Associate Counsel, Innovation and Thought Leadership

Airbnb

1d•$157,000 - $185,000•Remote

About The Position

Airbnb is seeking an Associate Counsel to join their Commercial & Technology Legal team, with a focus on intellectual property transactions and open source. This role involves partnering with various company teams to support the infrastructure and products used globally, aiding Airbnb in innovation and rapid development while protecting its intellectual property, brand, and technology ecosystem. The position is primarily transactional and advisory, not litigation or patent prosecution. The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in Airbnb's mission and a commitment to ethics, integrity, diversity, and belonging. The legal team at Airbnb is described as embodying the company's innovative and forward-thinking spirit, working at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds to build trustworthy AI and technology. The team is composed of talented, collaborative, and self-motivated professionals globally who are dedicated to Airbnb's mission and to leading as a 21st-century company.

Requirements

At least three years as an attorney at a law firm, in government, or in-house, with significant experience in technology transactions and advising technical teams.
Working knowledge of copyright, trademark, and patent fundamentals and their application in technology and product contexts.
Experience drafting and negotiating IP and licensing provisions across various agreements.
Solid understanding of open source licensing and compliance.
Familiarity with AI licensing, particularly its intersection with open source.
Strong analytical and risk-framing skills, with practical cost/benefit judgment in a fast-paced environment.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex legal issues to non-lawyers.
Ability to manage multiple matters, prioritize tasks, and drive them to resolution with a high degree of ownership.
Sound judgment regarding independent handling of issues and escalation when necessary.
A good sense of humor, a dislike for drama, and a drive to accomplish tasks.
Passion for travel and a deep appreciation for the Airbnb community.
Licensed attorney in good standing with the bar of at least one U.S. state or territory.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience advising engineering, data science, infrastructure, or developer platform teams.
Familiarity with common open source licenses (e.g., MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL/LGPL, AGPL) and typical compliance workflows (e.g., dependency review, notices, attribution, policy-based approvals).
Experience negotiating sponsored research agreements and contracting with universities, public or private.
Exposure to marketing and advertising law in external messaging, including FTC basics, endorsements and testimonials, substantiation, and comparative claims.
Deeper experience with AI/ML IP issues, such as training-data rights, model and dataset licensing, and output ownership.
Sufficient technical fluency to engage with engineers, gained through a technical degree, coding experience, or hands-on work with ML or developer tools.
Experience using or building legal self-service tools and agents.

Responsibilities

Provide pragmatic guidance on open source licensing, compliance, and contribution practices (inbound use and outbound releases), including the intersection of open source and AI, such as model and dataset licenses.
Collaborate with Engineering, Security, Infrastructure, Brand, and other teams to enhance open source policies and workflows.
Advise on open source governance topics, including internal use of third-party open source, 'copyleft' risks, contributing to external projects, CLA review, and determining when and how Airbnb code may be open sourced.
Review external-facing materials such as academic papers, articles, conference talks, developer programs, and technology-related blog and social posts before publication, identifying intellectual property, confidentiality, trade secrets, claims substantiation, third-party rights, and open source-adjacent messaging.
Negotiate research and data agreements with public and private universities, covering sponsored research, publication rights, IP ownership, and commercial-use rights.
Draft and review intellectual property and licensing terms in intercompany and other commercial agreements.
Advise senior leaders on intellectual property release strategies (public vs. internal), review employee outside-work requests for IP and conflict concerns, and assess IP contamination risk.
Develop and maintain playbooks, templates, and training materials to assist other lawyers and business partners in addressing common IP and open source questions.
Provide practical legal advice on a broad range of IP matters for data science, engineering, and business teams, including licensing issues related to product development, tooling, and infrastructure.
Partner with Marketing, Communications, and Legal colleagues, and liaise with international counterparts, to ensure consistency in guidance across brand, marketing, and technology narratives and across different regions.