Overview
Head of Legal Jobs in San Francisco, CA at Wicker Hamilton
Title: Head of Legal
Company: Wicker Hamilton
Location: San Francisco, CA
Head of Legal – Frontier Technology Company
Location: San Francisco Bay Area (On-site)
Experience: 8–15 years PQE
Compensation: Highly competitive base salary + equity
About the Opportunity
A venture-backed technology company at the forefront of AI and advanced automation is seeking its first Head of Legal. This is a rare opportunity to build and own the legal function from the ground up while partnering directly with the founders through a period of rapid commercial growth. The successful candidate will operate as a hands-on individual contributor, supporting the business across commercial, product, intellectual property, corporate and strategic matters.
Key Responsibilities
- Draft, review and negotiate a high volume of commercial agreements including NDAs, MSAs, pilot agreements, technology licensing and strategic partnerships.
- Partner closely with commercial, product and engineering teams to enable new customer deployments and strategic initiatives.
- Advise on intellectual property, data rights, licensing, confidentiality, trade secrets and technology-related legal issues.
- Build scalable legal processes, templates, playbooks and approval workflows.
- Manage and coordinate external counsel across specialist legal matters.
- Provide practical, commercially focused advice to founders and senior leadership on corporate governance, regulatory and risk issues.
Candidate Profile
- 8–15 years' post-qualification legal experience with a combination of top-tier private practice and significant in-house experience.
- Strong background in commercial technology transactions and complex contract negotiations.
- Experience supporting innovative, high-growth technology businesses operating in emerging or rapidly evolving sectors.
- Deep understanding of IP, software licensing, data rights and technology commercialisation.
- Experience building legal infrastructure in an early-stage or scaling business, ideally as the first or early legal hire.
- Confident operating independently and making pragmatic, risk-based decisions in a fast-paced environment.
- JD (or equivalent) and active bar membership.
What's on Offer
- Opportunity to build and lead the legal function from day one.
- Direct access to founders and executive leadership.
- Exposure to cutting-edge AI and emerging technologies.
- Highly competitive compensation package including meaningful equity.
- High-impact role with significant autonomy and long-term growth potential.
