Lead Commercial Counsel – APAC

OpenAI; Singapore; Hybrid; SGD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI research firm in Singapore is seeking an experienced commercial attorney to lead legal support for its growing business across APAC. Responsibilities include negotiating agreements and developing scalable legal frameworks. Ideal candidates have 15+ years of experience in legal roles, particularly in technology. The role operates on a hybrid work model and supports relocation for new hires.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience across in-house and technology-focused law firm roles.
• Experience as a primary legal partner for business transactions.
• Deep knowledge of APAC legal frameworks and cross-border contracting.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary legal partner for transactions in APAC.
• Provide practical legal advice to business teams.
• Monitor APAC-specific regulatory and compliance matters.

Skills

15+ years of experience in law

Drafting complex commercial contracts

Knowledge of APAC legal frameworks

Strong communication skills

Ability to build cross-functional relationships

Sound judgment in fast-changing situations

Job description

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 serve as our first commercial legal hire in the APAC region. Based in Singapore, you will lead commercial legal support for OpenAI’s rapidly growing business across APAC, working with teams such as GTM, Partnerships, Procurement, Finance, Product, Infrastructure, and Engineering.

This is a unique opportunity to shape OpenAI’s commercial legal presence in the region, negotiating high-impact agreements and helping to build scalable frameworks for responsible growth.

We operate on a hybrid work model of three days per week in the office and offer relocation support for new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Serve as the primary legal partner for OpenAI’s business transactions, partnerships, and operations in APAC.
• Provide practical, business-oriented legal advice to teams including Sales, Partnerships, Finance, Procurement, and Operations.
• Identify and address commercial, product, regulatory, privacy, and other legal issues arising from APAC commercial transactions.
• Develop strategies and processes for handling legal issues in creative and scalable ways that support growth.
• Monitor and advise on APAC-specific regulatory and compliance matters affecting AI 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 15+ years of experience across in-house and technology-focused law firm roles.
• Are comfortable operating as a “first hire” in-region—entrepreneurial, proactive, and independent.
• Bring a strong background in drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts.
• Possess deep knowledge of APAC legal frameworks and cross-border contracting.
• 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.

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.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law and fair chance laws. For information about local fair chance policies, please refer to applicable ordinances and regulations. Job duties may require access to secure information technology systems and related data security obligations.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this accommodation process.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.