Director of Legal

Overview

This role will serve as the organization’s first dedicated in-house legal hire: Director of Legal. The position owns the commercial contracting engine that keeps deals moving—client insertion orders, NDAs, DPAs, and partner and vendor agreements—almost entirely under US law.

You will report directly to the CEO and triage employment and general legal matters as they arise. You will also manage outside firms used for work beyond day-to-day commercial contracts. The role operates within the parent company’s legal standards and partners with the parent legal team on cross-entity and higher-complexity matters.

A key part of the role is building the contracting process from scratch, including templates, negotiation posture, triage processes, and outside counsel management.

Responsibilities

Commercial Contracting

• Draft, negotiate, and close client insertion orders (IOs), NDAs, and partner and vendor agreements under US law
• Own data processing agreements (DPAs), balancing client and regulatory requirements against actual data flows and the vendor stack
• Build and maintain a library of templates, playbooks, and fallback positions for IOs, NDAs, and DPAs to reduce turnaround time and minimize full legal reviews for common deals
• Build and run AI tools and workflows to process template-driven documents (such as NDAs), keeping legal review focused on non-standard terms

Legal Operations & Outside Counsel

• Triage incoming employment and general legal questions; resolve straightforward matters directly and route more complex issues to outside counsel with clear scoping
• Manage outside law firms by controlling spend, scoping matters, and holding firms accountable to timelines and cost
• Serve as the first point of contact for legal questions across the organization, providing the CEO and leadership with a clear view of risk before it becomes a decision point

Growth & Partnership

• Partner with sales, partnerships, and finance to understand deal structures and vendor relationships well enough to identify issues before they reach contract stage
• Coordinate with the parent company’s legal team on matters that cross entities or require broader legal support
• Develop a track record that supports expanding the legal remit as needs scale

Requirements

Required Skills and Experience

• JD and active bar admission in at least one US state
• At least 3 years of post-JD experience in commercial or transactional practice (in-house or law firm), with hands-on drafting and negotiation of commercial agreements (e.g., IOs, NDAs, MSAs, or equivalent)
• Direct experience negotiating DPAs and working knowledge of US state data privacy frameworks (including CCPA) and GDPR as they apply to vendor and partner data flows
• Demonstrated comfort operating independently under US law (this is a one-person legal function reporting directly to the CEO, with no internal legal team to rely on day-to-day)
• Experience managing or coordinating with outside counsel, including scoping matters and controlling spend
• Ability to manage commercial disputes and aspects of negotiations with minimal supervision

Preferred Qualifications

• Working familiarity with employment law fundamentals in California, New York, and other states where the organization has or expects significant headcount—enough to triage confidently
• Experience at a media, adtech, SaaS, or programmatic advertising company where IOs and partner agreements are a high-volume, recurring contract type
• Prior in-house experience is a plus, not a requirement

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation details were not provided.

Location & Work Setup

• Bay Area, CA preferred; New York, NY is equally good
• Los Angeles and Las Vegas are also acceptable
• Fully remote is possible for the right candidate, but co-location with the executive team is preferred

Work Style Expectations

• Extreme Ownership
• Move Fast
• Drive for Excellence
• Proactive Communication
• Courage
• Curiosity
• Deliver Results
• Manage Ambiguity