Associate General Counsel, AI Product & Privacy

Kerwin Associates; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 350,000 - 375,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & wellness benefits

Equity aligned to roles

Cutting-edge AI projects

Transparent culture

Job summary

Arena in San Francisco is seeking an Associate General Counsel, AI Product & Privacy to partner with product and engineering on privacy, IP, and compliance from concept through launch. This onsite role requires collaboration across legal, product, and business teams to accelerate responsible AI deployment.

You will own Arena's global privacy program, ensure GDPR/CCPA compliance, advise on AI governance, negotiate data agreements with customers and vendors, and build scalable privacy processes

Qualifications

• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar (California preferred).
• 8+ years of privacy and product counseling experience at top firms or in-house.
• Hands-on familiarity with GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and cross-border data transfer mechanisms.
• Ability to translate legal requirements into practical, build-ready guidance for product teams.
• Strong strategic thinking, collaboration, and communication under deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Counsel Product & Engineering: advise privacy, IP, and enterprise use cases from concept to launch.
• Lead Privacy Compliance: own global privacy program with GDPR/CCPA/CPRA focus.
• Drive AI Governance: shape governance for AI model development and deployment.
• Support Commercial Transactions: design data-flow agreements with customers and partners.
• Process & Technology: build scalable privacy workflows and legal tech tools.
• Regulatory & Litigation: manage regulatory inquiries and complex matters.

Skills

Privacy program design

Product counsel

GDPR/CCPA

Regulatory compliance

AI governance

Cross-functional

Executive communication

Technical fluency

Privacy tooling

Education

JD and state bar admission (CA preferred)

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Replit

Loveable

Retool

Job description

Our client, Arena, is searching for an Associate General Counsel, AI Product & Privacy. The role is located in San Francisco and is onsite 3 days a week.

Arena is the platform for evaluating how AI models perform in the real world. Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley's SkyLab, we're on a mission to measure and advance the frontier of AI for real-world use, and to build the foundation for everyone to understand, shape, and benefit from it.

Tens of millions of people use Arena each month to evaluate how frontier systems handle the work they actually do. The preferences they share power the most transparent, rigorous, and human-centered evaluations in AI. Leading AI labs, enterprises, and independent researchers rely on our work and open datasets to understand how models behave in real workflows: agentic coding, creative generation, professional productivity, and beyond. We go beyond leaderboards and decompose what human experience reveals about AI, so models advance toward the work people actually do.

We're a team of researchers, academics, builders, and creatives from UC Berkeley, Google, Stanford, and DeepMind. We seek truth, move fast, and value craftsmanship, curiosity, and impact over hierarchy. We're building a company where thoughtful, curious people from all backgrounds can do their best work together, in an office culture that radiates excellence, energy, and focus.

Responsibilities:

• Counsel Product & Engineering: Serve as the embedded legal partner to product and engineering teams, advising on privacy regulation, intellectual property, enterprise use cases, consumer protection, and more from concept through launch.
• Lead Privacy Compliance: Own Arena's global privacy program, including compliance with GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and the broader international privacy landscape with an emphasis on privacy-by-design and product architecture.
• Drive AI Governance: Advise on the responsible development of AI products and emerging regulations related to AI model, agent, and tool development and deployment. Help shape how the company navigates novel questions at the intersection of privacy, AI, and human evaluation.
• Support Commercial Transactions: Design and maintain the contractual and operational frameworks governing the company’s data flows. Negotiate privacy provisions and agreements with customers, partners, and vendors.
• Process & Technology Optimization: Build and scale our privacy and product legal processes, creating playbooks and implementing systems to support a high-growth organization. Build agents and internal software to support our operations, and procure cutting-edge legal tech tools that allow us to integrate home-grown and vendor-built software with ease.
• Regulatory & Litigation: Own regulatory and litigation matters, with prior experience handling or overseeing regulatory inquiries, investigations, and complex litigation matters.

Requirements:

• Experience: 8+ years of legal experience in privacy and product counseling at a top-tier law firm and/or in-house legal department, ideally with experience counseling on consumer products.
• Education: JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar (California preferred) in good standing.
• Privacy Expertise: A proven track record of independently building and running a global privacy program, with deep, hands-on familiarity with GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and cross-border data transfer mechanisms.
• Product Counseling: Demonstrated ability to advise product and engineering teams in real time, translating legal requirements into practical, build-ready guidance without slowing the team down.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to think strategically at a high level and from deep in the details to drive complex problem-solving and develop creative, business-forward solutions both domestically and internationally.
• Risk Calibration: Ability to calibrate risk, distinguish business from legal risk, and communicate it clearly to executive, product, and technical audiences.
• Collaboration: Roll-up-your-sleeves attitude to tackle projects large and small with a low-ego, collaborative approach across the organization.
• Agility and Organization: Ability to think quickly in a fast-paced environment with excellent organizational and communication skills, particularly under launch and regulatory deadlines.
• Technical Fluency: Deep interest in artificial intelligence, generative AI, and machine learning technology, with the ability to engage effectively with technical teams on data architecture and evaluation issues.
• Vibe Coding Experience: Ability to build and iterate on your own tools and a creative problem-solving approach to building human-in-the-loop workflows that allow us to scale legal advice and work product. Experience working with tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Loveable, and/or Retool.

Bonus Points:

• Experience advising on consumer products or multi-sided marketplaces and building global privacy programs focused on controller responsibility.
• Experience advising on de-identification and anonymization data pipelines.

What we offer:

• Compensation range for the annual base salary is $350,000-$375,000.
• We offer competitive compensation and equity aligned to the markets where our team members are based. The base salary range will depend on the candidate’s permanent work location.
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and additional support programs.
• The opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI with a small, mission-driven team
• A culture that values transparency, trust, and community impact
• Come help build the space where anyone can explore and help shape the future of AI.
• Arena Intelligence provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.