Director, Legal (Procurement and Strategic Sourcing)

Nscale•Seattle, WA

12h•$210,000 - $340,000

About The Position

Nscale is seeking a Director, Legal (Procurement and Strategic Sourcing) to lead legal support for its engineering and technology supply chain. This role involves structuring and negotiating high-value supply, OEM, reseller, and software agreements essential for Nscale's AI cloud infrastructure. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of hardware and software sourcing, licensing, delivery, and support, with the ability to protect Nscale's interests in areas like allocation, delivery, warranty, and liability without hindering business operations. The position also includes building the procurement legal function as the company scales.

Requirements

JD from an accredited US law school and active membership in good standing of at least one US state bar.
8–12 years of legal experience at a leading law firm and/or in-house, with significant focus on technology procurement and supply agreements.
Substantial experience negotiating agreements for hardware, software, and networking components, such as GPUs and servers, switches, optics and cabling, storage, and related firmware and software, preferably for data center, cloud, telecom, or semiconductor businesses.
Working knowledge of hardware supply chain dynamics, including allocation, lead times, warranty and RMA models, and supplier financing or prepayment structures.
Familiarity with export controls, sanctions, and trade compliance as applied to advanced computing.
Experience leading or mentoring lawyers and non-lawyer professionals.
Exceptional negotiation, drafting, and communication skills, and a practical, business-enabling approach to risk.

Nice To Haves

In-house experience at a hyperscaler, neocloud, OEM, semiconductor company, or data center operator.
Experience with large-scale capital equipment procurement, including power and cooling equipment (e.g., switchgear, UPS, generators, chillers).
Familiarity with multi-jurisdictional supply arrangements.

Responsibilities

Lead drafting and negotiation of complex, high-value agreements for compute, networking, and storage hardware, including master purchase and supply agreements, OEM agreements, and value-added reseller and distribution agreements.
Negotiate key commercial and risk terms such as pricing and prepayment structures, forecasting and allocation, delivery and acceptance, title and risk of loss, warranties, RMA and spares, epidemic failure, service levels, liquidated damages, IP indemnities, and limitations of liability.
Draft and negotiate software, firmware, and SaaS licensing agreements, support and maintenance agreements, professional services and systems integration agreements, and open-source considerations tied to infrastructure software.
Advise on supply chain risks including export controls and sanctions (EAR, ITAR, OFAC), customs and tariffs, country-of-origin and component sourcing restrictions, and flow-down of customer requirements to suppliers, in collaboration with the export controls team.
Act as a trusted advisor to AI Infrastructure, Nscale Cloud, Procurement, and Finance leadership on supplier disputes, force majeure and shortages, and contract performance issues.
Coordinate with Commercial, Construction, and Finance counsel to ensure supply commitments align with customer obligations, data center delivery schedules, and financing requirements.
Manage supplier disputes and claims, working with the Litigation team as needed.
Lead and mentor procurement counsel and paralegal team members.
Develop and maintain templates, negotiation playbooks, fallback positions, and approval matrices for procurement.
Partner with Legal Operations on contract lifecycle management, intake, reporting, and continuous process improvement.