Head of Legal

Retool; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 230,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Retool is seeking a Head of Legal to serve as the senior legal leader and architect of a scalable function. You will own commercial contracting, privacy/compliance, governance, employment, IP, and financing matters, while guiding executives with GC-level credibility.

You will also grow a team capable of handling high-volume, AI-centric legal work. You will partner with Sales, Finance, Product, Trust, and People to align risk and opportunity, while drafting policy playbooks and templates to

Qualifications

• J.D. and active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 10+ years of experience in law firms or in-house, with deep B2B SaaS contracting exposure.
• Experience leading or managing attorneys or a legal function.
• Strong working knowledge of privacy and data protection frameworks (GDPR/CCPA).
• Experience with AI-related legal issues including data licensing and IP considerations.
• Ability to explain tradeoffs to executives and manage high-volume, fast-moving legal work.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the legal team, setting priorities, coaching attorneys, and deciding when to hire or use outside counsel.
• Own the commercial contracting program, including MSAs, DPAs, order forms, and enterprise deals with Sales leadership.
• Oversee the vendor contract program and establish risk thresholds for rapid execution.
• Lead privacy and data protection work across contracts, product features, and customer security reviews.
• Advise on AI-related legal risks, terms, responsible use, IP, and data rights.
• Build and maintain contract intake/CLM workflows, templates, and negotiation playbooks, using AI to improve speed and consistency.
• Collaborate with Finance, Trust, People, and Product on day-to-day compliance questions.
• Manage outside counsel and the legal budget; support governance, equity, financing, and corporate development.
• Report legal risk and team performance to leadership and escalate material issues early.

Skills

Legal leadership

B2B SaaS contracting

Regulatory risk management

Privacy & data protection

Contract negotiation

AI/ML compliance

Education

J.D. degree

Tools

Ironclad

Job description

ABOUT RETOOL

Nearly every company in the world runs on custom software for critical operations like tracking performance metrics, handling support workflows, building admin dashboards, and countless processes you might never have thought of. But most companies don't have the resources to properly invest in these tools, leading to a lot of old, clunky internal software, or worse, teams still stuck in manual and spreadsheet workflows.

AI has changed who gets to build software. The definition of \"developer\" now includes analysts, operators, and domain experts creating solutions directly—and the tools they reach for are multiplying by the week. That's both an opportunity and a challenge: as more people build with more AI tools, the risk of shipping ungoverned software into production grows just as fast.

At Retool, we're building the platform that makes all of it safe to ship. Build with any AI tool you want, then deploy into one place that connects to your real business data, enforces enterprise policies automatically, and lets teams create once and reuse everywhere with shared, trusted components. The cost of building software has collapsed. The cost of governing it hasn't—and that's the problem we solve.

Developers and domain experts have already automated over 100 million hours of work on our platform, freeing them to focus on creative problem-solving and strategic work that drives real business value. The people closest to the problem can now build the software to solve it, safely, and within enterprise guardrails.

Let's build the future together.

WHY WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU:

We’re hiring a Head of Legal to be Retool’s senior legal leader and the architect of a function built to scale. You’ll own the full scope of legal: commercial and vendor contracting, privacy and compliance, and the corporate matters that underpin a fast-growing company, including governance, employment, IP, and financing. This is a role for a builder who still enjoys handling the details. You’ll negotiate the deals that matter most, write the first version of the playbooks and policies, and make the judgment calls in an evolving AI-centric space. You’ll also advise executives with GC-level credibility, shape how Retool weighs risk against opportunity, and grow a team that carries the work forward as the company scales.

This role reports to the CFO and partners closely with Sales, Finance, Trust, Product, and People. You’ll lead our existing legal team, set its priorities, and be the first stop for legal questions across the company, escalating to outside counsel where it makes sense. If you want to run a legal function that acts as a business enabler rather than a checkpoint, and you’re energized by how AI is changing both our product and the practice of law, this role is for you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Lead and develop the legal team, setting priorities, coaching attorneys and legal operations staff, and deciding when to hire, automate, or use outside counsel


• Own the commercial contracting program, serving as the escalation point for complex or non-standard MSAs, DPAs, order forms, and partnership agreements, and partnering with Sales leadership on strategic and enterprise deals


• Oversee the vendor contract program, setting the risk positions and approval thresholds that let business owners move quickly


• Lead our privacy and data protection legal work (GDPR, CCPA, and emerging state and international regimes) as it arises in contracts, product features, and customer security reviews


• Advise on the legal and regulatory landscape for AI, including customer-facing AI terms, responsible use, IP and data rights, and evolving regulation, working with Product, Engineering, and Trust


• Build and maintain our legal infrastructure: contract intake and CLM workflows, templates, negotiation playbooks, policies, and process documentation, using AI wherever it improves speed and consistency


• Partner with Finance, Accounting, Trust, People, and other teams to give practical, business-oriented guidance on day-to-day operational matters, including employment, IP, and compliance questions


• Manage outside counsel relationships and the legal budget, and support corporate matters such as governance, equity administration, and financing or corporate development projects with the CEO and Finance


• Report on legal risk, workload, and team performance to company leadership, and elevate material issues early

THE SKILLSET YOU'LL BRING:

• J.D. and active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction


• 10+ years of experience at a law firm and/or in-house, with deep exposure to B2B SaaS commercial contracting across both customer and vendor relationships


• Prior experience leading or managing attorneys or a legal function, or a clear track record of readiness to do so (for example, as a senior counsel or director of legal)


• Strong working knowledge of privacy and data protection frameworks, including GDPR and CCPA, and how they apply to enterprise SaaS and AI products


• Familiarity with legal issues specific to AI, such as model and data licensing, IP ownership, and emerging regulation


• Sound judgment on risk: you can tell what needs escalating from what you can resolve, and you can explain tradeoffs to executives in plain language


• Comfort with high-volume, fast-moving commercial work, and the ability to prioritize and execute independently


• Excellent written and verbal communication, including translating legal concepts for non-lawyer audiences


• Genuine curiosity about AI tools and legal tech, and a willingness to use them to work more efficiently


• Experience with contract management systems such as Ironclad or similar is a plus


• Corporate governance, financing, or employment law experience is a plus


• Impeccable ethical standards

Retool offers generous benefits to all employees and hybrid work location. For more information, please visit the benefits and perks section of our careers page!

Retool is currently set up to employ all roles in the US and specific roles in the UK. To find roles that can be employed in the UK, please refer to our careers page and review the indicated locations.