Senior Counsel, Go to Market

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 213,000 - 419,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture is seeking a Senior Counsel to partner with leadership on a wide range of legal matters, including product launches, corporate structuring, and regulatory input. You will manage a first line of defense for business inquiries, balance risk with growth, and scale legal operations across diverse business lines.

Role requires a JD with bar admission and 15+ years of experience, especially in AI/emerging tech, contracts, and governance.

Qualifications

• J.D. from ABA-accredited law school with active U.S. state bar.
• 15+ years of legal experience handling fast-paced, startup style work.
• Deep generalist with AI, product counseling, governance, IP, vendor risk.
• Ability to brief executives clearly and manage escalations.

Responsibilities

• Serve as direct legal advisor to senior management on product launches and corporate structuring.
• Provide cross-functional support to Tech, Product, monetization, sales, and other teams.
• Draft terms, disclosures, agreements, policies for go-to-market strategies.
• Identify legal risks and provide actionable mitigation within tight timelines.
• Collaborate with Public Policy and Communications on business questions.

Skills

15+ years experience

AI & emerging tech

Product counseling

Regulatory input

Executive briefing

Education

J.D. from ABA-accredited law school

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team: The JV Legal and Compliance team provides key support for all TikTok USDS Joint Venture's innovative initiatives, state-of-the-art products, and integrated platforms. We help our technology, business, and functional teams enable their vision by providing seamless, integrated legal and compliance guidance and support.

We are seeking a capable, solution oriented, business-savvy Senior Counsel to join our legal team and oversee go to market launches of features and emerging business lines. You will act as a core legal partner across a very diverse set of business lines, ranging from consumer-facing user generated content platforms to immersive AR/VR hardware to enterprise software and productivity applications. This role is much more than traditional product counseling; you will be expected to manage and handle a first legal line of defense for all business inquiries, identify risk, and develop appropriate mitigation strategies on compressed timeframes. You will help build and scale our legal infrastructure, serve as a strategic partner to business leaders across all departments, and manage a broad range of legal matters. You will deeply understand TikTok USDS Joint Venture's strategic goals and act as a true business enabler, driving cross-functional collaboration, leading executive-level escalations and building highly efficient and scalable processes, all while balancing business objectives against complying with national security and other legal and regulatory standards.

• Serve as a direct legal advisor to senior management, including the General Counsel, on a variety of legal matters, ranging from product launches to coordinating cross-functionally to build corporate structures, to providing input on regulatory and litigation matters.
• Serve as the day to day support for cross-functional technology, business, and functional teams, including Tech & Product, monetization and sales, e-commerce, and a variety of emerging businesses and technologies
• Contribute to drafting terms, disclosures, agreements, policies, guidelines and materials related to go to market strategy
• Proactively identify legal risks, assess business impact, and provide clear, solution-oriented guidance or escalations that enable company growth while protecting compliance interests
• Collaborate with global cross-functional teams like Public Policy, and Communications on business-related issues and questions

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school with active U.S. state bar membership in good standing.
• 15+ years of legal experience (preferably in early-stage startups) handling first-impression issues and building scalable, repeatable processes in fast-paced environments.
• Deep generalist expertise covering AI/emerging technologies, product counseling, commercial contracts, corporate governance, employment law basics, IP, and vendor risk management.
• Proactive, adaptable self-starter comfortable executing directly without extensive administrative/legal backstops while remaining eager to build operational systems.
• Exceptional communicator and trusted advisor with high integrity, sound judgment, and the ability to clearly brief executive teams, engineers, and government auditors alike.
• Highly organized multi-tasker with proven relationship-building skills to influence, collaborate, and independently prioritize competing demands.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Preferred experience navigating national security matters with U.S. government agencies (e.g., DOJ, DoD, CFIUS) or within a premier national security/defense practice group.

About USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.

On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $213000 - $419200 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates: Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems;
3. Exercising sound judgment.