Associate General Counsel, Commercial & Product
Crux AI · Palo Alto · hybrid
Built to set the gold standard for integrated AI infrastructure
Crux AI is a newly formed, U.S.-based integrated AI infrastructure company created to remove the physical and operational constraints on consequential AI ambitions. Crux brings together power, high-density data centers, TPU silicon, networking, orchestration software, and ongoing operations as one integrated system.
Crux is being capitalized to plan every layer together, develop each one to demanding standards, and operate the whole system with efficiency and reliability. That gives hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, sovereign customers, enterprises, and AI-native companies greater freedom to pursue the AI they are here to create.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
You will be the lead lawyer for how Crux sells, delivers, and supports AI compute. Reporting to our General Counsel, you will own the customer contract framework (master services agreements, capacity reservation and order forms, service levels, and data protection and security terms) for hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, sovereign customers, and enterprises, along with the product, privacy, trade compliance, and partner terms that sit behind every deal. You will start as a hands-on practitioner and build a team of 1 to 3 counsel as deal volume grows. This is a builder's seat: you will set the contract framework of record that lets Sales close large, multi-year commitments quickly while protecting margin and the fleet.
In this role, you will:
- Build and own Crux's customer contract framework: MSA, capacity reservation and order forms, service level agreements and credits, acceptable use, and data processing and security terms, designed for dedicated TPU cluster commitments.
- Lead the negotiation of strategic, multi-year customer agreements with hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, sovereign customers, and enterprises, including capacity and take-or-pay commitments, prepayments, credit support, and termination economics.
- Make sure what we sign matches what we can deliver: tie SLAs, delivery dates, and remedies to the capacity plan of record and to the terms Crux holds with Google, site owners, and suppliers, so risk does not get stranded between contracts.
- Counsel Product and Engineering on the compute platform: product terms, data handling, privacy and security commitments, open source use, and IP.
- Own trade compliance for compute, including export controls on advanced chips and AI, sanctions, and customer screening, with particular care for sovereign and international customers.
- Partner with Sales, Pricing, Customer Success, Strategic Supply / Partnerships, and Finance (revenue recognition and credit), and with Corporate & Corporate Finance Legal on how customer commitments interact with financing covenants.
- Run vendor and partner contracting for the commercial stack (software, network, and service providers) with clear templates and approval thresholds.
- Hire and lead a team of 1 to 3 counsel as volume grows. Hire people better than you at their craft, then stay close enough to know when something is off before it shows up in a report.
SIGNALS OF SUCCESS
After 60 days in this role:
- Gained a complete understanding of our product, the Google partnership terms, the capacity plan of record, and the customer pipeline, and published a written commercial legal plan.
- Shipped the first version of the customer contract framework (MSA, order form, and SLA), aligned with Sales, Pricing, and Finance.
- Established a deal desk cadence with Sales and Pricing, with clear approval thresholds for non-standard terms.
- Adapted to a fast-paced environment, triaging appropriately and continuously improving our function.
After 6 months:
- Closed our first anchor customer agreements on terms within the playbook, with every commitment traced back to capacity we control.
- Stood up export control and sanctions screening and a privacy and security terms package that sovereign and regulated customers accept.
- Defined the hiring plan for your team and made your first hire(s) as deal volume requires.
- Demonstrated an AI-forward and automated approach to this role: you have built, in a hands-on way, AI-enabled tools for first-pass contract review, redlines against our playbook, or deal intake that the team uses every day.
After 1 year:
- Contract cycle time falling quarter over quarter, with most standard deals closing without a Legal escalation.
- Built a small, high-performing commercial legal team and a playbook that Sales trusts.
- Made the contract framework a differentiator in customer wins and renewals: customers see Crux as easy to contract with, and Finance sees no surprises in what we committed.
EXPERIENCES, ATTRIBUTES AND MINDSET THAT INDICATE A GOOD MATCH
Experiences
- 10+ years of legal experience, combining top-tier law firm training with significant in-house experience negotiating complex commercial technology agreements (cloud, IaaS, colocation, SaaS, or hardware).
- Direct ownership of large, multi-year customer agreements with sophisticated counterparties, including SLAs, data protection, security, and liability allocation.
- Experience building a commercial contracting framework, playbook, or deal desk process at a growing company.
Attributes
- You are outcome driven and hands-on. You can go deep on an SLA credit structure or a capacity termination fee with Sales and Pricing, then take the same deal to the executive team. This is a builder's seat, not a supervisory one.
- You think in deal economics. You know where margin leaks in a contract (credits, caps, termination rights, change in law) and you trade legal positions for business value deliberately.
- You have a high tolerance for ambiguity. You absorb ambiguity and navigate complexity rather than passing it along.
Mindset
- You are skeptical by default. A delivery date in a customer contract is a hypothesis until it is backed by capacity we control. You build the system that makes the next escalation boring.
- You operate as an owner, not a supervisor.
- You are AI-agentic first. Fluent with AI agents, or committed to becoming so quickly, you embed them as first principles in how you and your team work, defaulting to agentic workflows before adding headcount or process.
Nice to have (Preferred, not required):
- In-house commercial experience at a hyperscaler or cloud provider (Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle) or a neocloud (CoreWeave, Crusoe, Lambda, Nebius).
- Experience with export controls and sanctions for advanced chips, compute, or other controlled technology, including government or sovereign customers.
- Privacy credentials (for example, CIPP/US or CIPP/E) or experience with SOC 2, ISO 27001, or government security commitments.
- Experience counseling on AI products or responsible AI.
- Experience in both startup and scaled enterprise environments, including building a legal function from its first hires.
Salary Range Information
The annual salary range for this position has been estimated based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.
About Crux
- We offer generous base, bonus and additional incentive based compensation
- Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
- Company-paid life insurance and disability
- Full suite of other optional benefits
- 401(k) Plan with 4% company match
- Hybrid schedule offering four days in-office collaboration paired with one remote workday for focused, individual work