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AfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development, serving frontier AI labs with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. The company is YC's fastest unicorn, valued at $3.2 billion, backed by leading investors including Altos Ventures, BoxGroup, Y Combinator, and angels from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI.
This is AfterQuery's first dedicated, in-house legal role: a Corporate Counsel who will own commercial contracting and employment law matters as the company scales rapidly in revenue and headcount. This is a generalist, individual-contributor role embedded within the internal Operations team—not a General Counsel or Head of Legal position. You'll be the day-to-day legal voice on deals and people matters, working closely with outside counsel on specialized or high-stakes matters.
In commercial contracts, you will draft, negotiate, and redline data acquisition and data licensing agreements with enterprise customers; draft and negotiate Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), and vendor paper for compute/cloud infrastructure providers and frontier labs; own data processing agreements (DPAs) and related data rights provisions; maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, and redline positions to speed up deal cycles; and partner with Sales/GTM and Finance on deal structuring, pricing terms, and contract risk tradeoffs.
On employment and labor law, you will draft and review independent contractor agreements, employment agreements, offer letters, and compensation/bonus plan language; advise the 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 manage related compliance risk; and support HR compliance projects such as international hiring, policy updates, and state-specific requirements.
For general legal and advisory matters, you will triage incoming legal questions across the business and resolve what's appropriately in-house; know when to escalate export control/sanctions review, corporate financing/cap table matters, and data incident/privacy investigations to outside counsel; and 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; ability to provide 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
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; experience partnering cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, and People teams
BONUS:
- Prior experience with AI/data companies, data/technology licensing, or technology transactions with hyperscalers/cloud providers
- Experience as the first or second legal hire at another startup with focus on contract and/or employment law
- Experience with equity administration tools (Pulley, Carta) or HRIS platforms (Gusto)
