Senior Counsel, Commercial (Hardware)

Senior Counsel, Commercial (Hardware) ABOUT THE TEAM OpenAI’s Legal team plays a crucial role in advancing our mission by tackling innovative and fundamental legal issues in AI. The team includes professionals from diverse legal fields – technology, AI, infrastructure, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation – who collaborate closely with colleagues across the company. If you are passionate about being a technology lawyer working on cutting-edge challenges, you’ll thrive here. ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking an experienced commercial attorney to join our Commercial Legal team to support our consumer hardware products and technologies, focused primarily on hardware development and supply chain. Based in the US, you will help lead legal support for OpenAI’s consumer electronic business, working with teams such as hardware engineering, product design, manufacturing operations, procurement, finance, tax, and trade. This is a unique opportunity to join OpenAI’s commercial legal team and negotiate high-impact agreements to engage directly with the forefront of legal and AI consumer devices. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Be the go-to counsel and partner for several teams focused on consumer hardware design and procurement. - Provide practical, business-oriented legal advice to teams including hardware engineering, manufacturing operations, product design, and procurement to support the design, development, and manufacture of consumer hardware devices. - Draft and negotiate complex supply, development, licensing, manufacturing and other commercial agreements. - Identify and address commercial, product, regulatory, privacy, and other legal issues arising from commercial transactions. - Develop strategies and processes for handling legal issues in creative and scalable ways that support growth. - Monitor and advise on regulatory and compliance matters affecting hardware and technology. - Collaborate with colleagues across OpenAI’s global legal team to ensure alignment across jurisdictions. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU: - Have 8+ years of experience across in-house and technology-focused law firm role. - Bring a strong background in drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts, including hardware supply, manufacturing, procurement, and intellectual property ownership and licensing. - Are comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial environment and are proactive and independent. - Communicate with clarity and business judgment, tailoring advice to enable responsible growth. - Build cross-functional relationships and adapt communication styles to diverse audiences. - Have a strong sense of ownership, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm for technology. - Can demonstrate sound judgment in ambiguous or fast-changing situations. - Have a JD and license or qualification to practice in CA. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administer ... (truncated, view full listing at source)