Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
Senior Counsel, Public Sector stands out because it sits at the intersection of enterprise SaaS delivery and regulated government procurement. In the SaaS ecosystem, public sector work tends to surface the hardest questions around security, contracting, and accountability, and this role is positioned directly on that boundary as the business line expands across US and international government customers.
For a long-term SaaS legal career, the remit signals durable, transferable exposure: shaping contracting strategy, managing performance and disputes, and building repeatable compliance systems that enable revenue without slowing product deployment. The emphasis on scaling legal support through automation, including AI tools, also reflects a broader shift in SaaS legal functions toward operational leverage, where counsel influences process design as much as individual negotiations.
This role is best suited to a senior, hands-on operator who prefers breadth over narrow specialism and is comfortable switching between advisory, transactional, and programmatic work. It will fit someone motivated by complex stakeholder environments, where legal guidance must align with sales motions, security frameworks, and evolving product capabilities rather than static service delivery.
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 Role
We’re seeking a lawyer to support our growing OpenAI for Government business, including compliance and contracting issues related to our government business line. This role will support a wide range of issues relating to the sale of information technology services to governments, including matters related to facilities clearance and security compliance requirements, transactions and contract management, bid protests, contract performance, pre/post strategy, systems building, claims and disputes, compliance management, etc. This person needs to be a do-er who can jump between issues in a broad portfolio.
Role and Responsibilities
This counsel will be dedicated to supporting legal issues related to our OpenAI for Government business line, supporting US federal, state and local government, and international sales.
Work collaboratively with subject matter experts across the legal team on cutting-edge issue relating to artificial intelligence products.
Scale legal support through innovative application of AI tools and other automation mechanisms.
Areas of responsibility will include:
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Compliance
Contract Review and Negotiation
Bid Protests and Claims Management
Ethics and Compliance tailored to federal contracting
Data Privacy and Security Compliance, including security requirements such as NIST 800-171, CMMC, or FISMA
Lobbying and government affairs restrictions
False Claims Act (FCA) Risk Management
Supply Chain Management and Flow-Down Requirements
Audits and Reporting Obligations
Skills & Experience
10+ years experience.
In-house experience at a technology company that does significant business with the government.
Experience negotiating complex technology transactions with government customers, including federal, state and local, and international customers
Broad knowledge of government procurement regimes, including FAR and federal contracting.
Experience advising on government contracting compliance issues.
Experience scaling legal support through automation, particularly using AI tools.
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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