---
title: 'Corporate Counsel at Element451'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-counsel-element451-united-states-bwx67cc3vmdj'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Corporate Counsel at Element451

- **Company:** Element451
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-10-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/element451/411f434e-35ab-415e-b510-0bd3947b6f0c

## Job description

## About the role

Element451 is hiring its first in-house attorney. This is a generalist commercial counsel role built around a clear, immediate need: the volume and complexity of our contract work, including MSAs, DPAs, renewals, and redlines with colleges and universities, has outgrown what outside counsel and non-legal staff can handle alone. You will own contract negotiation end to end and serve as the first point of contact for the full range of legal questions that come up in a growing SaaS company, from data privacy to insurance to employment matters. You will bring in outside counsel only where specialized or higher-stakes expertise is truly needed. This is not a General Counsel role: corporate structuring, M&A, and financing transactions stay with outside deal counsel, with this role supporting and coordinating rather than owning them. You will report to the CFO within Finance & Strategy and work closely with the Chief of Staff, IT, People Operations, Sales, and Accounting.

## What you will do

Commercial contracts and MSAs (primary focus)

- Draft, review, and negotiate customer MSAs, order forms, DPAs, and amendments, including redlines with public and private higher-ed institutions and their counsel
- Manage a queue of concurrent negotiations, prioritizing by deal size, urgency, and risk
- Review and negotiate terms with resellers, integration partners, and data and technology vendors
- Build and maintain standard templates, fallback positions, and an approval playbook so recurring issues like liability caps, indemnification, data-breach cost allocation, and insurance requirements are resolved consistently and without a legal bottleneck
- Flag and resolve terms in state and public-institution paper, including systemwide or state-mandated terms

Data privacy and compliance

- Support FERPA, state student-data-privacy law, and GDPR compliance in customer contracts and internal data handling
- Advise on digital accessibility obligations for the platform and customer-facing content, including ADA Title II, Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, WCAG 2.1 AA, and state-specific standards
- Track subprocessor agreements and make sure DPAs are executed and current everywhere a signed MSA references them
- Monitor and advise on emerging state AI regulations relevant to our product

Insurance and risk

- Own the review of cyber and other insurance renewal applications with Finance and the CTO, making sure representations are accurate and complete
- Help size and document risk exposure on large or unusual deals for leadership sign-off

Disputes and public records

- Manage potential customer disputes in their early stages, including responses to customer counsel, and escalate to outside litigation counsel when needed
- Own responses to public-records and FOIA requests from state-institution customers, including trade-secret and proprietary exceptions where appropriate

Employment and corporate support

- Advise on employment matters alongside People Operations
- Own the Proprietary Information and Invention Agreement program so every employee and contractor signs at onboarding and agreements stay current with the law
- Support board resolutions, corporate-secretary filings, and Economic Disclosure Statements, coordinating with outside counsel on structuring, M&A, and financing

Must haves

- J.D. and an active license to practice law in at least one U.S. state
- 5 to 10 years of commercial or contracts law experience, ideally in-house at a B2B SaaS company or in a law firm commercial practice serving SaaS clients
- Demonstrated experience negotiating MSAs, DPAs, and enterprise SaaS agreements, including with public-sector or higher-ed customers
- Working knowledge of FERPA, state privacy laws, and GDPR
- Comfort operating as a generalist and prioritizing a high volume of concurrent matters with limited legal-team support
- Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to turn legal risk into plain-language guidance for non-lawyers

Nice to haves

- Experience in higher-ed technology, EdTech, or another regulated SaaS vertical
- Familiarity with insurance and cyber-coverage review and renewal processes
- Exposure to PE-backed company governance and reporting

## Why Element451

We are the leading AI Workforce Platform built specifically for higher education, helping colleges and universities build stronger relationships with prospective and current students. This is a remote-first role with a home office allowance, 20 days PTO, 10 company holidays, a 4% 401(k) match, and competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage.

## About Element451

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Element451 provides an AI-native CRM and AI agent platform purpose-built for higher education to help institutions manage the full student lifecycle.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Growth Equity funded)
- **Headquarters**: Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Higher Education Technology (EdTech), AI-powered CRM, Student Engagement
- Target customers: B2B; colleges and universities (including large public universities, community college systems, and private institutions)
- Mission or purpose statement: To put AI to work for higher education, helping institutions engage students, reduce staff burden, and drive outcomes at every stage of the student lifecycle.

