Sr. Legal Counsel

About AssemblyAI

At AssemblyAI, we’re creating a leading Applied AI company by building powerful models to transcribe and understand audio data, exposed through a straightforward web API. 

Progress in AI is moving at an unprecedented pace–we keep our pulse on the latest developments and breakthroughs in AI research and use these advances to inform our production-ready AI models. Our Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) models already outperform companies like Google, AWS, and Microsoft - which is why hundreds of companies and thousands of developers are using our API to transcribe and understand millions of videos, podcasts, phone calls, and Zoom meetings every day.

We’ve raised funding by leading investors including Accel, Insight Partners, Y Combinator’s AI Fund, Patrick and John Collision, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. As part of a huge and emerging market, AssemblyAI is well on its way to becoming the leader in applied AI.

Join our world-class, remote team and help us build an iconic AI company!

About the Role:

AssemblyAI is growing quickly, and we’re seeking an experienced Legal Counsel to join our team as the first Legal team member. The successful candidate will work closely with our Sales team, with responsibility for all aspects of the commercial contract process, including preparing and negotiating customer agreements in support of our sales organization and performing similar work with respect to vendor and service provider agreements for the procurement, technology and other business departments. This will necessitate working closely with Sales, IT, Procurement, Finance and Customer Service. The position will report directly into our COO. 

What You’ll Do:

• Draft, review and negotiate complex business agreements, including customer contracts/renewals, vendor, NDAs, and other commercial agreements
• Ensure that all contracts and agreements comply with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards
• Manage and timely respond to various legal requests and special projects
• Provide guidance to leadership and other internal teams on legal risks and benefits of specific contracts to the company
• Provide timely and practical legal advice, taking into account the relevant legal issues and risks, agreement structures, approval processes, and company policies and procedures
• Collaborate with the Sales team to support the review and response for RFPs
• Conduct legal research to actively monitor and support AssemblyAI in adapting to evolving regulations and industry standards
• Develop and implement standardized templates and processes for consistency in legal terms and language
• Stay informed of industry-specific regulations to support appropriate risk management strategies
• Assist compliance function, including monitoring of legislation and regulations, as well as review and implementation of policies

• Engage with AssemblyAI’s Technology team to ensure compliance with data security requirements enforced by various jurisdictions and customer
• Provide support for other special corporate projects

What You’ll Need:

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school, as well as an active membership/license in good standing in a state bar association
• 4+ years of experience in contract law; drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a variety of commercial contracts and agreements
• Experience working with technology companies highly preferred
• Experience managing workload in a high-pressure environment with competing demands
• Effective communication, and the ability to explain complex legal concepts to non-legal team members
• A proactive, business-minded approach to problem-solving, with a commitment to providing practical legal advice and solutions.

Pay Transparency:

AssemblyAI strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size, stage and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide.

There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range.

Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change i