Counsel / Senior Counsel

About this role

THE OPPORTUNITY

insitro is a physical AI company dedicated to unlocking causal human biology and accelerating the delivery of better medicines to patients. Our unique Virtual Human™ platform identifies novel, high-impact genetic intervention points, which our TherML™ platform translates into therapeutics, whether small molecules, biologics, or oligos. With multiple programs in metabolic disease and neuroscience advancing toward the clinic, and our first CTA/IND submission slated for the second half of this year, we are at a pivotal inflection point.

We are seeking a pragmatic, high-output attorney to join our Legal team as Counsel or Senior Counsel, with level set by experience. You will be the daily legal partner to research, lab and technical operations, IT, procurement, finance, and HR, covering commercial and operational matters, compute and infrastructure. This is a high-volume role on a small team: you will own your matters end to end, build and enhance the templates and processes the company runs on, and have an opportunity to grow your scope as insitro grows.

You will also be practicing at the frontier of two fields that are both moving fast, drug discovery and artificial intelligence, often on questions that have no settled answer yet. The Legal department here is small, senior, and low-ego, with a genuine seat at the table: scientists, engineers, and the management team come to us early rather than at the end. We are building the function itself, including how AI reshapes legal work, so you will have real influence over the tooling, templates, and processes insitro uses for years. Based in South San Francisco, this position reports directly to the Associate General Counsel and offers an in-person hybrid schedule of three days per week.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Commercial & Operational Contracting

- Own the Contract Flow: Draft, review, and negotiate the agreements that run the company day to day, including CDAs, MSAs and SOWs, consulting agreements, and vendor, supplier, and equipment terms

- Be the Front Door: Serve as a primary legal contact for the business and R&D teams, triaging incoming requests, setting expectations, driving matters to close on business timelines, and escalating issues to the AGC as needed

- Partner with HR: Supporting onboarding and offboarding processes, as well as contractor and similar engagements

Research & Technical Partnership

- Translate Science into Terms: Support lab operations and R&D teams on MTAs, research services agreements, and reagent and instrument purchases, working directly with scientists to turn experimental plans into workable contract terms

- Advance the Pipeline: Support CMC and Research & Development teams on CRO and CDMO agreements

- Contract for Compute: Negotiate the cloud, compute, and infrastructure agreements that underpin insitro's machine learning platforms

Legal Operations & Scale

- Build for Scale: Own and improve contract templates, trainings, playbooks, approval workflows, and CLM tooling so routine work moves faster with less legal involvement

- Build and deploy AI Tools: Put AI tools to work inside the Legal function to accelerate contract review, drafting, and knowledge management

- Counsel and Advise: Provide business-oriented advice colleagues can act on without a follow-up meeting

Future scope may include data privacy and compliance ownership, clinical trial contracting, corporate and governance support, or mentorship of junior colleagues.

ABOUT YOU

Experience & Qualifications

- Proven Tenure: 2–7+ years practicing law at a law firm and/or in an in-house legal department

- Bar Admission: J.D. from an accredited U.S. law school and admission in good standing to at least one State bar, preferably California, or eligibility for California registered in-house counsel status

- Contracting at Volume: Demonstrated track record drafting and negotiating commercial and technology agreements at volume, with increasing independence

- AI in Practice: Proven track record using AI tools in legal practice, contract review and drafting, research, and workflow automation, with sound judgment about their limits and appropriate use

Core Competencies

- Dynamic Self-Starter: You prioritize and advance many matters at once under the resource and time constraints of a small, fast-paced environment

- Momentum Builder: You like variety, move multiple matters forward without waiting to be asked, and know what deserves attention first

- Sharp Business Judgment: You distill complex legal topics into clear, actionable guidance

- Trusted Partner: You bring discretion, professionalism, and attention to detail, plus a collaborative style that builds trust across the company and with third parties

Preferred Qualifications

- Life Sciences Context: Experience in life sciences or biotech, and comfort working directly with scientists and engineers

- Technical Skills: Comfort using, or eagerness to learn, AI tools and workflows in legal practice, including contract review and drafting, research, and workflow automation

- Technical Contracting Depth: Familiarity with data use and acquisition agreements, AI/ML legal issues, cloud and compute contracting, and open source licensing

- Employment & Legal Tech: Prior exposure to employment law matters and to immigration in coordination with outside counsel, and experience selecting or administering CLM or legal workflow tools

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS AT INSITRO

Our target starting salary for successful US-based applicants for this role is $170,000 - $217,000. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job-related factors including a candidate's skills, education and experience, market demand, business needs, and internal parity. We may also adjust this range in the future based on market data.

This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) an

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