Founding Head of Legal

Founding Head of Legal / GC at Ankar AI The way companies innovate is broken. The systems built to create and protect ideas can’t keep up with the pace of change. Today, 90% of S&P 500 company value is intangible (e.g., IP) — yet R&D and IP teams spend half their time buried in manual work, sifting through patents and paperwork instead of pushing the frontier forward. We’re here to fix that. Ankar is building the AI Platform for the Trillion Dollar Innovation Economy — a suite of tools that helps inventors explore, create, and protect ideas. We’re removing the friction from the invention process, starting with IP protection and expanding toward creation and exploration. We’re already seeing this vision come to life: Achieved $1M+ ARR, with 75% of this coming in the last 5 months Loved by F500 companies & top law firms, with 60% of new business from word of mouth Assembled a world‑class team from Palantir, Amazon, and BCG to tackle the next frontier of invention creation and expanding into a $1T+ market Raised £3m from Index Ventures, Founder of Hugging Face, CEO of Datadog, and product leaders from DeepMind and OpenAI If you want to own ambitious projects autonomously, solve impactful & complex problems, and do the best work of your career, read on. What you’ll be doing Own all legal operations at Ankar — building the legal function from the ground up and serving as the strategic partner to the founders and leadership team Lead commercial contracting end‑to‑end, including enterprise SaaS agreements, NDAs, DPAs, MSAs, partner agreements, and vendor contracts — balancing risk and opportunity Design our employee equity & share option programs, ensuring clarity, compliance, and scalability as the team grows across jurisdictions Support fundraising efforts — preparing and reviewing investment docs, managing diligence processes, and keeping our structure fundraising‑ready as we scale Drive AI, privacy, and regulatory strategy, shaping internal policy and external positioning as AI‑related regulations evolve globally Act as the guardian of our intellectual property (in partnership with product and engineering), helping ensure our platform, data, and inventions remain protected Work directly with our enterprise customers to navigate complex procurement, compliance, and security requirements — turning legal conversations into accelerators rather than blockers Engage and manage external counsel efficiently across corporate, employment, regulatory, and IP as needed What we are looking for A legal leader with 5‑10+ years of experience, ideally including time in a high‑growth startup or a tech‑forward environment Deep experience in commercial contracting — especially with enterprise SaaS or B2B technology products — and an ability to translate complexity into clear, actionable decisions Experience navigating AI‑related legal and regulatory issues is a plus A pragmatic, business‑oriented mindset — you bias toward solutions that unlock velocity while keeping the company safe A builder’s mentality — you enjoy creating processes, playbooks, and systems where none exist High ownership and autonomy, with the ability to operate independently and make sound judgments under ambiguity Legally qualified, meeting one of the following: Solicitor of England & Wales U.S.-qualified attorney Licensed lawyer in an EU jurisdiction What Else You Might Want To Know Location: Hoxton Square, London (we operate an office‑first policy with flexibility) Contract: Full‑time Compensation: Competitive salaries and a substantial equity package Hiring process: (1) 30‑min introductory chat with founder, (2) 1‑hr onsite interview with founder, (3) 20‑min meeting with advisor, (4) 30‑min final in‑person co‑founder meeting — the process can be as fast you want it to be Seniority level Executive Employment type Full‑time Job function Legal Software Development #J-18808-Ljbffr