Head of Legal
Palo Alto, CA
$200,000 - $250,000
We’re partnered with a venture-backed AI healthcare company to hire their new Head of Legal — a strategic, hands-on leader who will build and define the legal function from the ground up.
The company is developing an AI operating system for oncology, automating complex clinical and administrative workflows across cancer centers nationwide. Backed by leading healthcare investors and already live in market, the team is scaling quickly at the intersection of AI, regulated health data, and enterprise healthcare systems.
Reporting directly to the CEO, this is not a traditional in-house counsel role. You’ll operate as both architect and operator — shaping product decisions, building compliance infrastructure, enabling enterprise growth, and establishing the governance frameworks that will underpin long-term defensibility.
Location: Palo Alto, CA (Hybrid – 1–2 days per week in office)
8–15+ years of legal experience (combination of top-tier law firm and in-house preferred)
Background in health tech, digital health, healthcare SaaS, or regulated AI
Deep expertise in HIPAA, health data privacy, and enterprise SaaS contracting
Experience advising Product and Engineering teams directly
Comfortable operating as a solo senior legal leader in a scaling environment
Strong business judgment with the ability to balance risk and velocity
Advise on HIPAA, HITECH, state privacy laws, and emerging AI regulatory frameworks
Guide compliant health data usage, AI model training boundaries, and deployment strategy
Develop frameworks for PHI handling, de-identification, and governance
Partner cross-functionally to embed privacy-by-design architecture
Lead negotiation of MSAs, BAAs, enterprise SaaS agreements, and strategic partnerships
Reduce sales friction while protecting long-term company risk
Build scalable contract templates and negotiation playbooks
Establish policies for AI explainability, bias mitigation, and responsible deployment
Design model transparency and audit-readiness frameworks
Advise on commercialization of AI models and datasets
Support board governance and fundraising diligence
Oversee employment, equity, and contractor agreements
Manage external counsel relationships
Build the legal function from first principles
Experience with FDA-regulated software (SaMD)
Exposure to value-based care or payer/provider systems
Experience at a venture-backed startup
First senior legal hire with full ownership of the function
Direct influence on product architecture and company strategy
High visibility with executive leadership, board, and investors
Opportunity to shape AI governance at a critical regulatory inflection point
If you’re excited to design the legal backbone of a category-defining AI healthcare company — and want meaningful influence at the executive level — we’d love to connect.
March 4, 2026