Senior Legal Counsel

About Traversal

Traversal is the AI Site Reliability Engineer (AI SRE) for the enterprise. Production complexity was already outpacing what engineering teams could manage manually, and AI-generated code is accelerating that gap. Traversal is built for that challenge, autonomously understanding and reasoning across even the largest, most complex production environments to diagnose, fix, and prevent incidents. Our mission is to free engineers from endless firefighting and give them more time to focus on creative, high-impact work. Today, Traversal operates in mission-critical environments at some of the world's largest enterprises. Our roots remain deeply embedded in AI research, and we've brought together researchers from institutions including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia, and Cornell with world-class technical staff and operators from companies like Google, Meta, Datadog, ServiceNow, and Citadel Securities to take on one of the hardest problems for AI to solve. Traversal is backed by Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Hanabi, NFDG, and American Express Ventures.

The Role

As Senior Legal Counsel, you will be Traversal's first legal hire, building the legal function from the ground up while reporting to the Head of Strategy & Operations.. The majority of your time will be spent leading commercial contract negotiations with enterprise customers, while also serving as a trusted generalist advisor on corporate, compliance, and employment matters as the company scales. This is a rare opportunity to shape how a fast-growing AI company approaches 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, DPAs, security/privacy addenda, order forms) with large enterprise customers, balancing legal risk with sales velocity.
• Build the legal function from scratch - templates, playbooks, and approval workflows - so the business can scale without bottlenecking on legal review.
• Serve 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 the Head of Operations 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 Traversal scales into new markets and customer segments.

Requirements

• J.D. and active bar admission; NY admission preferred given our in-office location.
• Corporate law experience combined with hands-on commercial contract negotiation at an early-stage startup - this is a firm requirement, not a nice-to-have.
• 7+ years of legal experience, with a mix of law firm training and in-house experience, ideally at a B2B SaaS or enterprise software company.
• Deep expertise drafting and negotiating enterprise commercial agreements (MSAs, SaaS terms, DPAs, security addenda) with sophisticated enterprise counterparties.
• Working knowledge of data privacy and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2) relevant to software with access to customer production systems.
• Comfort operating as a generalist "department of one" - able to triage corporate, employment, and compliance questions, escalating to outside counsel when needed.
• Willing and able to work 5 days/week in-person in our New York office (near Madison Square Park).
• Strong business judgment, balancing legal risk against commercial velocity in a fast-moving startup environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to explain legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders.

Nice to Have

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

Compensation

We offer competitive compensation, startup equity, health insurance, and additional benefits. The U.S. base salary range for this full-time, in-person role in New York is $200,000-$400,000, plus equity and benefits. Our salary ranges are based on location, level, and role. Individual compensation is determined by experience, skills, and job-related knowledge.

Why You Should Join Us

Traversal is a place to take on hard, meaningful problems with real ownership from day one. You'll work alongside people who challenge you to grow, learn constantly, and help define a new category of infrastructur