Commercial Counsel, Colo & Networks

As a Commercial Counsel for Colo and Networks, you will lead legal execution for the distributed component of Anthropic's compute strategy, focusing on colocation agreements, network connectivity, and datacenter services. You will work closely with compute transaction managers to secure capacity through third-party facilities and emerging providers, manage network and interconnection agreements, and oversee outside counsel. This role supports initiatives requiring rapid capacity deployment and involves structuring novel commercial arrangements for frontier AI development.

Must Have

• Negotiate colocation and services agreements for distributed capacity.
• Structure neocloud capacity arrangements with emerging providers.
• Manage network and interconnection agreements including fiber, transit contracts, IP peering.
• Build relationships and oversee outside counsel teams.
• Develop and maintain term sheet templates, runbooks, and precedent documents.
• Provide legal support and assessments to compute team’s transaction managers.
• Manage novel commercial structures, high-risk terms, or precedent-setting provisions.
• Support cross-functional coordination with finance, corporate development, and other legal workstreams.
• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar.
• At least 8 years of relevant legal experience with colocation, interconnection, or telecommunications agreements.
• Experience negotiating colocation MSAs, interconnection agreements, or fiber/transit contracts.
• Demonstrated ability to handle transaction volume at quality.
• Technical fluency sufficient to engage intelligently with infrastructure stakeholders.
• Comfort with emerging provider relationships and strong judgment.
• Ability to work effectively with outside counsel.
• Strong communication skills that translate technical infrastructure concepts into clear risk assessments.
• Genuine interest in compute infrastructure and appreciation for why capacity access is mission-critical for frontier AI development.

Good to Have

• In-house experience at datacenter providers or network infrastructure companies.
• Background at large technology companies with significant datacenter or colocation footprints.
• Law firm experience at practices with infrastructure or telecom specialization.
• Experience on the buy-side of connectivity and colo relationships at telecom or cloud provider legal teams.
• Familiarity with emerging neocloud provider business models.
• Prior involvement in capacity procurement transactions where speed-to-signature was critical.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits
• Optional equity donation matching
• Generous vacation and parental leave
• Flexible working hours
• Lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues

About the Role

As a Commercial Counsel for Colo and Networks, you'll lead legal execution for the distributed component of Anthropic's compute strategy (colocation agreements, network connectivity / infrastructure, and datacenter services). You'll work closely with compute transaction managers to secure capacity through third-party facilities and emerging providers, complementing our hyperscaler relationships and direct datacenter development workstreams.

Responsibilities:

• Negotiate colocation and services agreements for distributed capacity across multiple facilities, supporting initiatives requiring rapid capacity deployment
• Structure neocloud capacity arrangements with emerging providers, and deals that often involve novel commercial structures including capacity reservation, utilization commitments, and hybrid provider-customer service relationships
• Manage network and interconnection agreements including fiber, transit contracts, IP peering arrangements, and related infrastructure; negotiate large load electric power contracts and utility interconnection agreements where applicable
• Build relationships and oversee outside counsel teams on high-volume transactions or matters requiring specialized expertise
• Develop and maintain term sheet templates, runbooks, and precedent documents for recurring colo and network transaction types
• Work closely with compute team’s transaction managers (who handle operational project management) to provide legal support and assessments
• Manage novel commercial structures, high-risk terms, or precedent-setting provisions to managers for strategic direction, escalating where necessary
• Support cross-functional coordination with finance, corporate development, and other legal workstreams where the transactions intersect with broader compute strategy

You might be a good fit if you have:

• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar
• At least 8 years of relevant legal experience meaningful exposure to colocation, interconnection, or telecommunications agreements
• Experience negotiating colocation MSAs, interconnection agreements, or fiber/transit contracts; you understand how power requirements, security levels, network connectivity, and expansion options drive contract terms
• Demonstrated ability to handle transaction volume at quality while recognizing when non-standard terms require escalation
• Technical fluency sufficient to engage intelligently with infrastructure stakeholders about capacity requirements, connectivity specifications, facility standards, and sustainability requirements
• Comfort with emerging provider relationships where counterparty sophistication and financial stability vary significantly; strong judgment about when to push for favorable terms versus when to accept market-standard positions
• Ability to work effectively with outside counsel, providing clear direction while leveraging their specialized expertise
• Strong communication skills that translate technical infrastructure concepts into clear risk assessments for our business
• Genuine interest in compute infrastructure and appreciation for why capacity access is mission-critical for frontier AI development

Strong candidates may have:

• In-house experience at datacenter providers or network infrastructure companies
• Background at large technology companies with significant datacenter or colocation footprints supporting facilities and network procurement
• Law firm experience at practices with infrastructure or telecom specialization, or regional firms with strong utilities/telecom work
• Experience on the buy-side of connectivity and colo relationships at telecom or cloud provider legal teams; familiarity with procuring connectivity linking data centers to terrestrial fiber, subsea cables, and satellite networks
• Familiarity with emerging neocloud provider business models and the unique commercial structures they require
• Prior involvement in capacity procurement transactions where speed-to-signature was critical to securing supply

Role-specific policy:

For this role, we expect 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 expected base compensation for this position is below. Our total compensation package for full-time employees includes equity, benefits, and may include incentive compensation.

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. 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.

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