---
title: 'Senior Director - AI Commercial Counsel at Handshake'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-ai-commercial-counsel-handshake-san-francisco-rr3c2az2ts06'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-16'
---

# Senior Director - AI Commercial Counsel at Handshake

- **Company:** [Handshake](https://feeny.ai/companies/handshake)
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $276k–$345k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/handshake/cd613f8d-a61c-4c2f-8e92-9064aa52099d

## Job description

## About Handshake

Handshake was founded on a simple belief that everyone deserves a path to a great career, regardless of where they went to school or who they know. Today, we power 25 million job seekers, 1 million+ employers, and 1,600 educational institutions. In 2025, we started Handshake AI and built the fastest-growing AI data business in history. We work directly with frontier AI lab researchers to create evaluations, publish benchmarks, and push the boundary of data. We've grown from $0 to ~$1B run rate and pay ~$60M to over 30K individuals every month. Why join Handshake now:

- Shape how every career evolves in the AI economy, at global scale, with impact your friends, family and peers can see and feel
- Partner hand-in-hand with world-class AI labs, Fortune 500 partners and the world's top educational institutions
- Work together with engineers, scientists, operators, and more from Palantir, Meta, Scale AI, and former YC founders
- Build a massive, fast-growing business with billions in revenue

## About Handshake AI

Human data is the core infrastructure to AI advancement. Frontier AI labs currently improve model capabilities with various data-intensive post-training techniques. We believe that data spend for AI training will increase by 3-5x in the next few years and continue for much longer as models take on new domains. Handshake AI supports all of the frontier AI labs, working on their most complex data at the largest scale.

## About the Team

Handshake's Legal team is a strategic partner to the business, helping Handshake move quickly, make sound decisions, and build trusted products and services. We're a lean, collaborative team solving novel questions at the intersection of frontier technology and the workforce. As the senior commercial lawyer dedicated to Handshake AI and Handshake AI Enterprise, you'll help turn ambitious opportunities into durable commercial relationships with leading AI labs and enterprise customers. You'll join a team that values commercial judgment, intellectual curiosity, urgency, and a deep commitment to Handshake's mission of democratizing access to opportunity.

## Your Impact

Reporting to the General Counsel, you'll define and lead the commercial legal strategy for Handshake AI and Handshake AI Enterprise, with a focus on our most strategic frontier lab and enterprise customers. You'll serve as lead lawyer, strategic advisor, and deal quarterback on high-value, bespoke transactions.

- Strategic commercial transactions: Own the legal strategy and negotiation of Handshake AI's most important customer and partner transactions, including AI data and training agreements, enterprise AI services, and strategic partnerships.
- Bespoke deal structuring: Create novel commercial structures for complex opportunities where market standards are still developing—translating product, operational, and economic objectives into durable agreements and clear allocations of risk.
- Data, IP, privacy, and security: Lead negotiations and provide practical advice on data rights, model-training and output rights, IP ownership and licensing, privacy, and security, with a deep understanding of how those terms affect Handshake's products and delivery model.
- Customer and executive engagement: Represent Handshake directly with sophisticated customer legal teams and senior stakeholders, lead high-stakes negotiations, brief executives on material issues, and drive decisions that keep strategic deals moving.
- Cross-functional partnership: Partner closely with Sales, Partnerships, Product, and Operations throughout the deal lifecycle—from opportunity shaping and term-sheet strategy through negotiation, signature, implementation, renewal, and expansion.
- Commercial function leadership: Build the templates, playbooks, approval frameworks, deal-desk practices, and contracting workflows needed to improve deal velocity and risk calibration; establish the commercial legal function and build the team as the business grows.

