Head of Legal at Prime Intellect in San Francisco, CA

Building Open Superintelligence Infrastructure Prime Intellect is building the open superintelligence stack — from frontier agentic models to the infra that enables anyone to create, train, and deploy them. We aggregate and orchestrate global compute into a single control plane and pair it with the full RL post-training stack: environments, secure sandboxes, verifiable evals, and our async RL trainer. We enable researchers, startups and enterprises to run end-to-end reinforcement learning at frontier scale, adapting models to real tools, workflows, and deployment contexts. We recently raised $15mm in funding (total of $20mm raised) led by Founders Fund, with participation from Menlo Ventures and prominent angels including Andrej Karpathy, Tri Dao, Dylan Patel, Clem Delangue, Emad Mostaque, and many others. Your Role Prime Intellect operates at the commercial center of one of the most consequential markets in technology. We negotiate nine- and ten-figure compute commitments with neoclouds and hyperscalers globally. We sign enterprise contracts with researchers, startups, and Fortune 500s consuming compute at scale. We ship open-source models and infrastructure that shape how the AI ecosystem develops. The legal architecture underneath all of this is a strategic function — not a downstream review process — and the Head of Legal owns it. You will build and own the legal function at Prime Intellect end-to-end: commercial contracts across customers and suppliers, corporate governance, fundraising, IP and open-source strategy, regulatory positioning, and the operational systems that let legal scale alongside the company. You'll partner directly with leadership on the deals, structures, and decisions that define what Prime Intellect can do. This is a builder role. We're at the stage where the legal function is being defined — playbooks, templates, contract management infrastructure, outside counsel relationships, compliance posture. The person who steps into this seat will set the foundations that the company runs on for years. Responsibilities Commercial Contracts - Own the commercial contract function end-to-end: customer MSAs, DPAs, order forms, enterprise agreements, and the playbooks that let the company close deals quickly without compromising on terms - Negotiate and structure compute supply contracts with neoclouds, hyperscalers, and datacenter operators globally — reserved capacity agreements, MSAs, vendor financing arrangements, and the contractual architecture around our largest commitments - Build the contract templates, playbooks, and CLM infrastructure that let the company scale commercial volume without scaling friction proportionally - Partner closely with Sales and the Compute team on deal structuring and negotiation strategy Corporate & Governance - Own corporate governance: board materials, written consents, equity grants, cap table management, and the governance cadence that scales with the company - Lead legal workstreams on fundraising rounds, including diligence, documentation, and execution - Manage stock administration, equity plan governance, 409A coordination, and equity-related compliance - Build M&A readiness over time — clean cap table, organized contracts, defensible IP positioning, audit-ready documentation IP & Open Source - Own Prime Intellect's open-source legal strategy: model weights licensing, contributor agreements, repository governance, and the IP architecture around our research and product output - Build the framework for IP allocation in customer contracts — particularly around model training, fine-tuning, and derivative work - Manage trademark, patent, and broader IP strategy as the company grows Regulatory & Compliance - Own Prime Intellect's positioning on the regulatory frameworks shaping AI infrastructure: export controls, AI-specific regulations (EU AI Act, US executive orders), data privacy (GDPR, CCPA), and the compliance regimes our enterprise customers require - Build the compliance posture that supports enterprise sales: SOC 2, security policies, data processing addenda, and the documentation customers expect from a serious infrastructure provider - Partner with the security and engineering teams on compliance program execution Function Building - Manage outside counsel relationships and rationalize what's done in-house vs. externally — building the right balance of speed, expertise, and cost - Build the team as the company scales — first hire likely a senior commercial counsel within 6–12 months, then specialized hires as needs emerge - Establish the legal operations infrastructure: CLM, contract templates, playbooks, knowledge management What We're Looking For - 8–12+ years of legal experience, ideally combining 3–5 years at a top tier firm with substantial in-house experience at a high-growth technology company - Strong commercial instincts — you negotiate to enable deals, not just to manage risk. You understand how contract structure shapes business outcomes, and you bring solutions, not just issue lists - Deep experience with commercial contracts at scale — enterprise customer agreements, large vendor or supplier contracts, and the operational infrastructure that supports commercial volume - Familiarity with consumption-based or usage-based business models and the contract structures that support them - Comfortable owning a legal function: setting strategy, managing outside counsel, building infrastructure, and hiring the team - Operates with high judgment under uncertainty — you can make calls quickly when the stakes are real and the playbook doesn't exist - Comfortable engaging directly with senior counterparts at customers, suppliers, investors, and partners - High ownership — you see gaps and build the fix before anyone asks - Comfortable in ambiguity and speed; this company and this market move fast - AI-native in how you work: you use LLMs, automation, and programmatic tools to move faster Bonus: - Direct experience with cloud, infrastructure, or AI/ML company contracts - Familiarity with compute supply contracts, datacenter agreements, or large infrastructure financing structures - Experience with open-source licensing, contributor agreements, and IP strategy in AI/ML contexts - Working knowledge of export controls, AI regulation, or international technology compliance - Prior experience as the first or second legal hire at a high-growth company Why This Role The legal architecture underneath AI infrastructure is being defined right now, and the people building it at the leading companies will shape how the industry operates for the next decade. You'll be the principal legal voice in the rooms where Prime Intellect's largest commercial, strategic, and structural decisions get made — and you'll build a function that sets the foundation for the company's next several years of growth. What We Offer - Cash Compensation Range of $275-330k + meaningful equity - Flexible work (remote or San Francisco) - Visa sponsorship and relocation support - Professional development budget - Team off-sites and conferences - A front-row seat to building the infrastructure layer for open AI