General Counsel

Socket.dev; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 330,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

Arc Institute seeks a General Counsel to serve as a strategic legal adviser to leadership, reporting to the Co-Founder and Executive Director. This role requires a commercially sharp, proactive lawyer with strong judgment to move complex matters forward with urgency and rigor.

Principals include leading collaborations, managing risk, overseeing IP/licensing, and building scalable legal processes within a fast-growing research organization headquartered in Palo Alto.

Qualifications

• JD and active membership in the State Bar of California, or eligibility to practice immediately as Registered In-House Counsel in California.
• Experienced leader on an executive team with mentorship capability.
• 15+ years of relevant legal experience including corporate, transactional, technology transfer, life sciences, or related work.

Responsibilities

• Lead legal strategy for complex collaborations and institutional arrangements advancing Arc’s mission.
• Advise leadership on governance, compliance, conflicts, regulatory, and risk matters.
• Oversee legal agreements with academic, industry, nonprofit, and other strategic partners.
• Identify legal pathways that enable new initiatives while protecting Arc’s interests.
• Support business development and strategic growth initiatives.
• Build and improve legal processes, policies, and frameworks for speed and clarity.
• Manage and develop a small legal team, including IP & Licensing, and supervise outside counsel.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Executive communication

Negotiation

Risk assessment

Problem solving

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) / CA Bar eligibility

Tools

IP licensing oversight

Job description

About Arc Institute

Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.

Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.

Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:

• Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets, accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
• Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.

More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.

About the position

Arc Institute is seeking a General Counsel to serve as a strategic legal advisor and trusted peer to leadership. Reporting to Co-Founder and Executive Director, Silvana Konermann, the General Counsel will help identify and execute the legal pathways that enable Arc to pursue ambitious scientific and institutional goals. This role requires a commercially sharp, highly proactive lawyer with strong judgment, excellent instincts, and the ability to move complex matters forward with urgency and rigor.

About you

• A strategic, solutions-oriented lawyer who thrives on solving difficult problems and moving complex matters forward.
• Highly proactive, resourceful, and comfortable taking ownership in ambiguous environments.
• A fast learner who can quickly develop fluency in new scientific, operational, and institutional domains.
• A strong communicator who translates legal risk into practical advice and decisive next steps.
• Able to balance rigorous legal analysis with a strong bias toward action and outcomes.
• A collegial, trusted leader and peer who earns confidence quickly, contributes constructively, and helps teams make sound decisions.
• Confident engaging with senior leaders and external counterparties in high-stakes settings while maintaining professionalism, discretion, and good judgment.

In this position you will

• Lead legal strategy for complex collaborations, partnerships, and institutional arrangements that advance Arc’s mission.
• Advise leadership on governance, compliance, conflicts, regulatory, and risk matters.
• Oversee legal agreements with academic, industry, nonprofit, and other strategic partners.
• Identify legal pathways that enable new initiatives while protecting the Institute’s interests.
• Support business development and strategic growth initiatives.
• Build and improve legal processes, policies, and frameworks that support speed, clarity, and responsible execution.
• Manage and develop a small legal team, which includes an existing IP & Licensing function, and supervise outside counsel as needed.
• Provide clear, practical, and independent counsel to senior operational and scientific leadership.

Requirements

• JD and Active membership in the State Bar of California, or eligibility to practice immediately as Registered In-House Counsel in California.
• Experienced leader and member of an executive team
• Experienced people manager with track record of mentorship and skill development
• 15+ years of relevant legal experience including significant experience in corporate, transactional, technology transfer, engineering, life sciences, or related legal work.
• Demonstrated ability to advise senior stakeholders on complex legal and strategic matters.
• Experience leading or materially supporting high-stakes negotiations and transactions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience structuring novel or complex legal arrangements in innovation-driven environments.
• Experience managing a team of IP professionals or supervising external IP counsel.
• Experience in biotech, life sciences, technology, or similarly fast-moving sectors.

The base salary range for this position is $330,000 to $450,000. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.