Senior Counsel, Commercial (Robotics)

About the Team

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and advancing toward AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world environments. Working across the full model and systems stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of real-world systems to improve people’s lives.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 8+ years of experience across a leading law firm and/or in-house legal department supporting technology companies.
• Bring significant experience drafting and negotiating sophisticated commercial agreements, particularly involving hardware supply, manufacturing, procurement, development, licensing, and strategic partnerships.
• Are comfortable operating in fast-paced, entrepreneurial environments where priorities evolve quickly and there isn't always an established playbook.
• Exercise sound business judgment and provide practical legal advice that enables teams to move quickly while appropriately managing risk.
• Communicate complex legal concepts clearly and tailor guidance to technical and business audiences.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships and influence through partnership rather than authority.
• Demonstrate a high degree of ownership, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm for emerging technologies.
• Operate independently while effectively managing multiple priorities and competing deadlines.
• Have a JD and license or qualification to practice in California.

What success looks like:

• Robotics teams view Legal as a trusted strategic partner and engage early on key initiatives.
• Commercial agreements are negotiated efficiently while balancing business objectives, operational needs, and legal risk.
• Practical legal frameworks, templates, and scalable processes enable the Robotics organization to move faster with greater consistency.
• Emerging legal and regulatory issues are identified proactively, with thoughtful recommendations that support informed decision making.

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.

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