Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Counsel, AI Policy role sits at a point where SaaS and regulation increasingly intersect. As AI capabilities are embedded into subscription products and enterprise workflows, the legal and policy questions shift from theoretical to operational, affecting product decisions, customer commitments, and go to market risk. The listing signals work that spans US and international developments, reflecting how SaaS businesses often need policy coverage that matches a global user base.
For a long-term SaaS career, this kind of seat builds durable leverage: translating evolving rules into practical guidance that teams can act on. Experience analyzing proposals with limited precedent is especially relevant in AI, where standards, enforcement patterns, and industry norms are still forming. Cross functional collaboration with Legal and Global Affairs also mirrors how modern SaaS organisations manage governance across product, comms, and leadership.
The role best suits a lawyer who prefers ambiguous problem spaces and can turn complex inputs into clear written positions. It fits someone who enjoys stakeholder work and influencing decisions without owning execution directly. It also aligns with professionals who want policy depth while staying close to how AI enabled software is deployed in real markets.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the Team
OpenAI's Legal team plays a crucial role in furthering OpenAI's mission by tackling innovative, fundamental legal issues in AI. If you're passionate about doing significant and unique work as a technology lawyer, this team is for you. The team comprises professionals from diverse fields, including technology, AI, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax law, regulatory, and litigation.
About the Role
We’re seeking an AI Policy Counsel to help navigate the increasing AI legislative and regulatory landscape in the US and abroad. We’re looking for a legal self-starter with deep experience in technology policy and a knack for analyzing complex legislative and regulatory proposals for which there is often little precedent. This role reports to our Senior Counsel of AI Policy.
This role is based in our San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC offices. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.
In this role, you will:
Analyze proposed laws and regulations concerning AI to understand their impact on OpenAI and the broader AI community.
Collaborate across Legal and Global Affairs to develop policy positions.
Provide strategic analysis and advice to the Global Affairs team and other internal stakeholders.
Advise on evolving regulatory and industry standards affecting OpenAI’s business and customers.
You might thrive in this role if you:
Have 5+ years of experience with a mix of in-house and technology-focused law firm roles.
Have a strong background in technology policy, with experience analyzing complex legislation.
Have experience and familiarity with AI or a demonstrated interest in AI laws and regulations.
Write clearly and concisely, distilling complex concepts into simple, explainable, and persuasive ideas.
Have experience engaging with regulators and/or policymakers.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.
