Founding Legal Counsel

FOUNDING LEGAL COUNSEL WHAT YOU’LL DO - Act as day-to-day legal partner to founders and leadership across company decisions - Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements including customer, partner, vendor, and research collaborations - Support hiring and people operations including employment agreements, contractor arrangements, policies, and compliance - Manage intellectual property matters including NDAs, invention assignment, open source use, and coordination with outside patent counsel - Handle corporate governance, board materials, subsidiary setup, equity administration, and related documentation - Support fundraising and financing processes alongside outside counsel - Advise on regulatory and operational risk related to robotics, autonomy, data, and deployment in the physical world - Develop practical policies and lightweight processes that enable speed while maintaining compliance - Coordinate and manage outside counsel across corporate, employment, IP, and regulatory matters - Provide clear, actionable guidance to non-legal teams - Operate as a hands-on generalist and take ownership of issues end-to-end WHAT YOU’LL BRING - J.D. and active membership in the California State Bar - Experience at a law firm or in-house role covering multiple legal domains - Comfort operating as a generalist across corporate, commercial, employment, and IP matters - Familiarity with French law and regulatory frameworks, particularly as they relate to corporate structure, employment, or cross-border operation - Experience negotiating technology, commercial, or partnership agreements - Ability to translate legal risk into practical business guidance - High ownership, autonomy, and sound judgment - Ability to work closely with engineers, researchers, and operations teams - Comfort operating in a fast-moving and ambiguous environment - Strong written and verbal communication - Ideally: Experience at a startup or high-growth technology company - Ideally: Experience supporting venture financings and board governance - Ideally: Familiarity with hardware, robotics, autonomy, or AI companies - Ideally: Experience building legal processes from zero and scaling them over time - Ideally: Experience working with intellectual property in Asia