Product Counsel

Tools for Humanity•San Francisco, CA

5d•$255,000 - $300,000•Onsite

About The Position

Tools for Humanity (TFH) is seeking a Product Counsel to support its global product counseling function. This role will focus on novel and fast-moving areas of technology, including artificial intelligence, biometrics, digital identity, blockchain infrastructure, consumer products, online safety, and privacy-preserving technologies. The Product Counsel will collaborate closely with product, engineering, cryptography, hardware, design, security, and business teams throughout the product lifecycle. The goal is to help the company launch globally scaled digital identity, blockchain, and consumer financial products while managing legal, regulatory, safety, and reputational risks. This role reports to the Deputy General Counsel, Product & Intellectual Property. The ideal candidate will possess strong product counseling experience, practical judgment, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. They should be adept at advising on day-to-day product development, navigating ambiguity, and supporting the launch of new technologies and business models.

Requirements

4+ years of experience as product counsel, ideally including in-house product counseling experience supporting consumer technology, financial technology, blockchain, digital identity, and/or other highly regulated technology platforms.
Significant experience advising on complex product counseling issues across the full product lifecycle, including product development, feature launches, user experience design, go-to-market initiatives, and ongoing operational support.
Demonstrated knowledge of laws and regulatory frameworks relating to several of the following areas: financial services, blockchain technology, digital identity systems, artificial intelligence, privacy, biometrics, consumer protection, online safety, advertising and marketing, platform governance, and intellectual property.
Experience supporting globally distributed consumer products and navigating multi-jurisdictional legal and regulatory issues.
Familiarity with intellectual property concepts, including patents, trademarks, copyright, licensing, open source software, and technology risk management.
Ability to engage effectively with technical teams and understand complex systems, architectures, and product tradeoffs.
Strong business judgment and ability to balance legal risk, user experience, operational realities, and product velocity.
Comfortable operating in evolving legal and regulatory environments where clear precedent may not exist.
Proven ability to build trusted relationships across legal, engineering, product, design, research, security, and operations teams.
Excellent communicator capable of translating technical or legal concepts into practical, business-oriented guidance.
Collaborative, low-ego working style with strong emotional intelligence and sound judgment.
Exceptional analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously while maintaining strong attention to detail.
Practical, business-oriented approach to problem solving and risk assessment.
Resourceful, adaptable, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced and evolving environment.
Juris Doctor from a top-tier law school.
Membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
Ability to work in-person from San Francisco, CA.

Responsibilities

Serve as a legal partner to product, engineering, AI, hardware, cryptography, design, and security teams across the development and launch lifecycle of TFH products and infrastructure.
Advise on legal and regulatory issues relating to digital identity systems, biometrics, blockchain-enabled products, consumer financial technologies, privacy, consumer protection, online safety, platform governance, and AI-enabled systems.
Partner closely with product and engineering teams to assess legal and reputational risks associated with new features, products, experiments, and business models.
Help develop practical and scalable approaches for launching products globally across diverse and evolving regulatory environments.
Translate complex legal and policy considerations into clear, actionable guidance for technical and business stakeholders.
Draft and advise on product terms, disclosures, policies, user flows, and internal guidance materials.
Support incident response, product escalations, and cross-functional reviews relating to trust, safety, security, and user risk issues.
Advise on intellectual property issues relating to software, hardware, AI systems, cryptography, identity technologies, branding, and consumer products.
Support patent, trademark, copyright, licensing, open source, and technology risk management matters.
Partner with engineering and research teams to identify and help protect strategic innovations and inventions.
Help develop scalable internal processes relating to open source governance, invention capture, product review, and IP compliance.
Collaborate effectively across legal specialties, including commercial, privacy, regulatory, employment, litigation, security, and corporate legal functions.
Help build scalable legal processes, playbooks, templates, and review frameworks that improve consistency and organizational velocity.
Contribute to improving operational systems and tooling supporting product reviews and launches.
Support the development of practical guidance and self-service resources for business and product teams.