Senior Corporate Counsel
About The Position
As Senior Corporate Counsel reporting directly to the CFO, you will be ODAIA's first dedicated legal hire, the person who builds the legal function from the ground up. We're looking for a commercially minded lawyer, roughly 8 years into practice, who still loves being in the weeds of a contract as much as advising on strategy. You'll own the intersection of legal risk and commercial velocity: negotiating and drafting enterprise agreements with Fortune 500 pharma customers, translating emerging AI-governance obligations into internal policy, and building playbooks that don't exist yet. This role is equal parts lawyer and operator. You'll spend a meaningful part of your time hands-on in contracts drafting, redlining, iterating and the rest building and running the internal programs that keep us in compliance with what we sign.
Requirements
- 8+ years of relevant experience with a J.D. or LL.B. and good standing with a Canadian provincial bar (required)
- Familiarity with AI, machine learning, or legal technology sectors
- Strong drafting and negotiation skills, particularly with commercial agreements (MSAs, order forms, DPAs, NDAs) redlining and iterating, then turning it into a clear recommendation with minimal guidance
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders
- A technical or engineering background, or strong fluency working with engineering teams, is a plus
- Builder mentality: you love creating playbooks and systems. You're just as drawn to operational, non-legal work as you are to legal drafting
- Strong communicator you can explain the “why” behind a risk to anyone in the building, collaboratively, and build a business case that shifts company direction
- Self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, variable-intensity environment (our deal volume roughly doubles year over year) and manages multiple high-stakes, confidential matters at once
Responsibilities
- Work closely with the CFO, Chief Commercial Officer and sales leaders to run complex, multi-threaded negotiations with enterprise customers and strategic partners balancing risk against speed, and finding the practical path to signature
- Draft, negotiate, and close enterprise SaaS, data licensing, MSA and DPA agreements with pharma customers, and build the templates and playbooks that let contracting scale
- Be the bridge between Legal and Engineering read a technical spec or contract schedule and flag the risk yourself, then translate incoming AI-related obligations (bias testing, audits, model documentation) into concrete internal action items
- Take on newly-emerging obligations that flow to us through signed contracts including export-control / restricted-party frameworks (e.g. CFR 202-type requirements) and architect our broader privacy and data-governance program across PIPEDA, HIPAA, provincial health-privacy law, and emerging AI-governance frameworks
- Autonomously manage board resolutions, equity plan administration, IP assignment hygiene, insurance and vendor agreements, and know when to bring in outside counsel.
- Partner closely with Sales, Revenue Operations, Technology and Business Acceleration to flag risk early and turn around review and negotiation fast including representing us directly with external procurement teams
- Contribute to the legal and risk narrative for the executive team and Board, with updates that drive strategic discussion
Benefits
- Meaningful stock option grants
- immediate medical/dental enrollment
- flexible time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
