Senior Legal Counsel
Traversal· Operations
New York$200k - $400kFull-timePosted 4w ago
About the role
Senior Legal Counsel, Traversal’s first legal hire, building the legal function from the ground up while advising on corporate, compliance, employment, and enterprise contracting for a fast-growing AI software company.
Responsibilities
- Own commercial contracting end-to-end: draft, negotiate, and close enterprise customer agreements (MSAs, DPAs, security/privacy addenda, order forms) with large enterprise customers, balancing legal risk with sales velocity.
- Build the legal function from scratch - templates, playbooks, and approval workflows - so the business can scale without bottlenecking on legal review.
- Serve as primary legal advisor to the executive team on corporate matters: entity governance, board materials, equity administration, and support for future fundraising.
- Own compliance and risk across data privacy and security certifications (SOC 2, GDPR/CCPA) and emerging regulatory considerations relevant to an AI product operating inside customers' production environments.
- Advise on employment matters (offer letters, policies, terminations) and partner with the Head of Operations on vendor and procurement contracts.
- Manage outside counsel relationships across specialty areas (IP, litigation, international expansion) for efficient, cost-effective use of external legal spend.
- Proactively flag legal and regulatory risk to leadership as Traversal scales into new markets and customer segments.
Qualifications
- J.D. and active bar admission; NY admission preferred given our in-office location.
- Corporate law experience combined with hands-on commercial contract negotiation at an early-stage startup - this is a firm requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- 7+ years of legal experience, with a mix of law firm training and in-house experience, ideally at a B2B SaaS or enterprise software company.
- Deep expertise drafting and negotiating enterprise commercial agreements (MSAs, SaaS terms, DPAs, security addenda) with sophisticated enterprise counterparties.
- Working knowledge of data privacy and security frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2) relevant to software with access to customer production systems.
- Comfort operating as a generalist "department of one" - able to triage corporate, employment, and compliance questions, escalating to outside counsel when needed.
- Willing and able to work 5 days/week in-person in our New York office (near Madison Square Park).
- Strong business judgment, balancing legal risk against commercial velocity in a fast-moving startup environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to explain legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders.
Skills
Required:Commercial contract negotiationCorporate governanceData privacy & security frameworksEmployment law
Benefits
- startup equity
- health insurance
- additional benefits
- fertility benefits
- tech setup stipend
- flexible time off
- in-office snacks
- team happy hours and outings
- annual company offsite
Last updated Sep 24, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Traversal
The only AI SRE for the enterprise
Traversal cuts through alert noise, surfaces root causes, and guides your team to remediation — so incidents get fixed in minutes, not hours.
AISREcomplex systemsalertingroot cause analysisincident preventionenterprise
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