Legal Operations Lead

ABOUT THE ROLE
This role owns and builds the legal operating system at a fast-growing AI infrastructure company, sitting at the intersection of hands-on contracting and systems design. As the first dedicated legal operations hire, you will make legal scalable as commercial agreement volume and complexity grows, combining day-to-day drafting work with longer-term process improvement.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own the end-to-end legal workflow, covering 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 maintain contract templates and negotiation playbooks for recurring issues such as data rights and usage restrictions.
- Identify 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 strategically to control spend, scope work efficiently, and reserve external lawyers for high-value or specialist matters.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- 5+ years of experience in legal operations, contracts management, commercial operations, or transactional legal work at a fast-growing technology company.
- Law degree (LLB or equivalent) required; law firm experience is a plus but not required.
- Hands-on experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial technology agreements, with sound judgment on routine versus specialist issues.
- Experience with US commercial contracting conventions and US agreement standards.
- Background in data licensing, IP-intensive transactions, marketplaces, or businesses where contractual rights are closely tied to product functionality.
- Demonstrated ability to design and implement legal workflows, intake systems, document management processes, and approval frameworks.
- Comfort with legal technology platforms, workflow automation tools, and AI; genuine interest in using them to scale legal work.
- Strong commercial judgment to balance legal risk against speed, customer needs, and business priorities.
- Experience managing outside counsel relationships, including scoping, spend control, and escalation decisions.
- Proven track record building or scaling legal operations or contract management functions from an early stage.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Salary range: $160,000 to $200,000 USD annually, plus equity and comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401k, commuter benefits, and unlimited access to leading AI tools. Visa sponsorship and relocation support are available for strong candidates.
LOCATION
On-site in San Francisco, CA or Singapore.

Employment type
FullTime

Work arrangement
No