Legal Counsel (Commercial & Data Privacy) - Germany or US East Coast

As our first in-house Legal Counsel, you will work closely with founders, leadership, sales, product, and engineering teams. You will take ownership of our day-to-day legal work while helping to establish scalable legal processes, templates, and tools.

We are now looking to hire our first in-house lawyer to help us move legal work closer to the business, build internal legal structures from scratch, and support our next phase of growth.

This is a hands-on role with significant ownership and exposure across the company.

This role is ideal for a business-oriented lawyer with 1–3 years of experience who is excited about building things from the ground up in a fast-moving, international environment.

The role can be based in Germany or on the US East Coast , depending on qualifications.

Tasks

Commercial & Corporate

• Draft, review, and negotiate customer and vendor agreements (MSAs, SaaS agreements, DPAs, NDAs, partnership agreements, Privacy Agreements)
• Support go-to-market teams with pragmatic, risk-aware legal guidance and act as the first point of contact for commercial legal questions across the business

Data Privacy & Compliance

• Own day-to-day data protection topics (GDPR, CCPA, customer DPAs)
• Work with external counsel and internal stakeholders to maintain and improve privacy compliance
• Help design scalable privacy and compliance processes in caloboration with our internal compliance officer

Building the Legal Function

• Build legal processes, templates, and playbooks from scratch
• Select and implement legal tools (contract management, document storage, workflows)
• Manage and coordinate external counsel (Germany, US)

Requirements

Experience & Mindset

• 1–3 years of relevant legal experience (law firm and/or in-house)
• Strong business-oriented and pragmatic mindset
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and building structures from scratch
• Interest in technology and infrastructure
• Ability to prioritize and make sound judgment calls in a fast-paced environment

Qualifications – Location Dependent

If based in Germany:

• Fully qualified German lawyer (Volljurist, both state exams)
• Admission to the German Bar (Rechtsanwalt) strongly preferred
• Excellent English skills (written and spoken)
• Exposure to international / US-related legal work is a strong plus

If based in the United States (East Coast):

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited US law school
• Admission to a US state bar (NY preferred)
• Experience working with international or European companies is a strong plus
• Familiarity with GDPR and cross-border data protection concepts is a plus

Nice to Have (Not Required)

• Prior experience with startups or high-growth tech companies
• Exposure to cross-border commercial contracts
• Experience working closely with sales or product teams

Benefits

• Fully remote team with flexible working hours
• High ownership, real impact, and technical depth
• Opportunity to shape how the industry evaluates vector search
• 401k, medical benefits

Be the first in-house lawyer and shape the legal function end-to-end

High ownership, visibility, and impact on the business

Direct collaboration with founders and senior leadership

International exposure with real US–EU cross-border work

Remote working setup depending on location