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Perplexity AI, an AI answer engine and search product for consumers and enterprises, is seeking a Senior Commercial Counsel to join its Legal team. This is a hands-on, high-impact role focused on independently leading enterprise customer negotiations and building scalable legal infrastructure as the company grows.
You will own end-to-end drafting, review, and negotiation of enterprise customer agreements across Perplexity's product suite (Enterprise Pro, Enterprise Max, Computer, and API offerings), including MSAs, order forms, SaaS and API terms, data processing agreements (DPAs), business associate agreements (BAAs), security exhibits, and public-sector vehicles such as GSA MAS orders and federal RFP responses. You will serve as a trusted legal partner to Enterprise Sales, Partnerships, Deal Desk, and Customer Success, providing fast, practical counsel that accelerates deal velocity while protecting critical terms.
Key responsibilities include extending and maintaining the enterprise negotiation playbook, DPA and privacy notice architecture, and product-specific term libraries as the product surface and regulatory environment evolve. You will advise on AI-specific contract terms for enterprise deployments, including data postures, output ownership, liability allocation for agentic features, and translating product operations into enterprise commitments. You will partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Security, Privacy, Finance, and Compliance to surface and address legal risk early, particularly around customer-data flows, enterprise integrations, and compliance requirements.
You will monitor the evolving regulatory landscape for enterprise AI, data protection, and public-sector procurement (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, HIPAA, DORA, EU AI Act, sector-specific frameworks) and translate emerging requirements into practical contractual positions. You will represent Perplexity Legal externally on customer negotiation calls with sophisticated enterprise counterparties.
The ideal candidate is an exceptional communicator who owns deadlines, proactively manages expectations, and escalates early to protect deal momentum. You are a proactive problem-solver who defaults to enabling the business, frames risk clearly, and designs long-term, scalable solutions. You are a disciplined drafter who favors surgical edits over wholesale rewrites and can articulate complex legal concepts in simple, actionable terms for non-legal stakeholders. You are genuinely excited by novel, cutting-edge challenges in AI products and enjoy turning ambiguity into clear, reusable approaches.
REQUIREMENTS:
- JD and active U.S. state bar membership in good standing
- At least 7+ years of combined law firm and in-house experience, with substantial in-house component
- Demonstrated track record of independently owning complex enterprise SaaS or API deals from the vendor side, including work with regulated-industry customers (financial services, healthcare, or government)
- Experience advising on commercial terms and pricing structures for high-growth SaaS/API businesses, including usage-based and tiered pricing, pilots, and expansion frameworks
- Familiarity with data protection and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, DORA, EU AI Act) and hands-on experience negotiating DPAs
- Strong business acumen and ability to partner effectively with Sales, Deal Desk, Product, Security, and executive stakeholders on live deals under time pressure
- Proven ability to triage and progress multiple concurrent deals under tight timelines while maintaining rigorous diligence and high-quality documentation
- Demonstrated ability to build and extend durable legal infrastructure (playbooks, templates, precedent repositories, self-serve tools)
- Ability to communicate clearly with business and technical audiences and translate legal concepts into usable guidance for non-lawyers
- Hands-on, can-do approach with low ego, judgment about escalation, positive collaborative attitude, comfort with ambiguity and fast pace, high integrity, and intellectual curiosity about AI technology
NICE TO HAVE:
- Prior experience with public-sector contracting or on-prem deployment structures
- Experience with AI-native contracting questions related to agentic products
- Experience contracting with regulated entities (financial institutions or healthcare), especially in EU/UK
About Perplexity AI
AI / Data / Infrastructure — AI answer engine and search product for consumers and enterprises.
