Legal Operations Lead

Job description

### About the Role This is a foundational role building and owning the legal operating system at a fast-growing AI infrastructure company. You will combine hands-on contracting work with systems thinking, making legal scalable as commercial agreement volume and complexity grows. The role sits at the intersection of legal, operations, and technology. ### What You'll Do - Own the end-to-end legal workflow, including intake, prioritization, approvals, escalation paths, document management, and outside-counsel coordination. - Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements with buyers, data vendors, and partners, including MSAs, SOWs, data licenses, SLAs, NDAs, and vendor contracts. - Build and refine contract templates and negotiation playbooks to handle recurring issues like data rights and usage restrictions consistently and efficiently. - Identify and implement opportunities to automate or streamline high-volume legal workflows using software and AI, while preserving human judgment for complex matters. - Establish clear decision rules for what stays internal, what can be standardized or automated, and what escalates to founders or outside counsel. - Manage outside counsel relationships strategically to control spend, scope work efficiently, and reserve external lawyers for high-value or specialist matters. ### What We're Looking For - Law degree required (LLB or equivalent; EU bachelor of law is acceptable). - 5+ years of experience in legal operations, contracts management, commercial operations, or transactional legal work at a fast-growing technology company. - Demonstrated ability to draft, review, and negotiate commercial technology agreements, with sound judgment on routine versus specialist issues. - Hands-on experience with US commercial contracting conventions. - Experience building or scaling legal operations, contract management, or deal desk functions from an early stage. - Proficiency designing and implementing legal workflows, intake systems, document management processes, and approval frameworks. - Comfort identifying and using legal technology platforms, workflow automation tools, and AI to scale legal work. - Experience managing outside counsel, including scoping work, controlling spend, and determining appropriate escalation. - Background in data licensing, IP-intensive transactions, marketplaces, or businesses where contractual rights tie closely to product functionality is a strong plus. - Strong commercial judgment balancing legal risk against speed, customer needs, and business priorities. ### Compensation & Benefits Base salary range is **$160,000 to $200,000 USD annually**, plus equity and comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401k, commuter benefits, and unlimited paid time off. Visa sponsorship and relocation support are available for strong candidates. ### Location On-site in the **San Francisco Bay Area** or **Singapore**.