Corporate Counsel

About This Role

Being the first dedicated in-house legal counsel for a rapidly scaling AI company, this role owns commercial contracting and employment law matters. It is a generalist, individual-contributor position within the internal Operations team, ideal for a legal professional who thrives on hands-on problem-solving rather than team-building.

Responsibilities

• Draft, negotiate, and redline data acquisition and data licensing agreements with enterprise customers
• Draft and negotiate Master Service Agreements (MSAs), SOWs, and vendor paper for compute/cloud infrastructure providers and frontier lab and other clients
• Own data processing agreements (DPAs) and related data rights provisions in customer and vendor contracts
• Maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, and redline positions to speed up deal cycles
• Partner with Sales/GTM and Finance on deal structuring, pricing terms, and contract risk tradeoffs
• Draft and review independent contractor agreements, employment agreements, offer letters, and compensation/bonus plan language
• Advise People team on day-to-day employment and labor law questions, including compensation agreements, equity administration, hiring, separation and termination, leave, wage and hour, and handbook/policy compliance
• Advise on worker classification and help manage related compliance risk across engagement types
• Support HR compliance projects (e.g., international hiring, policy updates, state-specific requirements) as AfterQuery's footprint grows
• Triage incoming legal questions across the business and resolve what's appropriately in-house
• Partner with outside counsel on escalated matters such as export control/sanctions review, corporate financing/cap table matters, and data incident/privacy investigations
• Help manage the outside counsel relationship and budget as in-house scope grows

Requirements

• JD and active California bar admission
• 3-6 years of experience spanning both commercial contracts and employment law
• Background at a boutique tech/startup-focused or generalist business law firm, ideally combined with in-house experience at an early-stage tech company
• Strong judgment on risk vs. reward tradeoffs; provides decisive recommendations on business and strategy matters informed by legal knowledge
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal oversight, including sound judgment on when to escalate to outside counsel
• Motivated by hands-on individual contribution rather than team-building; you'd rather solve a problem yourself or find the right tool than hire your way out of it
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; experience partnering cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, and People teams