- Salary
- $140k – $200k/yr
- Location
- San Francisco, California, US
- Type
- Full-time
- Department
- Legal
- Source
- Y Combinator
Description
About the role
Pocket is looking for its first in-house legal hire to build and own the company’s legal function as we scale globally.
This is a highly hands-on role working directly with the founders across corporate, commercial, employment, privacy, compliance, and people-related matters.
You will serve as the central legal owner across the organization, working closely with our external counsel while progressively bringing more legal knowledge, processes, and execution in-house.
This is not a role for someone who only coordinates outside counsel. We are looking for someone who is comfortable drafting, negotiating, making practical risk assessments, and building processes from scratch.
What you'll own
Corporate & Governance
- Corporate governance and board-related matters
- Equity, ESOP, stock option and capitalization matters
- Fundraising and financing support
- Coordination with external corporate counsel
Commercial
- Drafting and negotiating commercial agreements
- Vendor, manufacturing, partnership and enterprise agreements
- NDAs and other day-to-day contracts
- Building standardized contracting processes and templates
Employment & People
- Employment and contractor agreements
- Employee separations and related documentation
- IP assignment and confidentiality matters
- Employee policies and handbook
- Immigration and employment-law coordination
- Supporting People Operations and HR-related compliance
Privacy & Compliance
- Privacy and data protection
- Consumer protection
- Product-related regulatory matters
- Internal compliance programs
- Coordination with specialist external counsel where necessary
Legal Operations
- Build Pocket's legal infrastructure
- Create scalable processes for contracts and approvals
- Manage outside counsel and legal spend
- Identify legal risks proactively rather than reactively
What we're looking for
- 5+ years of relevant legal experience
- Strong training at a leading law firm and/or high-growth technology company
- Experience working with venture-backed technology companies
- Strong corporate and commercial background
- Familiarity with employment matters and privacy/compliance
- Comfortable operating across areas outside of a narrow legal specialization
- Highly practical and commercially minded
- Able to distinguish between material company risk and theoretical legal risk
- Comfortable working directly with founders in a fast-moving environment
- Builder mentality — you want to create the function, not inherit an established legal department
Experience with consumer technology, hardware, AI, international expansion, or high-growth DTC businesses is a strong plus.
Reporting
Reports directly to the COO and works closely with the CEO, CTO, Finance, Operations, Product, and external counsel.
As Pocket grows, this person should have the opportunity to build and lead the broader Legal function.
