Counsel / Senior Counsel

Who you are

• Proven Tenure: 2–7+ years practicing law at a law firm and/or in an in-house legal department
• Bar Admission: J.D. from an accredited U.S. law school and admission in good standing to at least one State bar, preferably California, or eligibility for California registered in-house counsel status
• Contracting at Volume: Demonstrated track record drafting and negotiating commercial and technology agreements at volume, with increasing independence
• AI in Practice: Proven track record using AI tools in legal practice, contract review and drafting, research, and workflow automation, with sound judgment about their limits and appropriate use
• Dynamic Self-Starter: You prioritize and advance many matters at once under the resource and time constraints of a small, fast-paced environment
• Momentum Builder: You like variety, move multiple matters forward without waiting to be asked, and know what deserves attention first
• Sharp Business Judgment: You distill complex legal topics into clear, actionable guidance
• Trusted Partner: You bring discretion, professionalism, and attention to detail, plus a collaborative style that builds trust across the company and with third parties
• Life Sciences Context: Experience in life sciences or biotech, and comfort working directly with scientists and engineers
• Technical Skills: Comfort using, or eagerness to learn, AI tools and workflows in legal practice, including contract review and drafting, research, and workflow automation
• Technical Contracting Depth: Familiarity with data use and acquisition agreements, AI/ML legal issues, cloud and compute contracting, and open source licensing
• Employment & Legal Tech: Prior exposure to employment law matters and to immigration in coordination with outside counsel, and experience selecting or administering CLM or legal workflow tools

What the job involves

• We are seeking a pragmatic, high-output attorney to join our Legal team as Counsel or Senior Counsel, with level set by experience
• You will be the daily legal partner to research, lab and technical operations, IT, procurement, finance, and HR, covering commercial and operational matters, compute and infrastructure
• This is a high-volume role on a small team: you will own your matters end to end, build and enhance the templates and processes the company runs on, and have an opportunity to grow your scope as insitro grows
• You will also be practicing at the frontier of two fields that are both moving fast, drug discovery and artificial intelligence, often on questions that have no settled answer yet
• The Legal department here is small, senior, and low-ego, with a genuine seat at the table: scientists, engineers, and the management team come to us early rather than at the end
• We are building the function itself, including how AI reshapes legal work, so you will have real influence over the tooling, templates, and processes insitro uses for years
• Based in South San Francisco, this position reports directly to the Associate General Counsel and offers an in-person hybrid schedule of three days per week
• Commercial & Operational Contracting:
• Own the Contract Flow: Draft, review, and negotiate the agreements that run the company day to day, including CDAs, MSAs and SOWs, consulting agreements, and vendor, supplier, and equipment terms
• Be the Front Door: Serve as a primary legal contact for the business and R&D teams, triaging incoming requests, setting expectations, driving matters to close on business timelines, and escalating issues to the AGC as needed
• Partner with HR: Supporting onboarding and offboarding processes, as well as contractor and similar engagements
• Research & Technical Partnership:
• Translate Science into Terms: Support lab operations and R&D teams on MTAs, research services agreements, and reagent and instrument purchases, working directly with scientists to turn experimental plans into workable contract terms
• Advance the Pipeline: Support CMC and Research & Development teams on CRO and CDMO agreements
• Contract for Compute: Negotiate the cloud, compute, and infrastructure agreements that underpin insitro's machine learning platforms
• Legal Operations & Scale:
• Build for Scale: Own and improve contract templates, trainings, playbooks, approval workflows, and CLM tooling so routine work moves faster with less legal involvement
• Build and deploy AI Tools: Put AI tools to work inside the Legal function to accelerate contract review, drafting, and knowledge management
• Counsel and Advise: Provide business-oriented advice colleagues can act on without a follow-up meeting
• Future scope may include data privacy and compliance ownership, clinical trial contracting, corporate and governance support, or mentorship of junior colleagues

Benefits

• Complete Healthcare Coverage: Take your health seriously without worrying about the costs. insitro offers comprehensive coverage with low premiums for you and your family
• Wellness Benefits: Prioritize your well-being beyond medical care. insitro offers a comprehensive range of benefits tailored to support all aspects of wellness
• Mental Health Support: Our generous healthcare plans include access to digital mental health platforms with a range of services for you and your loved ones
• Supportive Time Off Policies: Flexible vacation time, generous paid parental and bereavement leaves, and a year-end shutdown week
• Support for Hybrid Work: Balance work and your personal commitments with in-person, hybrid and remote options based on the team and role. We support you with home office setup reimbursement as well as co-work space stipends for remote workers
• Formal Learning and Training Programs: Partake in formal programs to help you grow and develop, from day 1 onboarding to new manager training to our annual, in vivo week
• Self Development: Annual personal budget for books, external training, and conferences that nurture you professional passions and development interests
• Access to Knowledge Leaders: Engage with in-house and visiting scholars and experts throughout the year at special events designed exclusively for insitrocytes
• Extensive HQ Benefits: Our insitro HQ offers free daily meals via an onsite cafe and coffee shop, a free fitness facility, an onsite childcare center, and free commuter shuttle buses
• Social Connection: get to know your colleagues at our weekly HQ happy hours, celebrations for special cultural events, and casual meet-ups for sports, music, outdoor activities, and more