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Counsel, Commercial

OpenAI · San Francisco

Spotted 115d agoFull-time

Job details

Pay
$252,000 – $280,000 a year
Work mode
Hybrid
Employment
Full-time
Level
Senior
Experience
7+ years
Posted
Jul 1, 2026
Last confirmed open
Oct 23, 2026

What you'll need to apply

Fields this application requires

NameEmailResumePhoneLocationWork authorization answerVisa sponsorship answerIn-office availability

Company-specific questions

  • When can you start a new role?
  • Are you currently admitted to and in good standing with at least one US state or federal bar?
  • Applicant Arbitration Agreement Acknowledgement
  • I hereby certify that I have not knowingly withheld any information that might adversely affect my chances for employment and that the answers given by me are true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I further certify that I, the undersigned applicant, have personally completed this application. I understand that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, any omission or misstatement of material fact on this application or on any document used to secure employment shall be grounds for rejection of this application or for immediate discharge if I am employed, regardless of the time elapsed before discovery.
Job description

About this role

About the Team

OpenAI’s Legal team plays a crucial role in advancing our mission by tackling innovative and fundamental legal issues in AI. The team includes professionals from diverse legal fields – technology, AI, infrastructure, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation – who collaborate closely with colleagues across the company.

If you are passionate about being a technology lawyer working on cutting-edge challenges, you’ll thrive here.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced commercial attorney to join our commercial legal team. Based in the US, you will help lead commercial legal support for OpenAI’s rapidly growing business, working with teams such as GTM, Partnerships, Procurement, Finance, Product, Infrastructure, and Engineering.

This is a great opportunity to join OpenAI’s commercial legal team, negotiating high-impact agreements and helping to build scalable frameworks for responsible growth.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week.

In this role, you will:

  • Serve as the legal partner for OpenAI’s business transactions, partnerships, and operations.
  • Provide practical, business-oriented legal advice to teams including Sales, Partnerships, Finance, Procurement, and Operations.
  • Identify and address commercial, product, regulatory, privacy, and other legal issues arising from commercial transactions.
  • Develop strategies and processes for handling legal issues in creative and scalable ways that support growth.
  • Monitor and advise on regulatory and compliance matters affecting AI and technology.
  • Collaborate with colleagues across OpenAI’s global legal team to ensure alignment across jurisdictions.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have 7+ years of experience across in-house and technology-focused law firm roles.
  • Bring a strong background in drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts.
  • Are comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial environment, and are proactive and independent.
  • Communicate with clarity and business judgment, tailoring advice to enable responsible growth.
  • Build cross-functional relationships and adapt communication styles to diverse audiences.
  • Have a strong sense of ownership, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm for technology.
  • Can demonstrate sound judgment in ambiguous or fast-changing situations.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products.

AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement .

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates.

For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information.

In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form . No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Interested in this role?Continue on OpenAI's careers page.
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