Corporate Legal Director (R6494)

Shield AI•San Mateo, CA

1d•$270,000 - $400,000•Onsite

About The Position

Shield AI is seeking a Director, Legal to provide hands-on legal leadership across product counseling; marketing, AI governance and privacy; technology and company compliance programs; and general corporate, employment and litigation matters. The role supports the business in moving quickly while managing risk in a highly regulated environment, and is responsible for building scalable programs, policies and playbooks that enable product development, launches, marketing, AI adoption and company growth. The Director will serve as a primary legal partner to teams that build, ship and sell Hivemind and Shield AI’s other software, as well as People Experience, Marketing and IT. The role requires executive and external credibility, action orientation amid shifting priorities, and practical, needs-driven program building. It is an on-site position at one of Shield AI’s offices. The Director reports to the Senior Director, Legal, works closely with the Chief Legal Officer and the broader Legal and Security teams, and may mentor attorneys and legal professionals and manage outside counsel as the business expands.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
12 or more years of legal experience, including substantial in-house product-counsel experience at a high-growth technology, software, AI, aerospace or defense company.
Deep experience in product counseling and technology transactions, including software licensing and distribution across on-premises, SaaS, embedded, OEM and channel models, and strategic technology partnerships.
Demonstrated experience building or running privacy and AI governance programs, with working knowledge of GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, the EU AI Act and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Hands-on experience building or running an open source software compliance program and drafting technology policies, such as acceptable-use and AI-use policies.
Experience advising marketing and communications teams on advertising, promotions and public claims.
Working knowledge of employment law and experience managing litigation and disputes with outside counsel.
Executive presence and communication skills to advise C-suite executives and senior leaders and represent the company credibly with external partners and customers.
Highly action-oriented, with a record of managing multiple projects and workflows and delivering quickly amid urgent and shifting priorities.
Ability to operate at strategic and tactical levels in a lean, high-tempo environment using a practical, risk-based approach that enables the business.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting a large, fast-growing private company through late-venture stages and toward public-company or larger-private-company maturity.
Experience in AI/ML, autonomy, robotics, aerospace/aviation or dual-use technologies, and familiarity with defense and government-contracting requirements such as ITAR/EAR, DFARS data rights, FedRAMP and CMMC.
Privacy or AI governance certification, such as CIPP/US, CIPP/E or AIGP.
Experience with M&A due diligence and post-close integration, including integration of acquired products and teams.
Experience with international operations across Europe, the Middle East or Asia-Pacific.
Experience building and mentoring legal teams and deploying AI-enabled legal tools and processes.
Experience at a leading law firm.

Responsibilities

Advise Product, Engineering, Program Management, Customer Success, Information Security and Business Development throughout the product lifecycle for Hivemind and other software offerings, including feature design, data use, go-to-market and customer-facing terms.
Counsel on legal and regulatory issues involving AI, autonomy, data use, software and dual-use technology, including IP ownership, training data and model rights, third-party and foundation-model use, output ownership and government data rights.
Structure, draft and negotiate software license agreements, SDK and developer terms, end user license agreements and partner agreements, including OEM and platform integration, reseller and aggregator, joint development, technology licensing and data-sharing arrangements.
Build and operate scalable product-counsel processes, including feature and launch reviews, legal intake, playbooks, standard positions, contractual fallbacks and self-service guidance.
Partner with Trade Compliance on export classification and ITAR/EAR controls at the point of product decisions, and with Government Contracts on product licensing terms, DFARS data rights, cybersecurity requirements and flow-downs.
Coordinate with IP counsel on invention disclosures, patent and trade secret protection, freedom-to-operate matters and protection of sensitive technology in commercial and government-facing deals.
Review marketing and communications activities, including campaigns, product claims, press releases, social media, trade shows and events, sponsorships, contests, promotions, and customer and partner case studies.
Coordinate with Marketing, Communications, Security and Trade Compliance to appropriately clear public content about government customers, programs and technical capabilities, and develop an efficient AI-assisted marketing review process.
Help lead the AI governance program, including supporting the AI Governance committee, maintaining the AI use-case risk rubric and inventory, and developing policies, standards and controls for product AI features and internally used AI tools.
Translate AI frameworks and laws into practical requirements, including the EU AI Act, NIST AI Risk Management Framework, U.S. federal and state AI laws, and U.S. Department of Defense policy on responsible AI and autonomy in weapon systems.
Advise IT, Security and enterprise teams on AI vendor and model-provider agreements, AI tool procurement, data processing terms and agentic AI use cases.
Develop and operate parts of the privacy program, including privacy-by-design reviews, privacy notices, data processing agreements, cross-border transfers, data mapping and data subject requests under GDPR/UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA and other applicable laws.
Partner with PX and IT on employee and candidate data, data sensitivity labeling and enterprise data governance, and develop standard responses to recurring customer AI, privacy and security questionnaires.
Design, document and implement technology and software-development policies, processes and controls to support company maturity and public-company readiness.
Build and scale the open source software compliance program, including policy, intake and approval workflows, license review, SBOM and software composition analysis tooling with Engineering and Security, remediation and outbound contribution policy.
Develop, roll out and maintain AI, authorized-use and acceptable-use policies, including policies for internal AI, IT and data use, and customer-facing Hivemind and other software terms covering customer AI and agentic systems.
Partner with Finance, Internal Audit, IT and Security on legal input for controls and certifications supporting public-company and customer requirements, including SOX IT general controls, ISO 27001 and CMMC; establish policy governance, owners, review cadence, attestations and training.
Prepare IP and technology records for diligence, including IP chain of title, inventories of inbound licenses and third-party software and data, contract repository hygiene, and input on AI, privacy, cybersecurity and IP risk disclosures.
Train teammates on policies and processes so compliance is integrated into engineering, product and business workflows.
Partner with PX and employment counsel on employment matters, including workplace investigations, separations and releases, restrictive covenants, contractor classification, handbook and policy updates, and multi-state and international employment questions.
Help manage litigation, arbitration and pre-litigation disputes with outside counsel, including case strategy, budgets, legal holds, demand letters, and IP and commercial disputes, under the direction of the Senior Director, Legal and Chief Legal Officer.
Support corporate projects, including M&A due diligence and post-close integration, strategic partnerships and investments, Board and executive materials within the role’s scope, and special initiatives.
Manage outside counsel and legal spend efficiently, with clear scopes, budgets and outcomes.
Collaborate with executives, business leaders, engineers, operators, external partners, customers, government stakeholders and outside counsel, tailoring communication to the audience.
Manage concurrent projects and workflows, reprioritize as business needs and urgent requests shift, take matters from intake to completion, anticipate next steps, escalate issues with options and recommendations, and follow through.
Mentor and develop attorneys and legal professionals and help build and scale the team supporting PX, Marketing, IT/AI and the Hivemind business.
Build and improve templates, playbooks and trackers, and use legal technology and AI-enabled tools to improve speed, consistency and quality.
Handle highly confidential, sensitive and export-controlled information with discretion and professionalism.