Commercial Counsel/Senior Counsel

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a commercially minded attorney to join our Legal team. You will own the full commercial legal lifecycle, drafting, negotiating, and closing a wide range of agreements across partnerships, procurement, infrastructure, and licensing.

You will build scalable legal infrastructure and advise product, engineering, security, finance, and sales to accelerate deals while managing risk, with a focus on AI-specific regulatory considerations and data privacy.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of law firm and/or in-house experience negotiating commercial technology agreements.
• Deep familiarity with data privacy and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, SOC 2, HIPAA) and DPAs.
• JD and active U.S. state bar membership.
• Ability to partner with product, engineering, security, finance, and sales teams.
• Strong business acumen with risk-based legal advice.

Responsibilities

• Lead drafting, review, and negotiation of commercial technology agreements (MSAs, SaaS, API, DPAs).
• Draft, negotiate, and close agreements across partnerships, procurement, infrastructure, and licensing.
• Build scalable legal infrastructure and templates to support high-volume deals.
• Advise on AI-specific legal considerations and regulatory requirements (EU AI Act, GDPR).
• Provide practical, business-aligned counsel to accelerate deal velocity while managing risk.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, security, finance, and compliance teams.

Skills

Commercial contracts

Contract negotiation

Regulatory compliance

Data privacy and security

Cross-functional collaboration

Risk assessment

Strategic advisory

AI/tech industry knowledge

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent

Tools

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Job description

• Perplexity is looking for a commercially minded attorney to join our Legal team
• In this role, you’ll own the full commercial legal lifecycle
• You will draft, negotiate, and close a wide range of agreements across partnerships, procurement, infrastructure, and licensing
• You will build scalable legal infrastructure, and enable the business to move quickly without unacceptable risk
• You’ll work closely with teams across the business, including product, engineering, security, finance, and sales to close deals, strengthen our data security and compliance posture, and serve as a trusted advisor on the AI-specific legal questions that come with operating at the frontier of this technology
• Lead end-to-end drafting, review, and negotiation of commercial agreements, including MSAs, SaaS and API agreements, DPAs, partnership and reseller agreements, strategic collaboration and co-marketing agreements, procurement and vendor contracts, technology and infrastructure agreements, and IP licensing arrangements
• Serve as a primary legal partner across the business, providing fast, practical, and business-aligned counsel that accelerates deal velocity without compromising on risk management
• Provide strategic counsel on legal risks across AI infrastructure, compute, partnerships, and enterprise deployments as the company scales
• Advise on AI-specific legal considerations in commercial agreements, including acceptable use, data retention and training restrictions, output liability, and evolving regulatory requirements (e.g., EU AI Act, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR)
• Build and maintain scalable legal infrastructure-contract templates, negotiation playbooks, fallback positions, and tools (e.g., CLM, self-serve workflows) to support high-volume deal flow and reduce friction in the contracting cycle
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Security, Finance, and Compliance teams to surface and address legal risk early, particularly on data use, enterprise integrations, and customer-specific compliance requirements
• Monitor the evolving regulatory landscape for enterprise AI and SaaS products and translate emerging requirements into practical contractual and policy guidance for internal stakeholders

The ideal candidate brings deep experience negotiating a wide range of commercial technology agreements, a strong command of data privacy and security frameworks, and the practical judgment to make principled risk calls independentlyThis is a high-impact, hands-on role for someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, knows how to be a true partner to the business without being a bottleneck, and is excited to help build a best-in-class legal function at one of the most consequential AI companies in the worldHands-on attitude to tackle projects large and small, low-ego approach to working across the organizationAbility to communicate clearly with business and technical audiences and effectively translate legal concepts for non-lawyersAt least 5+ years of law firm and/or in-house experience, with a track record of drafting and negotiating complex commercial technology agreementsDeep familiarity with data privacy and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, SOC 2, HIPAA) and experience negotiating DPAs and related compliance agreementsJD and in good standing with an active U.S. state bar membershipStrong business acumen and ability to partner effectively with sales, product, engineering, and executive teamsPositive collaborative attitude, comfort with ambiguity and a fast pace, high level of integrity, and intellectual curiosity about AI technology and how these products workComfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment