Commercial Counsel, APAC

Anthropic

About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the role Anthropic is seeking an exceptional Commercial Counsel to join our growing Commercial Legal team as our founding legal presence in APAC, based in Sydney. You'll serve as a strategic partner to our sales teams, leading complex negotiations and commercial deals that fuel our expansion with companies and organisations across the region, from startups to large enterprises. You'll guide sophisticated technology transactions across diverse industries and client sizes while advising on the legal and regulatory considerations unique to responsible AI deployment throughout APAC. As one of our first commercial legal hires in the region, you'll have the opportunity to shape how Anthropic builds its legal foundation across APAC, designing the processes, playbooks, and frameworks that scale with us. Key responsibilities - Serve as a key strategic advisor to sales leadership on complex commercial deals and contractual matters, from small and medium enterprises to large enterprise clients - Lead negotiations and close sophisticated agreements with diverse APAC companies and organisations across multiple industries and market segments - Navigate APAC regulatory compliance requirements and jurisdiction-specific contracting considerations across multiple markets - Design and implement scalable contract frameworks, playbooks, and processes to support our fast-growing APAC sales organisation - Identify, analyse, and proactively manage complex legal and regulatory risks while maintaining deal velocity in our rapidly evolving AI landscape - Anticipate emerging legal developments affecting AI technologies across APAC jurisdictions and provide strategic guidance to cross-functional leadership - Foster relationships with external stakeholders, including clients of all sizes, regulatory bodies, and industry partners across the APAC region Minimum qualifications - Admitted to practise as a lawyer in Australia, with a current or obtainable practising certificate - Deep expertise in complex technology agreements and regulatory compliance frameworks, including those relevant to the adoption of emerging technologies across APAC markets - Strong business judgment and ability to balance legal risk with commercial objectives in fast-moving deal environments - Demonstrated ability to navigate novel legal challenges with limited precedent in cutting-edge technology applications - Clear, effective communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders across seniority levels and organisational functions - A collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to supporting high-velocity sales processes across diverse market segments - Strong understanding of AI technology trends and commitment to responsible AI deployment Preferred qualifications - At least 10-12 years of experience in relevant legal roles supporting commercial transactions across diverse client segments and industries - In-house experience at a technology company with APAC operations - Previous exposure to AI, machine learning, or other emerging technologies in commercial or regulatory contexts - Experience supporting sales teams across diverse client segments in deal negotiations and client relationship management - Multi-jurisdictional experience across APAC markets - Comfort operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with shifting priorities Logistics Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position 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. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team. Your safety matters to us. To protect yourself from potential scams, remember that Anthropic recruiters only contact you from @anthropic.com email addresses. In some cases, we may partner with vetted recruiting agencies who will identify themselves as working on behalf of Anthropic. Be cautious of emails from other domains. Legitimate Anthropic recruiters will never ask for money, fees, or banking information before your first day. If you're ever unsure about a communication, don't click any links—visit anthropic.com/careers directly for confirmed position openings. How we're different We believe that the highest-impact AI research will be big science. At Anthropic we work as a single cohesive team on just a few large-scale research efforts. And we value impact — advancing our long-term goals of steerable, trustworthy AI — rather than work on smaller and more specific puzzles. We view AI research as an empirical science, which has as much in common with physics and biology as with traditional efforts in computer science. We're an extremely collaborative group, and we host frequent research discussions to ensure that we are pursuing the highest-impact work at any given time. As such, we greatly value communication skills. The easiest way to understand our research directions is to read our recent research. This research continues many of the directions our team worked on prior to Anthropic, including: GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences. Come work with us! Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues. Guidance on Candidates' AI Usage: Learn about our policy for using AI in our application process.