General Counsel

About us

We’re a series B startup, and have raised $65 million from Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, and the founders of PayPal and Twilio. Bland.ai builds AI voice agents that handle real phone calls for some of the largest companies in the world. Our software runs inside critical workflows at companies like Samsara, Gallup, TripAdvisor, Snapchat, Signant Health, Better.com, and others.

Why this role exists

We need a General Counsel because the company is moving faster and into more complex territory. Legal touches everything we do - commercial contracts, privacy, product risk, employment, corporate governance, and the weird edge cases that come with building new technology.

There is no playbook to inherit and no fully built legal function to step into. The person in this seat will be learning constantly, building systems from scratch, and making judgment calls in areas they may not have seen before.

We are looking for someone with enough experience that they won’t drown, but who is still scrappy and adaptable enough to pick things up extremely fast. Raw intelligence, ownership, and learning speed matter more than having seen every possible issue before.

What you’ll do

• Own all legal work for the company across commercial, privacy, corporate, employment, and product

• Draft, review, and negotiate customer and vendor agreements (MSAs, DPAs, BAAs, ESAs, NDAs, etc.)
  Design legal processes that can scale with a fast-growing company

• Partner with product and engineering on privacy, data use, and risk decisions

• Work directly with leadership on strategic initiatives, partnerships, and corporate matters

• Manage outside counsel and decide when to use them vs. handle work internally

• Translate complex legal risk into clear, practical recommendations

• Build repeatable templates and playbooks so the company can move faster over time

• Be the default owner for anything legal that doesn’t clearly belong to someone else

Must-have qualifications

• 4–10 years of legal experience

• At least 2 years in EC/VC, startup law, or data/privacy

• Big law exposure

• Admitted to the CA or NY bar

• Demonstrated ownership of real outcomes

• Ability to operate independently without structure

• Strong written and verbal clarity - can explain complex issues simply

• Track record of learning new areas quickly
  

Nice to haves

• Prior in-house experience at an early-stage company

• Deep experience in one of:

  • Commercial agreements

  • Startup/venture law

  • Data & privacy

• Experience working directly with product and engineering teams

• Familiarity with regulated industries

Compensation Range: $180K - $250K