Legal Counsel (Commercial & Data Privacy)

Overview 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. Responsibilities 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 collaboration 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 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 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