## Products & Services
- **Element (AI-Native CRM)**: A full-lifecycle CRM that connects data, workflows, and AI agents across every team and every stage of the student journey — from marketing and admissions to enrollment, student success, and continuing education & workforce development.
- **Bolt (AI Agent Engine)**: A platform deploying specialized AI agents across the student lifecycle. Agents work inside existing institutional systems to handle tasks like 24/7 prospect engagement, application reading and scoring, fraud detection, transcript evaluation, student risk monitoring, and proactive outreach. Specialized agents exist for Marketing, Admissions, Student Success, and CE & Workforce.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised of $184.75M (latest round: Growth Equity, $175M raised ~2 years ago)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Investors include PSG, Cultivation Capital, Blueprint Equity, London Venture Partners, Cofounders Capital, and 3 others. Key strategic partner: Encoura (announced June 2026).
- **Growth Signals**: Trusted by 350+ higher education institutions (including Columbia University, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, the North Carolina Community College System, and the University System of Georgia). Surpassed 60 million AI-powered student journeys. Reported doubled Q1 growth in 2026 and expanded executive team to support next phase of AI innovation.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-Native Platform**: Unlike bolt-on “wraparound” agent solutions, Element451’s platform is built from the ground up with AI agents embedded in its core data and workflow engine.
- **Full Lifecycle Coverage**: Covers the entire student journey from first inquiry to graduation and beyond (including continuing education), offering a unified platform rather than point solutions.
- **Specialized Agents**: Bolt deploys agents purpose-built for specific workflows (marketing, admissions, student success) that work inside existing institutional tech stacks.
- **Proven Scale**: Supports over 60 million student journeys across 350+ institutions, demonstrating enterprise-grade reliability.

## Strategic Focus
- Current priorities include expanding AI agent capabilities across the student lifecycle, deepening strategic partnerships (e.g., with Encoura), and driving growth through AI innovation in higher education. The company is focused on addressing the “inflection point” in higher ed: declining enrollment, rising student expectations for AI-powered experiences, and staff burnout.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: The company describes itself as a group of “passionate builders, educators, visionaries, and problem solvers” who believe AI is one of the most important human inventions.
- **Impact**: Employees work on technology that directly addresses critical challenges in higher education — enrollment decline, staff workload reduction, and student success.
- **Growth Stage**: As a well-funded private company (over $184M raised) with doubled Q1 growth, Element451 is in a high-growth phase, offering potential for career advancement.
- **Work Arrangement**: Not explicitly stated, but the company is headquartered in Raleigh, NC (1 Glenwood, Floor 5). Open positions include Account Executive and Enablement Lead (per LinkedIn).
- **Notable**: The company encourages passionate candidates to submit resumes to jobs@element451.com even if no current opening matches.

## Sources
1. [element451.com](https://element451.com/)
2. [element451.com/about-us](https://element451.com/about-us)
3. [element451.com/careers](https://element451.com/careers)
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/element451)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/element451)

## Other roles at Element451

- [Staff Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-accountant-element451-raleigh-jz86ksy1grmx) — Raleigh, NC
- [Customer Success Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-engineer-element451-united-states-6vjmp2vrs6xq) — United States
- [Future Opportunity: Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/future-opportunity-account-executive-element451-united-states-2h5ty84p1n8j) — United States
- [Solutions Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-engineer-element451-united-states-exgxx9wpa80w) — United States
- [Senior Director, Integrations](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-integrations-element451-united-states-pnqe2qw6jh6d) — United States
- [Team Lead, Delivery Management](https://feeny.ai/job/team-lead-delivery-management-element451-serbia-z5hjq28nj63x) — Serbia
- [Corporate Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-counsel-lob-united-states-99j5htgbzqx3) — United States
- [Corporate Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-counsel-gruns-remote-edaxbxvd04w8)
- [Corporate Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-counsel-openloop-health-united-states-ycwn8q487d0m) — United States
- [Corporate Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-counsel-ginkgo-bioworks-inc-boston-8sefwjybckhn) — Boston, MA