Commercial Counsel

Our healthcare system is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. Every year, over 50 million Americans suffer adverse financial consequences as a result of seeking care, from lower credit scores to garnished wages. The challenge is only getting worse, as high deductible health plans are the fastest growing plan design in the U.S.

Cedar’s mission is to leverage data science, smart product design and personalization to make healthcare more affordable and accessible. Today, healthcare providers still engage with its consumers in a “one-size-fits-all” approach; and Cedar is excited to leverage consumer best practices to deliver a superior experience.

The Role

Cedar is seeking a Commercial Counsel to join our Legal & Compliance Team. This role is ideal for a technology transactions attorney with 4+ years of enterprise cloud and technology experience who is a skilled drafter and capable dealmaker and is excited to help build how a modern legal team works with AI. You will join a highly collaborative Cedar Legal & Compliance team and serve as a go-to legal partner to Cedar’s growth, client management, sales, strategic partnerships, and vendor contracting teams, owning a portfolio of complex deals from structuring to signature. You will also help shape the playbooks, templates, and AI-enabled workflows the rest of the team relies on. Growth opportunities in the role based on your skills, experience, and interests may include product counseling, privacy, compliance, marketing, and general corporate matters, with guidance from experienced colleagues.

At Cedar, we offer customizable, enterprise solutions to leading health systems aimed at improving the healthcare financial experience for Americans, so our commercial agreements are large, complex and highly negotiated. This is a unique opportunity for you to work on high-stakes deals while helping curate the tech- and AI-forward tools and practices that help our team scale. You will have real latitude to improve our contracting process, grow your skills, get regular coaching and feedback, put new tools into practice, and see the direct impact of your work on deal velocity and our business.

Responsibilities

• Commercial Transactions: Structure, draft, and negotiate complex sales, vendor, and strategic partnership agreements, including Master Services Agreements (MSAs), HIPAA Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), license agreements, and consulting agreements. Own a portfolio of assigned matters from intake through execution, manage competing deadlines, and partner with product, privacy, and compliance legal colleagues for specialist support.
• Business Counseling: Serve as a trusted and pragmatic legal advisor to sales, finance, procurement, and business development teams on deal structures and commercial terms, including AI, technology licensing, forward-deployed engineering engagements, data rights, go-to-market activities, and more. 
• Technology, Ops, & AI Enablement: Partner with legal colleagues to identify and implement ongoing improvements of Cedar’s standard contract templates (MSA, BAA, NDA, Order Form, and Service Descriptions.), deal intelligence and playbooks, and legal processes to ensure they remain streamlined and "plain English." Collaborate with Legal & Compliance Operations to maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, CLM tools, and technology-enabled contracting workflows. Use approved technology and AI tools to improve drafting, contract review, and access to contract information, with appropriate attention to confidentiality, accuracy, and team guidance. Measure and share results, such as cycle time and business self-service. 
• Team: Contribute as a team player to help further the status of the Legal & Compliance team as an effective, respected, and valued resource within the company. Collaborate with the Legal Product, Regulatory, and Compliance team to understand relevant product and regulatory developments and incorporate agreed updates into Cedar’s agreements, templates, and guidance. 
• Knowledge Sharing: Share practical learnings, business direction, and market insights with teammates. Seek and incorporate feedback, and support the onboarding and development of colleagues as appropriate.
• Outside Counsel Collaboration: Collaborate with specialized outside counsel and supplemental legal resources on assigned technology transactions and other matters, with attention to quality and budget.
• Periodic travel to New York and other locations for company and team meetings.

Required Skills & Experience

• JD Degree from an accredited law school and license in good standing to practice law in at least one state bar.
• 4+ years of relevant legal experience at a leading law firm and/or in-house (a combination is a plus), including substantial experience drafting and negotiating technology transactions and enterprise SaaS agreements. Experience with AI, healthcare technology, and HIPAA is a strong plus, but not required.
• Legal Operations & AI Fluency: Hands-on experience improving how legal work gets done, from systems to tools, such as building playbooks or clause libraries, improving processes and training, or using AI tools for contracting workflows, along with the judgment on how to use these tools inside and outside of the legal team.
• Adaptability and Growth Mindset: Thrives amidst shifting priorities and ambiguity, bringing clarity and direction where information or processes are still evolving. Eager to ask questions, incorporate feedback, learn new areas, and experiment with practical and AI-enabled improvements to legal workflows. Previous experience in technology or high-growth companies is preferred.
• Negotiation and Communication Skills: Demonstrated ability to lead assigned commercial negotiations with sophisticated organizations and their legal teams, partnering with senior counsel on novel, unusually complex, or material risks. Ability to explain complex terms and tradeoffs clearly to business stakeholders, develop pragmatic solutions, negotiate convincingly, and manage multiple matters with competing deadlines.
• Drafting Excellence: Strong contract drafting skills. Demonstrated ability to draft in plain English and write clear legal guidance that business partners can understand and apply. Experience identifying and contributing improvements to contract templates and playbooks.
• Business and Legal Judgment: Sound judgment in spotting product and commercial risks, weighing business objectives, and recommending pragmatic solutions. Comfort making risk calls independently within established guidelines, and knows when to escalate, seek input, or consult a colleague.
• Collaborative Mindset: A self-starter who takes ownership of assigned matters, follows through reliably, and builds effective relationships with Sales, Finance, Product, and other business partners. Works collaboratively within Legal & Compliance and seeks and shares expertise as needed.

Compensation Range and Benefits

• Salary/Hourly Rate Range*: $195,500 - $230,000
• This role is equity eligible
• This role offers a competitive benefits and wellness package

*Subject to location, experience, and education

#LI-REMOTE

What do we offer to the ideal candidate?

• A chance to improve the U.S. healthcare system at a high-growth company! Our leading healthcare financial platform is scaling rapidly, helping millions of patients per year
• Unless stated otherwise, most roles have flexibility to work from home or in the office, depending on what works best for you
• For exempt employees: Unlimited PTO for vacation, sick and mental health days–we encourage everyone to take at least 20 days of vacation per year to ensure dedicated time to spend with loved ones, explore, rest and recharge
• 16 weeks paid parental leave with health benefits for all parents, plus flexible re-entry schedules for returning to work
• Diversity initiatives that encourage Cedarians to bring their whole selves to work, including three employee resource groups: be@cedar (for BIPOC-identifying Cedarians and their allies), Pridecones (for LGBTQIA+ Cedarians and their allies) and Cedar Women+ (for female-identifying Cedarians) 
• Competitive pay, equity (for qualifying roles), and health benefits, including fertility & adoption assistance, that start on the first of the month following your start date (or on your start date if your start date coincides with the first of the month)
• Cedar matches 100% of your 401(k) contributions, up to 3% of your annual compensation
• Access to hands-on mentorship, employee and management coaching, and a team discretionary budget for learning and development resources to help you grow both professionally and personally

About us 

Cedar was co-founded by Florian Otto and Arel Lidow in 2016 after a negative medical billing experience inspired them to help improve our healthcare system. With a commitment to solving billing and patient experience issues, Cedar has become a leading healthcare technology company fueled by remarkable growth. "Over the past several years, we've raised more than $350 million in funding & have the active support of Thrive and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

As of November 2024, Cedar is engaging with 26 million patients annually and is on target to process $3.5 billion in patient payments annually. Cedar partners with more than 55 leading healthcare providers and payers including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, Novant Health, Allina Health and Providence.