Senior Commercial Counsel — AI & Tech Partnerships

Perplexity; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a commercially minded attorney to own the full commercial legal lifecycle, drafting, negotiating, and closing a wide range of technology agreements. You will partner with product, engineering, security, finance, and sales to accelerate deal velocity while maintaining strong risk controls.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience negotiating complex tech agreements and a deep understanding of data privacy and security frameworks, including GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.

Qualifications

• JD and active U.S. state bar membership.
• 5+ years of law firm and/or in-house experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial technology agreements.
• Strong business acumen and ability to partner effectively with sales, product, engineering, and executive teams.
• Deep familiarity with data privacy and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, SOC 2, HIPAA) and experience negotiating DPAs and related compliance agreements.
• Prior experience with infrastructure agreements, including compute procurement and related SLA terms.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end drafting, review, and negotiation of commercial agreements, including MSAs, SaaS and API agreements, DPAs, partnerships and vendor contracts, and IP licensing.
• Provide fast, practical, business-aligned counsel to accelerate deal velocity while managing risk.
• Advise on AI-specific legal considerations in commercial agreements and data use policies.
• Build scalable contract templates, negotiation playbooks, and CLM workflows to support high-volume deals.
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Security, Finance, and Compliance to surface legal risk early.

Skills

Commercial acumen

Negotiation

Cross-functional partnering

Clear communication

Hands-on/legal pragmatism

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

CLM

Job description

Perplexity is seeking a commercially minded attorney to own the full commercial legal lifecycle, drafting, negotiating, and closing a wide range of technology agreements. You will partner with product, engineering, security, finance, and sales to accelerate deal velocity while maintaining strong risk controls.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience negotiating complex tech agreements and a deep understanding of data privacy and security frameworks, including GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.