Senior Corporate Counsel, Datacenters and Infrastructure

DigitalOcean; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 205,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Bonus potential

Remote role

Job summary

DigitalOcean in San Francisco is seeking a Senior Corporate Counsel, Datacenters and Infrastructure, to lead high-value data center transactions and scalable infrastructure contracts. You will guide LOIs, MSAs, and procurement agreements, aligning with engineering, finance, tax, and compliance on deal structuring.

Ideal candidates have 8+ years of legal experience, in-house exposure to datacenter projects, and strong business judgment to translate complex legal advice for business stakeholders.

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school.
• Active bar membership in at least one U.S. state.
• 8+ years of legal experience and 3+ years of in-house experience supporting datacenter or large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Proven experience with datacenter contracts from developer/provider or tenant perspective.
• Experience with facilities agreements and O&M contracts.
• Familiarity with SLA constructs, maintenance windows, security, audit rights, change control, and service credits.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary legal contact to drive datacenter agreements to signature (LOIs, MSAs, order forms, ancillary agreements).
• Draft, review, and negotiate datacenter-related agreements, including capacity leasing, colocation, and design/build contracts; facilities/operations and maintenance, and procurement agreements for GPUs and other hardware.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners across procurement, engineering, operations, finance, tax, and compliance on deal structuring.

Skills

JD

Bar admission

In-house experience

Datacenter contracts

Facilities agreements

SLA knowledge

Cross-functional collaboration

Negotiation

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Job description

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

We are looking to add a Senior Corporate Counsel, Datacenters and Infrastructure, who is passionate about solving complex legal challenges at the leading edge of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

As a Senior Corporate Counsel, Datacenters and Infrastructure, reporting to the Associate General Counsel at DigitalOcean, you will join a small and dynamic team dedicated to revolutionizing cloud computing and AI. DigitalOcean's mission is to simplify cloud computing and AI so that builders and businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. In this role, you will focus on high-value transactions to procure, build, and operate the physical infrastructure that enables Digital Ocean’s services, including projects and agreements involving datacenter leasing and operations. Working alongside dedicated datacenter commercial, technical, security, and regulatory colleagues, you will guide critical physical infrastructure transactions to drive development projects.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as a trusted partner and a primary legal contact to drive datacenter related agreements to signature (e.g., LOIs, MSAs, order forms, and ancillary agreements).
• Draft, review, and negotiate agreements supporting the building, deployment, and operation of datacenters, including datacenter capacity leasing, colocation, and design/build agreements; facilities/operations and maintenance agreements; and infrastructure procurement agreements for GPUs and other compute hardware, integrated server systems, network equipment, power equipment, and other datacenter infrastructure.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional partners across datacenter procurement, engineering and operations, finance, tax, and compliance functions on deal structuring.
• Provide business-focused counseling on risk allocation, supplier risk assessments, and supplier and product performance and remediation matters.
• Support international expansion by adapting requirements for new jurisdictions and coordinating with local counsel on local law and market issues.
• Build scalable legal tools directed to infrastructure transactions including templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and approval matrices to improve contracting speed and consistency.
• A willingness to work on other high-priority legal work to help a lean Legal Department (e.g., key vendor and operations agreements).

What You’ll Need

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school and active bar membership in at least one U.S. state.
• 8+ years of legal experience and 3+ years of significant in-house experience supporting datacenter or similar large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Proven experience with datacenter contracts from a developer/ provider or tenant perspective, including single tenant and/ or colocation deals involving modified-gross, triple net or other lease structures.
• Experience with facilities agreements, and operations-and-maintenance contracts.
• Familiarity with datacenter operational requirements (e.g., SLA constructs, maintenance windows, security requirements, audit rights, change control, and service credits), tax incentives, and financing structures.
• Experience managing multiple projects with minimal oversight to meet aggressive timelines while delivering high-quality work product.
• A low-ego, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude to tackle projects large and small, a desire to learn, an appetite for feedback, and a "leave it better than you found it" growth mindset.
• Proven experience in using strong business judgement to calibrate business and legal risk, and in translating complex legal advice into actionable guidance for business stakeholders.
• Superlative communication and collaborative problem-solving skills with the ability to build positive, influential relationships with cross-functional partners and senior leadership.

Nice To Have

• 5+ years of direct experience negotiating enterprise datacenter leases.
• Experience with international procurement, trade compliance, and supply-chain risk issues.
• Experience negotiating power-related contracts including interconnection agreements, electricity service agreements, power purchase agreements (PPAs), and behind-the-meter generation structures.
• Experience with early-stage site selection diligence for datacenters, including an understanding of zoning and permitting processes.
• Tech-savvy with an interest in cutting-edge AI technologies.

Compensation Range

• $204,800 - $256,000
• This is a remote role

JR: 2026-8191

Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean

• We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.
• We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.
• We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.
• We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.
• DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.