Etched
Head of Legal / General Counsel
San Jose
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About the role
- Success means making the company faster and more effective through clear judgment, strong execution, and systems that work.
- Title will be determined based on experience.
Responsibilities
- Lead and grow our legal team: hire exceptional people, develop existing team members, and establish clear ownership, priorities, and performance expectations.
- Build consistent legal practices across the company, including intake and prioritization, contract templates, negotiation playbooks, approval thresholds, and escalation paths. Enable teams to handle routine matters independently within clear guardrails.
- Establish and manage service-level agreements (SLAs) for contract reviews and other legal requests. Track turnaround times, backlog, and outside counsel spend, and use those measures to improve execution without compromising quality.
- Automate repeatable legal work, including contract workflows, document generation, and knowledge management. Apply AI tools thoughtfully, with appropriate human review and protections for confidential information.
- Lead legal preparation for an IPO in partnership with Finance, the executive team, and outside counsel. Build the corporate governance, board and committee processes, disclosure practices, and legal infrastructure needed to operate as a public company.
- Personally lead complex commercial negotiations, including customer agreements, supplier and manufacturing agreements, IP licenses, and strategic partnerships.
- Own the legal budget and outside counsel relationships. Decide what to build in-house, hold external partners to high standards, and ensure spending produces clear value.
- A track record of hiring, developing, and leading high-performing legal teams.
- Experience building legal processes that improve speed and quality without adding bureaucracy.
- Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
Requirements
- Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)
- You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)
Compensation
- Advise the executive team and board on financings, strategic transactions, equity compensation, corporate governance, and material legal risks.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
- $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
- Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
Company info
- We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system.
- We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills.
- We are looking for a Head of Legal / General Counsel to lead and scale Etched's legal function.
This listing is sourced directly from Etched's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.