You Have

- JD and active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. state bar (California admission or eligibility to register as in-house counsel in California)
- 10+ years of combined legal experience, including law firm training and in-house experience at a sophisticated technology company
- A track record of structuring, negotiating, and closing complex, high-value commercial transactions with enterprise customers
- Deep experience with enterprise technology and data licensing, including data-use rights, IP, privacy, and security terms
- Exceptional commercial instinct and judgment, with the ability to identify what matters and calibrate risk to business objectives
- Executive presence and comfort with ambiguity, with the communication skills to earn trust with fast-moving internal teams and senior stakeholders

Bonus Points

- Experience with AI data or training agreements, enterprise AI services, or transactions with frontier AI labs; AI experience is useful but not required
- Prior experience as the first or senior commercial lawyer for a high-growth business, including building scalable contracting processes

## We Offer

Handshake delivers benefits that help you feel supported and thrive at work and in life. The below benefits are for full-time US employees. 🎯 Ownership: Equity in a fast-growing company 💰 Financial Wellness: 401(k) match, competitive compensation, financial coaching 🍼 Family Support: Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coaching 💝 Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend 📚 Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development 💻 Remote & Office: Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office 🏝 Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays + 2 flex days 🤝 Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses Explore our mission, values, and comprehensive US benefits at [joinhandshake.com/careers](http://joinhandshake.com/careers).

## About Handshake

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Handshake is the career network for the AI economy, connecting job seekers with internships, full-time roles, freelance gigs, and AI training work through a three-sided marketplace.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series F; total funding $434M across 6 rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Garrett Lord (CEO), Ben Christensen, Scott Ringwelski

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Career platform / Job marketplace / AI workforce infrastructure
- **Target customers**: B2C (job seekers, from students to experienced professionals) and B2B (employers including 100% of Fortune 500 and all foundational AI labs; also educational institutions)
- **Mission**: Expand access and improve outcomes for job seekers, helping the workforce stay ahead in the AI economy.

## Products & Services
- **Handshake Core Platform**: A three-sided marketplace connecting 25 million knowledge workers, 1,600+ schools, and 1 million employers. Features dynamic profiles, intelligent job matching, and interactive skill-building.
- **Handshake AI Enterprise**: AI-powered tools for employers and job seekers, including AI-driven matching, safety features, and pay management.
- **AI Trainer Gigs**: Paid, flexible, remote work for individuals to train and evaluate AI models (e.g., AI Evaluation Specialist, up to $40/hr) – no prior AI experience required.
- **Handshake Network**: Community events, career advice, and networking for students, experts, and professionals in AI and other fields.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $434M (6 rounds); annual revenue $56.5M (LinkedIn estimate)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Board includes representatives from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, EQT Ventures, True Ventures, and Niantic. Strategic partners include 100% of the Fortune 500 and foundational AI labs.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount at 5,272 employees (+708.8% YoY per LinkedIn); 1M+ companies on platform; 25M users; expansion into AI trainer gig economy; new roles in HAI (Handshake AI Enterprise) such as Applied AI Engineer, AI Platform Engineer, and Forward Deployed Engineer.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Network effects**: The only three-sided marketplace linking students, employers, and educational institutions at scale.
- **AI-first positioning**: Deep integration of AI into job matching, skill-building, and new freelance training roles – creating a unique ecosystem for the AI economy.
- **Trusted by elite institutions**: 1,600+ partner schools and every Fortune 500 company provides unparalleled reach into early-career talent.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI economy expansion**: Building the “career network for the AI economy” – expanding beyond college students to all knowledge workers, and adding AI training gigs as a new revenue and engagement stream.
- **Product innovation**: Heavy investment in Handshake AI Enterprise (HAI), including AI matching, safety, and pay infrastructure.
- **Global scaling**: Offices in San Francisco, New York, UK, and Bangalore; operating in 32 countries.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Values include “Students first,” “Leave nothing to chance,” “Own the outcome,” “Invent and reinvent,” and “Olympic pace.” Emphasis on ownership, urgency, and constant evolution.
- **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Many roles are based in San Francisco or New York, but some positions (e.g., Trust & Safety Specialist, Support Specialist) are remote in the US. Recent openings show both office and remote options.
- **Benefits**: Health & wellness support, financial support, time off, modern offices with meals, snacks, and social activities. Strong focus on career growth and learning.
- **Career growth**: Rapid headcount growth suggests ample internal mobility; roles range from engineering (ML, AI, data) to customer success, partnerships, and product management.

## Sources
1. [joinhandshake.com/about](https://joinhandshake.com/about/)
2. [joinhandshake.com/careers](https://joinhandshake.com/careers/)
3. [linkedin.com/company/team-handshake](https://www.linkedin.com/company/team-handshake)
4. [joinhandshake.com](https://joinhandshake.com/)

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