Lead Counsel, Commercial Scale AI New York, NY

Scale is powering the generative AI wave — from the world-class data fueling frontier AI models to the enterprise AI systems that turn breakthroughs into business outcomes for Fortune 500 companies and governments worldwide. AI is rapidly changing the world, and Scale is growing to meet that rapid demand.

Our Legal team works on exciting legal and commercial issues at the leading edge of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and machine learning technology. This role will support our Enterprise business unit by negotiating complex revenue deals with Fortune 500 enterprise companies driving the development of agentic AI applications across industries including healthcare, insurance, financial services, and consumer goods and services. You will join a creative and solutions-oriented team that collaborates internally with teams at Scale and externally with our customers. We are looking for a relentlessly curious, deliberately open-minded, pragmatic, and action-oriented commercial attorney who can negotiate complex agreements and effectively advise on legal risk — all while being a great teammate. This is an individual contributor role with significant scope and visibility that will run deals from end-to-end and help shape Scale's commercial legal function as it scales with the business. If you enjoy solving novel and challenging problems and building strong teams and relationships while doing it, we'd love to hear from you!

You will:

• Draft, review, and negotiate master services agreements with Fortune 500 and other companies, working closely with our sales, product, and engineering organizations to close revenue deals
• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of other agreements, including partnership, reseller and vendor agreements as well as data processing agreements
• Partner closely with our GTM teams to drive deals and the business forward
• Serve as a trusted legal advisor and business accelerator by providing practical legal counsel to sales, product, engineering, and marketing teams
• Assess legal risk and advise the business accordingly
• Design, implement, and iterate on policies and processes to manage legal and business risk on a global scale

Ideally you'd have:

• J.D. from an accredited law school and admission to the New York State Bar in good standing
• 5+ years of combined law firm and in-house experience with training in commercial agreements
• Experience partnering with Sales, guiding negotiation cycles, and closing high-impact revenue deals
• Experience drafting and negotiating complex enterprise licensing, services, and data processing agreements
• An ability to communicate clearly and concisely with business and technical audiences and effectively translate legal concepts for non-lawyers
• A collaborative and low-ego approach to working across the organization, with a "roll-up-your-sleeves" attitude towards tackling novel legal issues
• Deep interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning technology, generative AI, and AI applications

Nice to haves:

• Experience working on IP and technology transactions at a large law firm
• Experience advising growth-stage technology companies regarding legal issues related to AI/machine learning and/or generative AI applications
• Product or privacy counseling experience

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant.

You’ll also receive benefits including, but not limited to:

• comprehensive health
• dental and vision coverage
• retirement benefits
• a learning and development stipend
• generous PTO
• commuter stipend

Please reference the job posting’s subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$227,200 — $284,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

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