Associate General Counsel

Manifest OS•New York City, NY

11d•Onsite

About The Position

Manifest OS is the leading AI-native company on a mission to replace the billable hour and make legal services more accessible for American businesses and consumers. We power the next generation of AI-native law firms with one unified global brand, a proprietary technology platform, and a centralized back office, enabling lawyers to eliminate the administrative burden and focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for their clients. Manifest OS has raised a $60M Series A from Menlo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, First Round, and Quiet Capital. You'll be joining a lean, high-impact legal team that moves at the speed of the business and see ourselves as strategic partners who enable growth, not gatekeepers who slow it down. The team is collaborative, pragmatic, and constantly looking for ways to work smarter, including working with AI tools to automate routine work and focus on what actually matters. We're looking for an Associate General Counsel who can wear multiple hats and thrive in ambiguity. This isn't a narrow specialist role — you'll work across legal ethics, privacy, AI regulation, commercial contracts, immigration and whatever else the business needs. The common thread is judgment: knowing when to move fast and when to pump the brakes, when to escalate and when to handle it yourself. This role exists because we're at an inflection point. We're scaling quickly, operating in highly regulated areas (legal ethics, AI, privacy, immigration), and need someone who can build systems and processes that scale with us. You'll have real ownership — not just executing on someone else's roadmap, but shaping how we approach legal risk, vendor relationships, compliance programs, and internal workflows. What makes this role compelling is the combination of strategic impact and hands-on execution. You'll be in the room for major decisions, but you'll also be the one drafting the contract or filing the visa petition. You'll work directly with founders, executives, and cross-functional leaders who value legal as a partner, not a cost center. And you'll have the autonomy to experiment with AI tools to reinvent how legal work gets done — we want someone who's excited about that, not intimidated by it.

Requirements

3-6 years practicing law, likely starting at a law firm before moving in-house or working as a GC or AGC at an earlier-stage company.
Experience in legal ethics, employment law, commercial and SAAS contracts.
Hands-on work navigating visa petitions, sponsorships, compliance audits, and the messy realities of hiring global talent.
Understanding of AI and privacy law, whether that's GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, or the emerging patchwork of AI regulations.
Resourceful and commercial.
Ability to know when to bring in outside counsel and when to handle something yourself.
Ability to know when a contract needs serious negotiation and when it's fine to sign as-is.
Detail-oriented.
Comfortable making judgment calls.
Genuinely curious about AI.
Excited about experimenting with AI tools, contract review platforms, or workflow automation.

Nice To Haves

Experience as an internal lawyer — how to prioritize, how to say no without being obstructionist, how to move the business forward while managing risk.
Not needing to be the world's leading expert in AI and privacy law, but knowing enough to spot issues, ask the right questions, and build scalable frameworks.
Not being paralyzed by the fear of getting something wrong.
Not needing to be a technologist.
Valuing impact over prestige; would rather build something meaningful at a growing company than collect a fancy title at a big corporation.

Responsibilities

Take the lead on privacy and AI compliance, building frameworks that allow us to move fast without creating unnecessary risk.
Stay on top of regulatory developments, translating legal requirements into practical guidance, and partnering with product, engineering, and operations to embed compliance into workflows.
Handle a wide range of commercial work — reviewing vendor contracts, negotiating customer agreements, advising on partnerships, and supporting M&A or fundraising when needed.
Be the go-to lawyer for cross-functional teams, which means you'll need to build trust, communicate clearly, and deliver advice that's practical and grounded in business reality.
Experiment with AI tools to improve how the legal team works.
Help define what the future of legal work looks like at this company.