technology-related offerings
* Experience with data issues
* A keen interest in creative legal problem solving, including researching novel and ambiguous areas of law
* Experience managing external legal counsel
* Experience leading and managing projects, and managing multiple priorities, stakeholders and deadlines
* The ability to work collaboratively as part of a team and on an individual basis without a lot of guidance or oversight, always with a view towards being of service to clients and other legal team members
* Exceptional business judgment and relationship-building skills
* Experience leading a team of legal professionals
* The ability to thrive in a dynamic and entrepreneurial environment
* Strong interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to match your tone to your audience
**Bonus Experience:**
* Experience with regulatory law
* Experience with privacy issues
Additional Information
We know that applying to a new role takes a lot of work and we truly value
your time. We’re looking forward to reading your application and cover letter.
**Please submit your application materials in PDF format.**
**Closing date: Wednesday, Nov 2, 2022 at 11:59PM EDT.** Successful candidates
can expect to hear back from us by Wednesday, Nov 16, 2022.
_Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to
truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from
Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from
gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional
identities. Please take a look at __our Sustainability Reports_ _to learn more
about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet._
_At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re
dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is
this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying._