Senior Commercial Counsel
San Francisco, CA
Legal & Compliance /
Full-time - Permanent /
Remote
Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly through alternative credit data. As a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), Nova Credit leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill critical gaps in traditional credit analytics. The company transforms the fragmented universe of consumer financial data into compliant, actionable risk insights through a comprehensive platform designed to increase conversion through expanded coverage, speed, and reliability. Leading organizations, including HSBC, RBC, SoFi, Scotiabank, Appfolio, and Yardi, work with Nova Credit to make smarter credit decisions through cash flow underwriting with Cash Atlas™, quickly verify income with Income Navigator, and reach new-to-country consumers with Credit Passport®. With support from investors Canapi Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, and Index Ventures, as well as industry veterans from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Citi, Nova Credit is revolutionizing the way lending is done. We were recently named in Forbes’ Fintech 50 in 2025 and Built In’s Best Places to Work, 2025.
Nova Credit's small but mighty legal and compliance team drives company growth while ensuring we meet all legal, contractual, and regulatory requirements. In our highly regulated industry, the team is essential to business strategy and operations. You'll work cross-functionally, leveraging your legal and commercial expertise across all aspects of Nova Credit's business.
The Role
We're seeking a Senior Commercial Counsel (IC5) to join our legal team and help us navigate the world of contracts and negotiations as we scale globally. You'll be the legal partner who makes complex deals happen, the translator who breaks down legalese into human speak, and the strategic thinker who helps us grow responsibly.
In this role, you'll be our deal-maker, negotiating with everyone from startups to Fortune 100 financial institutions. You'll be part lawyer, part teacher, part business strategist, and full-time problem solver. You’ll encounter challenging questions and need to provide thoughtful answers. You’ll start with research and brainstorming. For the toughest ones, you might consider phoning a friend, working with experts in the area, or asking Google (and extracting the correct information).
This is a remote-friendly role, reporting directly to our General Counsel. It involves influencing across departments, so knowing how to build trust and be a problem-solver (and presenting oneself as such) is critical. Here's how you'll make an Impact:
WITHIN YOUR FIRST MONTH, YOU'LL:
- Get the lay of the land - understand our business model, key relationships, product offerings, and how we got here
- Understand Nova Credit’s business development lifecycle, legal involvement at various stages, and ongoing agreement negotiation
- Familiarize yourself with key regulatory and compliance frameworks (e.g., Fair Credit Reporting Act, CCPA)
- Get to know our working style, goals, mission, and values
- Get to know the people
WITHIN YOUR FIRST QUARTER, YOU'LL:
- Dive deep into Nova Credit’s legal agreements and organizational structure
- Take the lead on customer negotiations, partnering closely with our business development team
- Lead review and negotiation of supplier and vendor agreements, translating lawyer-speak into sales-speak
- Structure, draft, review, and negotiate license agreements, letters of intent, term sheets, or other contractual documents to support complex commercial initiatives
- Review, edit, and negotiate documents like NDAs and vendor information forms
- Get to know the credit reporting and analysis industry (including bureaus, financial institutions, credit providers, and other fintechs)
WITHIN YOUR FIRST YEAR, YOU'LL:
- Independently quarterback negotiations with major financial institutions
- Become a go-to person for "Hey, quick legal question..."
- Design and deliver training, teaching sales teams about caps, supercaps, data rights, IP, and why these things matter
- Build processes that make legal less of a bottleneck and more of an accelerator
- Experiment with GenAI tools to make our legal operations more efficient
ARE YOU THE PERSON WE'RE LOOKING FOR?
- 7+ years of relevant commercial and corporate law experience, with a strong preference for experience in-house and negotiating with big players
- You're admitted to a state bar (or eligible to register as in-house counsel)
- You're curious about (or already using) generative AI tools - we want someone who's excited about the future of legal tech.
- You’ve partnered with Sales/Go To Market before, hopefully by embedding in the team.
- You can take something complex and make it simple. You know how to pause, take a breath, and translate from lawyer-speak (e.g., all those acronyms) to something the audience in front of you will grasp.
- You've been in the SaaS trenches with financial institutions, negotiating enterprise deals with banks, and knowing exactly why they obsess over data security addendums and compliance frameworks
- You have experience with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), including negotiating agreements with or for Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs)
- You've wrestled with data supply agreements - negotiating with aggregators and understanding the unique headaches (and opportunities) these partnerships create
- You’re curious, like a cat. Maybe your friends even call you “Whiskers.” You hear about something you don’t know, and you feel a need to learn it. You don’t need to know everything, but you will need to know how to use your resources (regulatory guidance, your network, Slack, journals, books, Bing, law firms) to find the answer to just about any question.
$239,000 - $275,400 a year
The above compensation range is for US-based candidates and is dependent on individual experience, skills, education, location, and qualifications. We consider all elements of compensation to be a part of the value we provide to Novans. This may include base salary, equity grants, incentive compensation for eligible roles, professional development, flexible PTO, and tenure rewards. In the U.S., our benefits package includes comprehensive and generously subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance options, along with a company-sponsored 401k plan, 16-week parental leave of absence, sick time off, and paid time off vacation.
Everyone is welcome at Nova Credit. We are an equal-opportunity employer where diversity and inclusion are central pillars of our company strategy. We seek applicants who understand, embrace, and thrive in a multicultural and globalized world. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected class, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We do not consider criminal history until a conditional offer of employment has been made. We encourage all qualified candidates, including those with a criminal history, to apply.
