Head of Legal / General Counsel at Etched (San Jose, CA)Head of Legal / General Counsel

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary We are looking for a Head of Legal / General Counsel to lead and scale Etched’s legal function. You will lead our existing team, hire and develop exceptional talent, and build the processes, automation, and operating standards that help the company move quickly as we scale. You will own our legal strategy and execution, serve as a key partner to the executive team, and lead our legal preparation for an IPO.This is a hands-on leadership role. We expect you to build a high-performing team while personally owning our most consequential negotiations and legal decisions. Success means making the company faster and more effective through clear judgment, strong execution, and systems that work.

Title will be determined based on experience. The General Counsel title is reserved for current GCs at similarly sized or larger companies, or senior law firm partners with substantial relevant experience.

• Lead and grow our legal team: hire exceptional people, develop existing team members, and establish clear ownership, priorities, and performance expectations.
• Build consistent legal practices across the company, including intake and prioritization, contract templates, negotiation playbooks, approval thresholds, and escalation paths. Enable teams to handle routine matters independently within clear guardrails.
• Establish and manage service-level agreements (SLAs) for contract reviews and other legal requests. Track turnaround times, backlog, and outside counsel spend, and use those measures to improve execution without compromising quality.
• Automate repeatable legal work, including contract workflows, document generation, and knowledge management. Apply AI tools thoughtfully, with appropriate human review and protections for confidential information.
• Lead legal preparation for an IPO in partnership with Finance, the executive team, and outside counsel. Build the corporate governance, board and committee processes, disclosure practices, and legal infrastructure needed to operate as a public company.
• Personally lead complex commercial negotiations, including customer agreements, supplier and manufacturing agreements, IP licenses, and strategic partnerships. Work directly with engineering, production, finance, and commercial teams to understand the underlying technical and business requirements.
• Advise the executive team and board on financings, strategic transactions, equity compensation, corporate governance, and material legal risks. Give clear recommendations that account for both legal exposure and business objectives.
• Oversee employment, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, and disputes across our U.S. and international operations, drawing on specialist counsel where appropriate.
• Own the legal budget and outside counsel relationships. Decide what to build in-house, hold external partners to high standards, and ensure spending produces clear value.

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)

• Substantial experience advising high-growth technology companies, in-house or at a leading law firm.
• A track record of hiring, developing, and leading high-performing legal teams.
• Deep expertise in commercial negotiations, corporate governance, and financings.
• Experience building legal processes that improve speed and quality without adding bureaucracy.
• Strong business judgment, concise communication, and a willingness to personally own difficult work across a broad scope.
• A JD and active bar admission; California preferred.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

• Taking a technology company through an IPO and supporting public-company operations.
• Leading legal work for major financings, acquisitions, or other strategic transactions at a rapidly scaling company.
• Working in AI, hardware, semiconductors, or advanced manufacturing, including negotiating agreements involving IP rights, supply commitments, hardware warranties, performance specifications, and technical acceptance criteria.
• Building legal operations infrastructure, implementing contract lifecycle management systems, or deploying AI and automation in legal workflows.

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
• $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
• Housing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
• Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office
• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.