General Counsel

Emergent Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k)

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Flexible Working Hours

Job summary

Emergent Labs, based in San Francisco, is seeking its first General Counsel to build the legal function from the ground up. This strategic role involves advising on AI regulations, negotiating enterprise agreements, and supporting international expansion.

The ideal candidate has a J.D. degree, extensive legal experience, and the ability to balance rapid growth with legal oversight. The position offers a competitive salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits, including unlimited paid time off.

Qualifications

• 8 to 15 years of legal experience.
• Active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• Experience supporting high-growth technology companies.

Responsibilities

• Lead negotiation and execution of enterprise customer agreements.
• Advise leadership on evolving AI regulations and legal frameworks.
• Manage outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions.

Skills

Legal expertise

Stakeholder management

Contract negotiation

AI regulatory knowledge

Business judgment

Education

J.D. degree

Job description

Emergent builds autonomous coding agents that replace traditional software development by generating, testing, and deploying production applications directly from plain-language intent. Our systems run in production at global scale and are used to build millions of real applications.

Since public launch, Emergent has reached $100M ARR in 8 months.10M+ users across 190+ countries have built 7M+ applications on Emergent. We've raised $100M+, backed by Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Google, Lightspeed, Prosus, Together, and Y Combinator.

We're solving the hard part of AI-driven software creation: correctness, reliability, security, and scale in real production systems. The team is built by repeat founders, Olympiad medalists, and leaders from Google, Amazon, and Dropbox.

We're hiring builders who want ownership, speed, and impact at global scale.

The Role

This is a rare opportunity to join a category-defining AI company as its first legal hire. As General Counsel, you will build the legal function from the ground up and serve as a trusted advisor to the founders and executive team. You will help the company navigate the unique legal, regulatory, commercial, and operational challenges that come with building and scaling frontier AI technology globally. This is a highly strategic and highly hands-on role: one hour you may be negotiating a major enterprise agreement, and the next you may be advising leadership on AI regulation, product launches, employment matters, international expansion, fundraising, or intellectual property strategy. Also, scope of the role will be aligned as per the interview feedback and overall fitment.

What You\'ll Own:

• Lead negotiation and execution of enterprise customer agreements, building scalable contracting processes to support rapid revenue growth and partnering closely with Sales, Partnerships, Customer Success, and Finance.
• Advise leadership on evolving AI regulations and legal frameworks globally, partnering with Product and Engineering on launches and helping develop governance frameworks for responsible AI deployment.
• Support fundraising, board governance, and strategic transactions, and partner with leadership on international expansion and corporate structuring.
• Manage outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions and support future M&A activity and strategic investments.
• Develop and implement Emergent's IP strategy, advising on copyright, licensing, open-source software, trademarks, and patent-related matters, with particular focus on AI-generated software.
• Advise leadership on employment, compensation, equity, and organizational matters, building legal frameworks that support a high-performance global workforce.
• Establish legal processes, systems, and operating models, determining where legal should be handled internally versus through outside counsel, and recruit and develop future legal team members as the company scales.

What We're Looking For:

• J.D. degree and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• 8 to 15 years of legal experience.
• Combination of top-tier law firm and in-house experience.
• Experience supporting high-growth technology companies.
• Significant experience negotiating commercial and enterprise agreements.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to balance risk with speed.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred:

• Experience at a high-growth AI, SaaS, developer tools, infrastructure, or enterprise software company.
• Experience as an early or first legal hire.
• Familiarity with AI, intellectual property, data privacy, and technology transactions.
• Experience supporting fundraising, board governance, and international expansion.
• Experience working directly with founders and executive teams.

Why Join Us:

• As Emergent's first General Counsel, help shape the legal and regulatory foundation of one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world.
• Be a builder first and a lawyer second: help the company move quickly and responsibly through risk, not just identify it.
• Front-row seat to the legal questions around AI, IP, enterprise adoption, regulation, and global expansion that will define the next decade.
• Real ownership, meaningful equity, and global impact.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Competitive salary and performance incentives
• Meaningful equity ownership
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k)
• Unlimited Paid Time Off: take the time you need to recharge and come back refreshed
• Flexible Working Hours: work arrangements that fit your life and commitments

Let's build the future of software together.