Head of Legal

Junior AI; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Junior is seeking its first dedicated legal hire to own the legal, regulatory, and compliance function. You will close major contracts, build playbooks, and guide decisions across commercial, product, security, and corporate domains.

The role is ideal for a lawyer energized by standing up a function from scratch. With 5–8 years of experience spanning private practice and in-house roles, and deep data privacy expertise, you will lead governance and compliance for AI-driven products and services,

Qualifications

• Admitted to the US bar.
• Strong background in private practice and in-house roles.
• Experience negotiating complex B2B contracts with large institutional buyers.

Responsibilities

• Lead and negotiate enterprise MSAs and data-licensing terms with major clients.
• Develop AI-governance, consent frameworks, and data-use policies across jurisdictions.
• Oversee data privacy programs (DPAs, records of processing, subprocessor management).
• Coordinate with external counsel as needed.
• Partner with Security/CISO on trust, SOC 2, and security questionnaires.
• Protect IP strategy for transcription and knowledge-graph tech; handle IP terms in contracts.
• Manage corporate and financing legal work including governance and board support.
• Support employment and immigration matters as the company scales internationally.

Skills

Bar admission (US)

Data privacy

Contract negotiation

Cross-jurisdictional awareness

Commercial mindset

Sales/Product/InfoSec advisory

Education

US law license (bar)

Job description

About Junior

We’re building cutting-edge LLM-powered workflow tools to supercharge investment research for private market investors and consultants. Our clients include most of the global top 10 private equity and consulting firms - Junior already powers hundreds of billions of dollars invested annually. We’re a profitable, bootstrapped company with a growing team of 70+ based in London, NYC and Sydney.

You can read more about the company mission & values here.

The role

This is Junior's first dedicated legal hire. You'll own the legal, regulatory and compliance function: closing our largest contracts, and building on the standards, playbooks and function that let us sell to major private equity, consulting and financial institutions. You'll work directly with the founders and sit at the centre of commercial, product, security and corporate decisions. It will suit someone who is energised by building a function from scratch.

What you'll do

• Lead and negotiate our most important commercial agreements: enterprise MSAs, data-processing and data-licensing terms, and security schedules with global banks, advisors and content providers. Set the standards and playbooks that let the deal team move fast without adding risk

• Build Junior’s AI-governance and compliance posture: recording-consent and two-party-consent frameworks across jurisdictions, model-training and data-use policies, and readiness for evolving AI regulation (including the EU AI Act)

• Run data privacy end to end (UK GDPR, GDPR, CCPA/CPRA): DPAs, records of processing, sub-processor management, and privacy-by-design partnership with Product and Engineering

• What you’ll oversee, with the support of external counsel where necessary

• Partner with Security/CISO on customer trust: SOC 2, security questionnaires, DPIAs and the contractual commitments behind them

• Build and protect IP: trade-secret and patent strategy across our transcription and knowledge-graph technology, and IP terms in customer and vendor contracts

• Manage corporate and financing legal work: governance, board and cap-table support, financing rounds, and day-to-day vendor contracting

• Support people operations: employment matters and immigration/visa work as we scale internationally

About

• You're admitted to a US bar. The majority of our commercial contracts are US-governed, and this is a hard requirement

• 5-8 years of experience spanning private practice and in-house roles, with a strong transactional and commercial foundation. At least 2-4 years in practice

• At least 2-4 years in-house experience at an AI, SaaS, or data-intensive technology company. You understand what it means to advise a business that is simultaneously a data processor and a data innovator

• Deep expertise in data privacy: GDPR, UK GDPR, US equivalents, DPA negotiation, and subprocessor obligations. This is a recurring and substantive part of the role

• A track record of negotiating complex B2B contracts with large institutional buyers, ideally in financial or professional services. You understand how their procurement and legal functions operate and where there is room to move

• The ability to interpret contract language quickly and translate it into clear, actionable guidance for sales, product, and infosec colleagues. Speed and clarity matter as much as legal rigour

• Comfortable operating as a sole legal function, with the judgment to know when to handle something internally and when to engage outside counsel

• Strong commercial instincts. We are looking for a legal partner who helps the business move forward, not one who defaults to caution

• UK law experience is helpful but not required. Some cross-jurisdictional awareness is important given our UK entity and global European client base