Frontier Counsel · Anthropic

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 13:45:17 GMT
Legal

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY · $265,000 - $320,000 USD · hybrid

As a member of the Frontier Counsel function, you'll work on the cutting edge of AI, serving as a trusted legal advisor to Anthropic's Research organisation and Compute team, providing strategic guidance on data acquisition, risk mitigation, rapidly evolving regulatory regimes, and a variety of other complex legal issues at the intersection of AI development and responsible innovation.

You'll be a subject matter expert on copyright, privacy, and related issues pertaining to data used to develop frontier AI models, while also counselling on compute infrastructure considerations including data localisation and cross-border data flows. You may also support our Alignment, Frontier Red-Teaming, Policy, and Societal Impacts teams to ensure safe, responsible AI development.

The ideal candidate will have experience navigating complex legal challenges globally in a fast-moving technical environment, as well as translating legal requirements into creative and practical solutions for pioneering AI research and development.

Responsibilities:

Advise Research teams on permissible data usage and partner with them on data sourcing strategy, maintaining and evolving our data acquisition frameworks, and supporting Research and Data Operations requests

Counsel the Compute team on relevant legal considerations including data localisation requirements, cross-border data transfers, privacy implications, and copyright considerations for compute infrastructure, partnering with internal subject matter experts as needed

Monitor regulatory developments related to AI training data and compute operations, adapting internal policies and practices proactively to ensure compliance across jurisdictions

Translate data and model development implications between research teams and Legal & Policy stakeholders, serving as a bridge between technical and legal functions

Engage with academics, industry groups, and other stakeholders to develop norms and best practices around data governance for AI development

Support Anthropic's Alignment and Frontier Red-Teaming teams to advance their research on AI safety and model vulnerabilities, including advising on vendor engagements, external collaborations, and data usage

You may be a good fit if you have:

A JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar (California preferred)

At least 8 years of relevant legal experience, with meaningful experience advising on data localisation and cross-border data transfer frameworks, copyright, privacy, data, and related issues for technology companies or AI/ML products (in-house experience preferred)

A creative, practical problem solver attitude with a passion and capacity for translating and applying legal requirements to technical concepts related to model development. You understand the importance of enabling innovation while developing responsibly and mitigating risks

Experience advising on legal issues for AI products or services and academic research, with knowledge of the machine learning development lifecycle

Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to draft clear policies, whitepapers, and other content. You enjoy engaging with stakeholders to evangelise best practices

An understanding of how to achieve the right balance between the organisation's mission and goals, knowing when to be flexible and when to draw a hard line

An enjoyment of wearing many hats in a fast-growing startup environment and are comfortable operating outside your areas of expertise and in uncharted legal territory

A 'doer' mentality and are willing to roll up your sleeves to get things done. You're a team player who doesn't hesitate to jump in to solve difficult problems

Exceptional communication and analytical skills, technical fluency, and ability to navigate ambiguous and uncharted legal territory

A growth mindset and epistemic humility with a passion for AI's potential to positively impact the world and realistic assessment of its risks and limitations. Commitment to building trustworthy, ethical AI systems

Strong candidates may have:

In-house or similar experience at a global law firm

Experience counselling on compute infrastructure or cloud services legal issues

Experience in a tech company or other fast-paced environment

Role-specific policy:

For this role, we expect all staff to be able to work from our San Francisco or New York office at least 3 days a week, though we encourage you to apply even if you might need some flexibility for an interim period of time.

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

For sales roles, the range provided is the role's On Target Earnings ('OTE') range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.

Annual Salary:

$265,000 - $320,000 USD

Logistics

Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience. Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification in the job description. We are looking for talented individuals who are passionate about AI and want to join a team that is working to make a positive impact on the world.