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Handshake is a career platform powering 25 million job seekers, 1 million+ employers, and 1,600 educational institutions. In 2025, the company launched Handshake AI, a rapidly growing AI data business that has scaled from $0 to ~$1B run rate in under a year, working directly with frontier AI labs and Fortune 500 partners to create evaluations, publish benchmarks, and advance AI capabilities. The company pays ~$60M monthly to over 30K individuals for data contributions.
Reporting to the General Counsel, you will define and lead the commercial legal strategy for Handshake AI and Handshake AI Enterprise, focusing on the company's most strategic frontier lab and enterprise customer relationships. You will serve as lead lawyer, strategic advisor, and deal quarterback on high-value, bespoke transactions.
Key responsibilities include:
• Own the legal strategy and negotiation of Handshake AI's most important customer and partner transactions, including AI data and training agreements, enterprise AI services, and strategic partnerships.
• Create novel commercial structures for complex opportunities where market standards are still developing, translating product, operational, and economic objectives into durable agreements and clear risk allocations.
• Lead negotiations and provide practical advice on data rights, model-training and output rights, IP ownership and licensing, privacy, and security, with deep understanding of how these terms affect Handshake's products and delivery model.
• Represent Handshake directly with sophisticated customer legal teams and senior stakeholders, lead high-stakes negotiations, brief executives on material issues, and drive decisions that keep strategic deals moving.
• Partner closely with Sales, Partnerships, Product, and Operations throughout the deal lifecycle—from opportunity shaping and term-sheet strategy through negotiation, signature, implementation, renewal, and expansion.
• Build templates, playbooks, approval frameworks, deal-desk practices, and contracting workflows to improve deal velocity and risk calibration; establish and grow the commercial legal function as the business scales.
Requirements:
• JD and active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. state bar (California admission or eligibility to register as in-house counsel in California required).
• 10+ years of combined legal experience, including law firm training and in-house experience at a sophisticated technology company.
• Track record of structuring, negotiating, and closing complex, high-value commercial transactions with enterprise customers.
• Deep experience with enterprise technology and data licensing, including data-use rights, IP, privacy, and security terms.
• Exceptional commercial instinct and judgment, with ability to identify what matters and calibrate risk to business objectives.
• Executive presence and comfort with ambiguity, with communication skills to earn trust with fast-moving internal teams and senior stakeholders.
Bonus qualifications: Experience with AI data or training agreements, enterprise AI services, or transactions with frontier AI labs; prior experience as first or senior commercial lawyer for a high-growth business, including building scalable contracting processes.
