Legal, Partnerships & Strategic Transactions
Remote • San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 3h ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
Baseten is seeking a senior attorney to lead the legal aspects of its partnerships and strategic transactions. This role is central to Baseten's engagement with model labs, hyperscalers, distribution platforms, and major customers, focusing on the negotiation and execution of licenses that govern open-weight models. The position reports to the Chief Legal Officer and collaborates closely with founders and partnerships leads, playing a critical role in shaping the company's strategic relationships and ensuring legal clarity in complex AI licensing and distribution agreements.
Responsibilities
- Lead legal work for model lab relationships, including distribution agreements, hosted API arrangements, and license renegotiations.
- Manage strategic platform and channel deals, such as hyperscaler marketplace agreements and enterprise partnerships.
- Develop and maintain Baseten's framework for open-weight and custom model licenses, defining their application and indemnification boundaries.
- Act as the legal expert on model licensing in customer deals, engaging with customer counsel on interpretation and responsibility allocation.
- Advise leadership on channel strategy, conflict resolution, and competitive dynamics to maintain Baseten's independence.
- Collaborate with regulatory, policy, and security teams on cross-border partnership terms, including export controls and data residency.
- Create templates and playbooks to enable business teams to manage standard arrangements and escalate novel ones.
- Support M&A activities and other strategic transactions, including diligence on inherited licenses.
- Contribute to the growth and development of the partnerships legal function.
Requirements
- Experience as a senior attorney leading legal work for partnerships and strategic transactions.
- Deep understanding of open-weight model licenses, including their evolving terms and implications.
- Ability to interpret and explain complex licenses to technical and business stakeholders.
- Experience structuring deals involving channel conflict, exclusivity, and information flow.
- Familiarity with cross-border legal considerations such as export controls, sanctions, and data residency.
- Ability to build legal frameworks, templates, and playbooks.
- Experience supporting M&A and other strategic transactions.
- Strong judgment and ability to assess strategic implications of deals.
- Ability to read and understand license text thoroughly.