Head of Legal

Ricursive Intelligence is a frontier AI lab building self-improving systems, starting with chip design. We are reinventing chip development and closing the loop between AI and the hardware that fuels it, recursively accelerating the path to artificial superintelligence. Backed by $335M from Sequoia, Lightspeed, DST, and NVIDIA Ventures, we are a growing, fast-paced team where every hire shapes the work.

The company has unmatched talent density, including IMO, IPhO, and IOAA gold medalists, pioneers who made prior breakthroughs in chip design: AlphaChip (Nature 2021), ePlace (DAC Best Paper Nominee 2014), RL-CCD (DAC Best Paper 2023), INSTA (DAC Best Paper 2025), and C3PO (ASP-DAC Best Paper 2026), chip leads for Apple Silicon (multiple generations of iPhone and iPad) and Google (TPU, OpenTitan), and top researchers and engineers from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Stanford, and MIT.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are hiring our first in-house lawyer. As Ricursive signs more partnerships, works jointly with AI and semiconductor companies, and releases models and research, legal judgment now sits on the critical path for how fast we can move. This role protects the technology and trade secrets at the core of the company while keeping deals moving.

You will build the legal function from the ground up, advise the founders and the board directly, and personally handle our most consequential negotiations and decisions, bringing in outside counsel where specialist depth is needed. Title and level will be calibrated to experience: the General Counsel title is intended for candidates who have led a legal function or held senior law firm partner roles. This is a small and early team, so the playbooks, templates, and processes are still being defined.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Advise the CEO, CTO, and board on material legal risk and strategy, with clear recommendations that weigh legal exposure against business goals.

• Partner with the Head of Business and broader partnerships team to negotiate and close strategic partnerships and joint development agreements with AI and semiconductor partners, including terms for the design data, tools, and hardware they share with us, along with multiparty NDAs, compute and infrastructure contracts, and technology licenses.

• Build and run our IP and trade secret program, including confidentiality controls, invention assignment, and information access policies suited to sensitive, high-value technology.

• Own export control and trade compliance for our AI and chip technology, including classification of our own technology and of the partner data and hardware we receive, technology control plans for foreign national access, and coordination with specialist counsel.

• Advise on model and research releases, including open-weight licensing, open-source compliance, publication review, and data rights.

• Lead corporate governance, board processes, equity compensation, and legal work on future financings and strategic transactions.

• Oversee employment matters with our talent team, manage outside counsel and the legal budget, and build the templates, playbooks, and intake process that let the company move quickly.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

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

• [10+] years of legal experience at a high-growth technology company and/or a leading law firm.

• Deep experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial and technology agreements.

• Hands-on experience with national security regulation of advanced semiconductor or AI chip technology, such as export controls (EAR), deemed exports, foreign investment review (CFIUS), or protecting controlled technical data and trade secrets from foreign threats.

• Clear, concise judgment: you turn complex legal issues into practical, decisive advice.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Prior experience as a general counsel or head of legal, or as the first lawyer at a fast-scaling startup.

• Experience in AI, semiconductors, hardware, or other export-controlled industries.

• Experience with trade secret programs and IP licensing for technology companies.

• Experience with AI-specific legal issues, including model licensing, training data, open-source release, and emerging AI regulation.

• Experience advising boards on corporate governance and supporting venture financings, equity compensation, and strategic transactions.

• Track record of leading and closing large, complex deals, such as multi-party strategic partnerships, major compute or supply commitments, or significant financings, from term sheet through signing.

• Comfort building legal process from scratch on a lean team.