Overview
Sole Counsel / First Legal Hire | AI Startup Jobs in San Francisco Bay Area at Greenway Collins
Title: Sole Counsel / First Legal Hire | AI Startup
Company: Greenway Collins
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
A fast-growing, very well capitalised AI startup is hiring its first in-house legal counsel.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role for a commercial lawyer who must already be working in a startup or high-growth technology environment and wants to work directly with founders.
You will be the company’s legal owner from day one: handling commercial contracts, advising on IP, data and product questions, building basic legal processes, managing outside counsel, and helping the business move quickly without creating unnecessary risk.
This is not an enterprise legal role. There is no large legal team, no inherited process, and no expectation that you will manage lawyers in the near term. The right person will be comfortable drafting, negotiating, deciding, educating the business, and building from scratch.
Location
San Mateo, 5 days per week in office, non-negotiable.
Compensation
Base salary expected around $250,000 to $350,000, plus equity.
What You’ll Do
Own day-to-day commercial legal work across NDAs, MSAs, customer agreements, pilot agreements, vendor contracts, partnership agreements and related negotiations.
Work closely with founders, product, engineering, commercial and operations teams on legal questions that often do not have obvious precedent.
Advise on IP, data rights, licensing, confidentiality, product risk, AI-related terms and technology transactions.
Build practical legal infrastructure from zero: contract templates, negotiation playbooks, approval processes, contract storage, outside counsel workflows and legal escalation routes.
Help the company make fast, sensible risk decisions without slowing down the pace of the business.
What We’re Looking For
-5-8 years+ of legal experience.
-Current or recent in-house legal experience at a tech startup.
-Strong commercial contracting experience.
-Comfort working as the sole lawyer or in a very lean legal team.
-Good judgement, low ego, and willingness to stay close to the work.
-Ability to explain legal issues clearly to founders and non-lawyers.
-Interest in AI, frontier technology, robotics, crypto, developer tools, autonomy, fintech, prediction markets, defence tech or other areas where the legal questions are still evolving.
Apply
This is a rare opportunity to become the first legal hire at an ambitious AI company, work directly with founders, and build the legal function from the ground up.
Please apply with a CV or LinkedIn profile for a confidential discussion.
