# Director of Legal

**Company:** [Redpanda Data](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/redpanda-data)
**Location:** Austin, TX
**Role:** Legal
**Salary:** $250k – $265k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** commercial contracts, privacy law, data protection, GDPR, ccpa/cpra, dpas, ai regulation, contract lifecycle management, legal technology, Negotiation, contracting playbooks, approval workflows, Enterprise Software, Salesforce
**Posted:** 2026-08-13

> Leads commercial transactions and builds scalable contracting infrastructure while advising the company on privacy, AI regulation, compliance, and broader legal risks. Requires a JD, state bar membership, and at least five years of technology-focused legal experience.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Draft, negotiate, and close customer, partner, and vendor agreements.
- Drive commercial negotiations from first draft through signature.
- Build and maintain contracting templates, forms, negotiation playbooks, and approval workflows.
- Operationalize legal technology and AI tools to make contracting faster and more scalable.
- Partner with Sales, Customer Success, Product, Security, and Finance on business-aligned agreements.
- Translate complex legal concepts into clear, actionable guidance for non-legal stakeholders.
- Advise on privacy and data protection matters, including DPAs.
- Help navigate the evolving AI regulatory landscape.
- Provide practical, business-oriented advice on legal risk across a high-growth enterprise software company.
- Support strategic initiatives across new legal domains as the company grows.

## Requirements
- JD from an accredited law school.
- Active membership in at least one US state bar.
- **5+ years of legal experience** in law firm and/or in-house roles.
- Significant experience drafting, negotiating, and closing commercial agreements for technology companies.
- Track record of independently owning complex commercial negotiations end to end.
- Working knowledge of privacy and data protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and other US state and international privacy laws.
- Experience negotiating DPAs.
- Experience building and improving contracting processes, templates, and playbooks.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
- Curiosity, flexibility, autonomy, and comfort operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.

## Nice-to-haves
- In-house experience at a high-growth enterprise software, data infrastructure, or AI company.
- Experience as an early legal hire building a legal function from the ground up.
- Hands-on experience with CLM systems and AI-enabled legal workflows.
- Familiarity with emerging AI regulation.

## Compensation
- US base salary range: **$265,000–$275,000** for California, New York, and Washington locations.
- US base salary range: **$250,000–$265,000** for other US locations.
- Individual base salary is determined by role, level, location, job-related skills, experience, education, and training.

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