Corporate Counsel

AfterQuery•San Francisco, CA

70d•Onsite

About The Position

AfterQuery is hiring its first dedicated, in-house legal role: a Corporate Counsel who will own commercial contracting and employment law matters as the company scales rapidly in revenue and headcount. This is a generalist, individual-contributor role embedded within the internal Operations team. This is not a General Counsel or Head of Legal position. The role will be the day-to-day legal voice on deals and people matters, working closely with outside counsel on specialized or high-stakes matters. Contract velocity and precision on data rights, compute terms, and compliance are critical to revenue and risk. Getting employment law right is directly related to how the company scales its team and manages risk as it grows.

Requirements

JD and active California bar admission.
3-6 years of experience spanning both commercial contracts and employment law.
Background at a boutique tech/startup-focused or generalist business law firm, ideally combined with in-house experience at an early-stage tech company.
Strong judgment on risk vs. reward tradeoffs; provides decisive recommendations on business and strategy matters informed by legal knowledge.
Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal oversight, including sound judgment on when to escalate to outside counsel.
Motivated by hands-on individual contribution rather than team-building; you'd rather solve a problem yourself or find the right tool than hire your way out of it.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; experience partnering cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, and People teams.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience with AI/data companies, data / technology licensing, or technology transactions with hyperscalers/cloud providers.
Experience as the first or second legal hire at another startup with focus on contract and/or employment law.
Experience with equity administration tools (Pulley, Carta) or HRIS platforms (Gusto).

Responsibilities

Draft, negotiate, and redline data acquisition and data licensing agreements with enterprise customers.
Draft and negotiate Master Service Agreements (MSAs), SOWs, and vendor paper for compute/cloud infrastructure providers and frontier lab & other clients.
Own data processing agreements (DPAs) and related data rights provisions in customer and vendor contracts.
Maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, and redline positions to speed up deal cycles.
Partner with Sales/GTM and Finance on deal structuring, pricing terms, and contract risk tradeoffs.
Draft and review independent contractor agreements, employment agreements, offer letters, and compensation/bonus plan language.
Advise People team on day-to-day employment and labor law questions, including compensation agreements, equity administration, hiring, separation and termination, leave, wage and hour, and handbook/policy compliance.
Advise on worker classification and help manage related compliance risk across engagement types.
Support HR compliance projects (e.g., international hiring, policy updates, state-specific requirements) as AfterQuery's footprint grows.
Triage incoming legal questions across the business and resolve what's appropriately in-house.
Know when to escalate: export control/sanctions review, corporate financing/cap table matters, and data incident/privacy investigations stay with outside counsel — you'll partner with them on these, not run them solo.
Help manage the outside counsel relationship and budget as in-house scope grows.