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Head of Legal

Sakana AI· Legal
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Tokyofull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Head of Legal at Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup, responsible for leading contracts, corporate law, IP, and risk/compliance, while building and managing the legal team to enable business growth in Japan and globally.

Responsibilities

  • Lead drafting, review, and negotiation of contracts with customers, partners, vendors, and contractors, including English-language agreements
  • Partner with business teams from the earliest stage to shape contract structure with legal considerations
  • Handle shareholder and board meeting operations, corporate registrations, and legal matters related to capital policy and fundraising
  • Establish policies for handling research outputs, models, data, and OSS licenses; drive patent and trademark strategy with outside counsel
  • Build and operate compliance programs, including internal policies, personal data protection, and export control / security trade control
  • Track AI-related regulatory developments in Japan and abroad, translating them into practical guidance
  • Manage disputes and external inquiries; select and manage outside counsel
  • Manage legal team members and raise quality and productivity through standards, templates, and shared knowledge
  • Standardize contract and legal processes, including leveraging generative AI to improve efficiency

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of corporate legal experience, in-house or at a law firm
  • Proven ability to independently draft, review, and negotiate contracts including English-language
  • Ability to concretely explain risk to business teams and present workable options
  • Native-level Japanese; English sufficient for contract work and day-to-day communication
  • Interest in using generative AI (LLMs, AI agents) in legal work

Skills

Required:Contract drafting and negotiation (English-language)In-house corporate law / corporate governanceRegulatory and compliance management
Nice to have:Intellectual property strategy
Last updated Oct 25, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Sakana AI

Building Frontier AI in Japan

We are creating a new kind of foundation model based on nature-inspired intelligence.

AI research labTokyofoundation modelfrontier AIliquid-ai-recruiting-targetnature-inspired intelligence
Company profileWebsite

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