Overview
The organization is seeking a Head of Legal to build and lead the legal function through its next stage of growth.
This senior legal leadership role partners with executives and cross-functional teams to navigate complex legal and business considerations, manage risk, and develop the capabilities needed to support a growing, globally distributed technology company.
A key early priority is strengthening commercial legal capabilities, including hiring a dedicated leader to own contracts and help scale commercial transactions.
Responsibilities
- Build and evolve the strategy, priorities, operating model, and team for the legal function.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to executives and cross-functional leaders, translating legal complexity into clear, practical business guidance.
- Identify material risks, evaluate tradeoffs, and recommend appropriate safeguards.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, Sales, Finance, People, Operations, Marketing, and other teams on company priorities.
- Advise across matters that may include:
- Corporate governance
- Product development
- Open-source software
- Intellectual property
- Privacy, data, and AI
- Security
- Employment
- Commercial relationships
- Compliance
- International operations
- Build scalable legal processes, policies, systems, and decision-making frameworks without unnecessary complexity.
- Determine which legal capabilities should be developed internally, delegated, or supported by outside counsel.
- Hire and empower legal team members, including building a dedicated commercial legal capability.
- Select and manage outside counsel across the countries where the organization operates, balancing expertise, responsiveness, cost, and business impact.
- Coordinate guidance across jurisdictions and translate local requirements into practical, consistent company practices.
- Support strategic partnerships, corporate initiatives, and other business-critical matters.
- Anticipate emerging legal and regulatory developments and help the organization prepare.
Requirements
- Significant legal experience, including meaningful in-house experience within a technology company and a track record of helping legal functions scale in startup or high-growth environments.
- A law degree and active membership in at least one applicable bar or equivalent authorization to practice law.
- Progressive growth in scope, complexity, ownership, and influence.
- Broad business judgment and the ability to navigate legal issues beyond a single area of specialization.
- Experience advising executives and senior leaders on complex or consequential decisions.
- Ability to understand business goals, identify material risks, and recommend practical paths forward.
- Experience partnering effectively with technical, operational, and commercial teams.
- Familiarity with legal considerations facing a growing software or technology company.
- Experience working with outside counsel and turning specialized advice into clear business recommendations.
- Track record of building or improving legal capabilities, teams, programs, processes, or areas of practice.
- Strong communication skills and ability to explain complex issues to different audiences.
- Sound judgment, curiosity, and confidence to challenge constructively when needed.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and balancing strategic leadership with hands-on execution.
- Admission and good standing with at least one applicable state, provincial, or other recognized bar association.
Preferred Qualifications
Relevant experience may include:
- Developer tools, infrastructure, cloud, networking, cybersecurity, data, or another technically complex software environment.
- Open-source software, licensing, developer ecosystems, APIs, integrations, marketplaces, or technology partnerships.
- Product counseling, privacy, data governance, cybersecurity, intellectual property, or emerging technology.
- AI-enabled products or use of AI within company operations.
- Cloud, on-premises, self-hosted, or hybrid software offerings.
- Data residency, sovereignty, localization, or cross-border data considerations.
- Supporting employees or business operations across multiple countries.
- Corporate governance, financing, strategic transactions, or board-related matters.
- Building or scaling a legal function within a growth-stage company.
- Hiring, developing, or leading in-house legal professionals.
Compensation & Benefits
- Base salary range (US): $223,000—$319,000 USD
- Compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits.
- Employer-funded retirement contributions: the organization matches retirement contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of eligible compensation.
- Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period, including health, vision, dental, and more.
- Paid time off with a flexible paid time off program.
- Paid parental leave program with parental leave top-ups (20 weeks for birthing parents, 16 weeks for non-birthing parents).
- Professional development support: $1500 USD annually.
- Build-your-own home office setup: company-owned laptop (Mac or PC), monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD to customize the workstation.
Location
Remote-first. Most teams work fully remotely. Some roles may require in-office collaboration depending on team needs, which will be clearly noted in the job description.
In-person collaboration and travel may include team connection across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.