Legal Operations Lead

Build and own the legal operating system at an early-stage AI infrastructure company. This hands-on role combines commercial contracting with the design of scalable workflows, helping the business manage growing legal needs while balancing risk, speed, and business priorities. What You'll Do • Own legal intake, prioritization, contracting workflows, approvals, escalation paths, document management, and outside-counsel coordination. • Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements, including MSAs, SOWs, data licenses, SLAs, NDAs, vendor agreements, and partner contracts. • Create and maintain contract templates and negotiation playbooks for recurring issues such as data rights and usage restrictions. • Identify opportunities to streamline or automate high-volume legal workflows using software and AI, while preserving appropriate human review. • Set clear guidelines for what legal work is handled internally, standardized, automated, or escalated to leadership or outside counsel. • Scope outside-counsel work efficiently, manage legal spend, and reserve external support for specialist or high-value matters. What We're Looking For • At least 5 years of experience in legal operations, contracts management, commercial operations, or transactional legal work at a fast-growing technology company. • A law degree, such as an LLB or equivalent, and hands-on experience with US commercial contracting conventions. • Strong skills drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial technology agreements, with sound judgment about when specialist advice is needed. • Experience with intellectual property law, contract workflows, intake systems, document management, approval frameworks, and outside-counsel relationships. • Experience creating templates and negotiation playbooks, and building or scaling legal operations or contract management functions. • Familiarity with legal technology, workflow automation, and AI, plus commercial judgment and experience with data licensing or other IP-intensive businesses. Compensation & Benefits Annual salary range: $160,000 to $200,000 USD, plus equity and comprehensive benefits. Visa sponsorship and relocation support are available for strong candidates. Location On-site in San Francisco, California, or Singapore. San Francisco is the primary location.