Deal Desk Lead

The Role

InstaLILY is hiring its first Deal Desk Lead to own every customer agreement end to end: SOWs, MSAs, DPAs, Schedule A (IP, ownership and exit), SLAs and order forms. Today this work is split across engineering and growth leadership, who act as primary authors on each document. This hire becomes the primary author and brings leadership in only for the decisions that need them.

This is not template work. Each SOW configures an AI deployment (data sources, integrations, hosting, success criteria, fees and the path from proof of concept to production). Each MSA and DPA is negotiated with an enterprise legal or procurement team, some operating under UK and EU data protection law. The role sits between commercial contracting and technical scoping, and the right person is comfortable in both.

Revenue grew 5x last year and the sales team is scaling. We expect to be issuing multiple SOWs a day next year, so this role has to work at speed and build the process that makes that volume possible.

This is an individual contributor role. You'll report to the COO.

What You'll Do

• First drafts of every SOW: Turn the proposal, call notes, pricing guidance and the account team's written commitments into a complete order form and SOW, using InstaLILY's standard language and precedent library. Same-day first drafts when a deal is awarded.

• The full agreement set: Own the MSA, SLA, DPA and Schedule A (IP, ownership, exit and data isolation) for each deal. Choose the right base document, including when to work on the customer's paper.

• Redlines and negotiation: Run each redline cycle with customer legal, procurement and security teams. Deliver tracked changes with a one-line rationale per change, a clean copy, and a short log of what moved and what is still open.

• Speed to signature: Keep every agreement moving and know where each one stands. Report turnaround and time-to-signature to sales leadership weekly, and flag a stalled deal before anyone has to ask.

• Enable the sales team: Teach reps what they can and cannot commit to, so deals arrive scoped correctly rather than needing to be unwound. Keep that guidance current as the team grows and as our standard positions change.

• Consistency and accuracy: Every document agrees with itself and with what the customer was told. Fees match the proposal, dates are correct, defined terms are defined, cross-references resolve, and no merge artifacts or stray comments go out.

• Scope protection: Keep data sources, integrations, regions, user groups and post-PoC expansion bounded. Spot where a phrase like "including but not limited to" or "does not count towards the support hours" changes what InstaLILY has promised.

• Technical translation: Work with engineering to get hosting, tenancy, region, data handling, model ownership and support commitments right, and to understand which contract language changes when the architecture does.

• Data protection: Prepare and negotiate DPAs, including SCCs and the UK Addendum, sub-processor lists and security annexes. Route security questionnaires to the right owners.

• Sign-off and escalation: Get the right approvals from growth, engineering and leadership, and bring them only the decisions that need them, framed with a recommendation.

• Templates and playbook: Own the template library, clause library and pre-approved fallback positions. Feed what each negotiation teaches back into the standard forms.

• Build the deal desk: Set up intake, a tracker of every agreement in flight, turnaround targets and handoff of executed copies. Shape the tooling (contract management, document automation, AI-assisted drafting).

• What You'll Need

• Experience: 5 to 8 years drafting and negotiating commercial agreements for a B2B software or technology services company. Deal desk or in-house contracts, legal operations, or a technology transactions practice followed by an in-house seat.

• Startup experience: You've done this at a company that was still figuring it out, without a general counsel, a contracts team, or settled templates.

• Contract fundamentals: Command of the core terms in MSAs, SOWs, order forms and SLAs: liability caps and super-caps, indemnities, IP ownership and licensing, data rights, acceptance, termination and renewal.

• Data protection: Working knowledge of GDPR and UK GDPR, SCCs and the UK Addendum, controller and processor roles, sub-processors, and US state privacy law.

• Technical fluency: Comfortable with cloud hosting and tenancy, data flows, integrations and what it means for a customer to own a model.

• Precision: Catches the undefined term, the broken cross-reference, the date that conflicts with the key terms, and the sentence that says the opposite of what was intended.

• Commercial judgment: Knows which terms matter to InstaLILY and which are not worth holding up a deal over.

• Speed under load: Several agreements in parallel and same-day turnaround when a deal is awarded, without dropping accuracy.

• Creative under pressure: Customers and reps push hard on terms and timing. You understand what is driving the ask, propose something that works for both sides, and stay steady when a deal gets tense.

• Hands-on: You do the drafting, the redlines and the tracking yourself. There is no paralegal or contracts coordinator.

• Clear writing: Can explain why a term matters to someone who isn't a lawyer.

• Ownership: Runs the process end to end without an in-house legal team, and knows when to escalate.

• AI-native: Daily user of Claude and frontier AI tools for drafting, comparison and consistency checks, and accountable for every word that goes out.

• In-person availability: 5 days/week in our New York office. Occasional early calls with counterparties in UK and European time zones.

• Nice to Have

• JD and bar admission.

• Experience with AI or data products: ownership of models and outputs, training restrictions, EU AI Act obligations.

• Contracting with private-equity-backed companies and their procurement and security teams.

• Has set up a deal desk or contracts function from scratch, including a contract management system or document automation (for example Ironclad or Docassemble).

• Familiarity with security questionnaires and SOC 2.

• Background in the industries we serve: industrial distribution, manufacturing, healthcare, supply chain.

• What You'll Get

• Real traction: The product works, customers are live, and Lily has driven over $200M in new annual sales for a single customer. This isn't a bet on an unproven thesis.

• Ownership: The first deal desk hire, with room to design how contracting works as the company scales.

• Visibility: Direct work with the founders and with growth and engineering leadership on every deal.

• AI-native: In how we build, how we work, and what we sell.

• Culture: Offices in New York, San Francisco, London, and Toronto. A sharp, low-ego team that keeps raising the bar.

• Growth: The learning curve is steep.

• Compensation and Benefits

• Salary Range: 165,000-190,000 per year, commensurate with experience

• Equity: Generous stock options awards and refreshers for top performers

• Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K, Well