General Counsel

Dapple; United States; Remote; USD 250,000 - 420,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Disability insurance

401(k)

Parental leave

PTO 6 weeks

Flexible schedules

Job summary

Dapple is seeking its first in-house General Counsel to lead the legal function and set strategy for a fast-growing AI infrastructure business. You will be the top legal advisor, building the team, processes, and systems to scale globally.

This hands-on role will redline contracts with outside counsel, oversee data privacy, IP, export controls, and compliance, and partner with leadership on strategic growth and risk management.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of legal experience.
• Active U.S. state bar membership (NY/CA preferred).
• Establishing team culture and SOPs within the organization.
• Strong hands-on commercial contracting and redlining skills.

Responsibilities

• Stand up the legal function with SOPs and cross-functional processes.
• Build and lead a global legal team.
• Personally redline and negotiate contracts alongside outside counsel.
• Manage outside counsel across contracts, corporate structuring, litigation, compliance, and other matters.
• Own commercial contracting with domestic and international counterparts.
• Advise on data privacy and security, IP, export controls, and regulatory considerations.
• Partner with leadership on growth and global expansion.

Skills

Legal leadership

Contract negotiation

Data privacy

Regulatory compliance

Cross-border contracting

Team building

Startup experience

Education

JD from an accredited law school

Tools

Contract management tools

Legal research tools

Job description

Department: Business Reports to: Chief Business Officer Location: Remote (US) Employment type: Full-time

About Dapple

Dapple is the Enterprise OS Cloud, a new category of AI infrastructure between the public cloud and the private data center. We give regulated enterprises and high-growth digital natives dedicated, in-country, single-tenant capacity to run production AI, extending the cloud ecosystems they already use rather than asking them to leave. We are an early-stage, venture-backed company moving quickly.

About the role

We are hiring our first in-house lawyer. As General Counsel, you will be the company's top legal advisor and build the entire legal function from the ground up. To date, our legal work has been handled by the business in partnership with outside counsel; you will take ownership of it, set the strategy, and build the team and systems to support a fast-growing, global infrastructure business. This is a player-coach role: you will both lead and personally do the work until your team is in place. You will have a seat at the leadership table.

Key responsibilities

• Stand up the legal function. Establish the standard operating procedures, processes, and culture for how legal work gets done — both inside the legal team and across the organization for all legal matters.
• Build and lead the team. Hire and grow a global legal team (expected to reach ~10–15 people over time, with members specializing in or located across multiple markets). Your first hire will be a contract negotiator.
• Roll up your sleeves. Until junior hires are in place, personally redline and negotiate contracts alongside our outside counsel. You are willing to do the hands-on work, not just manage it.
• Manage outside counsel across contract negotiations, corporate structuring, litigation, compliance, and all other legal matters.
• Own commercial contracting, including negotiating agreements with both domestic and international counterparts.
• Advise the business on data privacy and security, intellectual property, export controls, and the regulatory considerations that come with operating AI infrastructure across multiple countries and industries.
• Partner with leadership as a strategic advisor on the legal dimensions of company growth, customer commitments, and global expansion.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of legal experience.
• JD from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing of at least one U.S. state bar (NY or CA preferred).
• Establishing team culture and standard operating procedures both within legal and across an organization. This is the most important qualification for the role.
• Strong, hands‑on commercial contracting skills — you can redline and negotiate complex agreements yourself.
• Comfort working internationally, including negotiating contracts with international counterparts.
• Startup readiness — you thrive in ambiguity, move quickly, and are energized by building rather than maintaining.

Preferred experience

• Prior General Counsel experience; experience as a key #2 within a large legal team is also strongly valued.
• Experience structuring and closing infrastructure transactions across GPU, data center, and project finance. AI infrastructure (GPU) experience preferred.
• Demonstrated experience building and managing a legal team, including
• Managed all internal corporate legal matters, providing direct, actionable counsel to executive leadership on day-to-day operations and long-term strategic initiatives.Industry background in cloud, AI infrastructure, or enterprise technology.

Compensation and benefits

Competitive base salary plus bonus and equity, calibrated to experience.

• Medical, dental, vision and disability insurance
• 401(k)
• Maternity and parental leave
• 6 weeks of PTO per year
• Flexible work schedules

Equal opportunity

Dapple is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.