Sr Legal Counsel

About the Role

Our client, a venture-backed AI infrastructure startup serving large enterprises, is hiring a Senior Legal Counsel as its first legal hire. You will build the legal function from the ground up, reporting to a senior operations leader. Most of your time will go to leading commercial contract negotiations with enterprise customers, with the balance spent as a trusted generalist advisor on corporate, compliance, and employment matters as the company grows. This is an uncommon chance to shape how a fast-growing AI company handles legal risk and process, with direct visibility into deals, product strategy, and executive decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Own commercial contracting end-to-end: draft, negotiate, and close enterprise customer agreements (MSAs, order forms, DPAs, security and privacy addenda) with large enterprise customers, balancing legal risk against sales velocity
• Build the legal function from scratch, including templates, playbooks, and approval workflows, so the business can scale without legal review becoming a bottleneck
• Act as primary legal advisor to the executive team on corporate matters: entity governance, board materials, equity administration, and support for future fundraising
• Own compliance and risk across data privacy and security certifications (SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA) and emerging regulatory considerations relevant to an AI product operating inside customers’ production environments
• Advise on employment matters (offer letters, policies, terminations) and partner with operations leadership on vendor and procurement contracts
• Manage outside counsel relationships across specialty areas (IP, litigation, international expansion) for efficient, cost-effective use of external legal spend
• Proactively flag legal and regulatory risk to leadership as the company expands into new markets and customer segments

Qualifications

• J.D. and active bar admission; New York admission preferred
• Corporate law experience combined with hands-on commercial contract negotiation at an early-stage startup (a firm requirement)
• 7+ years of legal experience with a mix of law firm training and in-house work, ideally at an enterprise software or B2B SaaS company
• Deep expertise drafting and negotiating enterprise commercial agreements (SaaS terms, MSAs, security addenda, DPAs) with sophisticated enterprise counterparties
• Working knowledge of data privacy and security frameworks (CCPA, GDPR, SOC 2) relevant to software with access to customer production systems
• Comfortable operating as a generalist, able to triage corporate, employment, and compliance questions and elevate to outside counsel when needed
• Willing and able to work in person 5 days per week in the company’s New York City office
• Strong business judgment, balancing legal risk against commercial speed in a fast-moving startup environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders

Preferred Skills

• Experience with AI/ML-specific legal and regulatory issues (AI governance frameworks, model risk, emerging AI regulation)
• Experience supporting fundraising (venture financings, SAFEs, board governance)
• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools and legal operations processes

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary range of $300,000-$400,000 for this full-time, in-person role in New York City, plus equity. Individual compensation is determined by experience, skills, and job-related knowledge
• Startup equity
• Health insurance
• Fertility benefits
• Tech setup stipend
• Flexible time off

Why Join

This is a place to take on hard, meaningful problems with real ownership from day one. You will work alongside people who push you to grow, learn constantly, and help define a new category of infrastructure software. The team thinks long term, moves quickly, and holds a high bar without taking itself too seriously.

The company is fully in-office, 5 days a week, in New York City, with a collaborative, hard-working culture.

Empower JobID 2764