General Counsel

METR; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 328,000 - 402,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Catered lunches and in-office gym

Relocation stipend to Bay Area

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave (21 weeks)

Transit/parking stipend

Uber budget

Professional development

Mental health support

Wellness stipend

Home office equipment

Job summary

METR is seeking its first in-house General Counsel in Berkeley to build the legal function from the ground up, establish processes, define internal policies, and determine outside counsel strategy. This is a strategic role partnering with leadership on frontier AI lab agreements and risk management.

In-person strongly preferred; remote considered in exceptional cases. You will negotiate contracts, implement compliance for 501(c)(3) status, and guide HR-related matters such as hiring, visas, and

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school and active CA bar eligibility.
• Experience (10+ years) in both law firms and in-house settings.
• Familiarity with AI frontier labs and related regulatory considerations.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic guidance to leadership on novel questions related to frontier AI labs and policymakers.
• Lead contract negotiations with frontier AI companies for evaluations and agreements.
• Build scalable legal processes, including contract review and internal policy development (conflicts of interest, confidentiality, data handling).
• Ensure compliance with 501(c)(3) status, reporting requirements, and various agreements (grants, vendor, partnerships).
• Offer HR guidance on hiring, offers, visas, and terminations.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Organization

Communication

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

California Bar admission

Job description

About METR

We are a nonprofit research organization that develops scientific methods to assess AI capabilities, risks, and mitigations, with a specific focus on threats related to AI R&D automation and misalignment.

We believe it is robustly good for policymakers and civil society to have a clear understanding of risks from AI systems, and we are extremely excited to build a team of ambitious, excellent people to tackle one of the most important challenges of our time.

About the role

METR is looking to hire its first in-house General Counsel to build our legal function from the ground up and help set our strategic direction for the next phase of METR’s growth. As our first legal hire, you’ll be building our legal capacity from zero to one, which includes standing up processes, deciding outside counsel strategy, and defining our internal policies. This is a strategic counsel role, and you’ll be a direct partner with the leadership team on how METR negotiates frontier AI lab agreements for evaluations as well as how we manage legal risk across all our work.

In-person strongly preferred. Remote considered in exceptional cases.

Work you’ll be owning may include:

• Providing strategic guidance to the leadership team on novel questions related to our work with frontier AI labs and policymakers.
• Leading on contract negotiations with frontier AI companies for evaluations and assessments.
• Building processes to support a scaling team including contract review and managing internal policies (e.g. conflict of interest, confidentiality, and data handling).
• Ensuring compliance related to 501(c)(3) status, reporting requirements, and our agreements (grant, vendor, and partnership contracts).
• Providing HR guidance on employment-related matters such as hiring, offer letters, visas, and terminations.

Type of candidate we are looking for:

• A strategic thinker who is comfortable forming a view with little set precedent.
• A highly organized system builder who is comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments (e.g. tech companies) and is able to oversee multiple high-stakes deliverables.
• A strong communicator who can distill complex legal issues into clear guidance to non-lawyers.

Minimum Requirements

• JD from an accredited law school and an active member of the CA bar or are able to qualify as an in-house counsel in CA.
• At least 10 years of experience, including both firm and in-house experience.
• Familiarity with the AI space, including working knowledge of how frontier AI labs operate.
• Experience managing external counsel across a number of domains at a high quality.
• Experience negotiating complex commercial contracts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience working with frontier labs or experience working in the AI safety ecosystem.
• Experience working with government or regulators.

$328,380 - $402,048 a year

Base salary commensurate with experience.

METR also has a host of benefits:

• The office: Catered lunch and dinner daily; in-office gym and shower.
• Relocation support: Stipend for moving to the Bay Area.
• Time-off and leave: Unlimited PTO and 21-week parental leave for new parents.
• Commuter benefit: Monthly transit/parking stipend and an annual Uber budget.
• Professional development benefit: for training, courses, conferences, and AI safety education.
• Mental health benefit: for therapy, medication, and other mental health expenses.
• Wellness benefit: for gym memberships and other wellness expenses.
• Work equipment benefit: for home office and workstation equipment expenses.

Our Culture

METR is a mission-driven organization. We believe our work can meaningfully shape humanity's future for the better, and we want to be the best people in the world doing this work. We have a tight-knit, collaborative research culture rooted in truth-seeking and integrity. We're fiercely committed to producing high-quality, trustworthy science. We're honest and transparent about our results, especially when they may go against the grain. We've earned trust as reliable partners who handle confidential information with care. We maintain a low-ego, drama-free environment focused on what matters.

Hybrid Requirements

Our technical team members are in our office in Berkeley 3-5 days/week. Please let us know in your application if this is a constraint. If you lack US work authorization and would like to work in-person (strongly preferred), we can likely sponsor a cap-exempt H-1B visa for this role

We encourage you to apply even if your background may not seem like the perfect fit! We would rather review a larger pool of applications than risk missing out on a promising candidate for the position.

We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity in all aspects of our hiring process. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply for our open positions.