Principal Counsel, Corporate
perplexity
San Francisco
Product Owner
Public Relations
Job Score
90 pts
On-site model (+70)
Product Owner (+10)
Public Relations (+10)
Summary of Role
Perplexity AI is looking for a Principal Counsel, Corporate to serve as the company’s primary lawyer for corporate governance, equity, and financing matters. In this role, you’ll own the full corporate legal lifecycle, from board and stockholder governance and equity administration to financings, secondary transactions, and entity management as we scale globally. You’ll work closely with our Finance, Accounting, Tax and People teams, as well as with our executive team and investors. You’ll drive transactions from term sheet through closing, build the governance infrastructure that keeps a rapidly growing private company well-run, and stand up the templates, playbooks, and records systems that let corporate work scale without adding headcount. The ideal candidate brings deep private-company corporate and securities experience, precision with cap-table and equity mechanics, and the judgment to make principled calls independently.
This is a high-impact, hands-on role for a corporate attorney who thrives in fast-paced environments, is comfortable being the first and only owner of a workstream, and is excited to help build a best-in-class legal function at one of the most consequential AI companies in the world.
Key Responsibilities
Lead corporate governance for Perplexity and its subsidiaries, including board and committee meeting preparation, agendas, minutes, resolutions and written consents, charters, organizational documents, corporate policies, and the corporate records that keep the company well-governed as it scales.
Structure, draft, and negotiate equity and debt financings from term sheet through closing, including preferred stock financings, credit facilities, convertible instruments, and related diligence and closing deliverables.
Own secondary transactions and liquidity programs, including tender offers, company repurchases, direct secondaries, transfer approvals and the related stockholder communications and consents.
Partner with Finance, Accounting, Tax and People on equity compensation and cap-table administration, including option and RSU grant processes, 409A valuations, pool sizing and refreshes, fully diluted share reconciliation, and Carta hygiene.
Support M&A, acquihires, strategic investments, and other corporate transactions, including structuring, diligence, definitive agreement negotiation, closing, and post-closing integration, and manage outside counsel to budget and schedule.
Build and scale corporate legal infrastructure, including consent and resolution precedent libraries, grant and vesting exhibit templates, signature and approval workflows, entity management systems, and formation and foreign-qualification processes for domestic and international expansion.
Support corporate readiness workstreams, including audit support, internal controls over corporate approvals, subsidiary governance, and the sequencing of policies and processes that position the company for future financing or public-company requirements.
Monitor legal and market developments affecting private-company governance, equity, and securities matters, and translate them into practical guidance for the executive team and the board.
Qualifications
JD and in good standing with an active US state bar membership, , or eligible to register as in-house counsel in California
At least 9+ years of law firm and/or in-house experience
Track record leading venture or growth equity financings, secondary transactions, and corporate governance for high-growth private technology companies
Deep familiarity with cap-table mechanics, equity compensation administration, and charter and stockholder agreement provisions, with the precision to reconcile numbers before they reach the board
Strong business acumen and ability to partner with finance, accounting, people, and executive stakeholders
An ability to communicate clearly with business and technical audiences and effectively translate legal concepts for non-lawyers
Hands-on attitude to tackle projects large and small, low-ego approach to working across the organization
Positive collaborative attitude, comfort with change and a fast pace, high level of integrity, and intellectual curiosity
Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
What did you think of this job?
Loading comments...
About Product Owner
The Product Owner (PO) is the professional responsible for maximizing the value of the product delivered by the development team. They act as the voice of the customer and stakeholders, managing and prioritizing the product backlog, defining clear user stories, and ensuring the team works on the most valuable items for the business.
Key skills include backlog management, user story writing, prioritization (Mascow, RICE), agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban), and stakeholder communication. Knowledge of tools like Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, and Miro is essential.
Product Owners are highly sought-after professionals in the technology market, working collaboratively with Scrum Masters, Product Managers, and engineering teams to drive agility and continuous value delivery.
About Public Relations
The Public Relations (PR) area focuses on managing the reputation, image, and communication of an organization with its various stakeholders (such as clients, investors, employees, media, and the community). PR professionals develop corporate communication strategies, manage media relations (press relations), organize institutional events, and work in image crisis prevention and management.
Discover Other Areas
Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.
About Content
The Content and Social Media area is essential for building digital presence and audience engagement. Professionals create content strategies, manage social networks, and develop impactful brand narratives.
Key skills include copywriting, storytelling, community management, metrics analysis, audiovisual production, and knowledge of each platform algorithms.
With the growth of influencer marketing and social commerce, this area continues to generate new career opportunities.
About Traffic Manager
The Traffic Manager is the professional responsible for planning, executing, and optimizing paid media campaigns across various digital platforms. With the competitiveness of the digital market, paid traffic professionals are essential for generating qualified leads and maximizing return on advertising investment.
Key skills include campaign management on Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and TikTok Ads, media planning, metrics analysis (ROAS, CPA, CPC, CTR), A/B testing, remarketing, and landing page creation. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, and automation platforms are essential.
Traffic managers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master performance marketing, conversion funnel optimization, and scaling strategies. The field offers opportunities from media analyst to head of performance, with a focus on growth, budget efficiency, and return on investment.
About Automation Engineer
The Automation Engineer is the professional responsible for designing, developing, and implementing solutions that automate manual and repetitive processes in IT, infrastructure, testing, and operations. They combine programming knowledge with DevOps and SRE vision to eliminate manual tasks and increase operational efficiency.
Key skills include Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi), CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), test automation (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright), network automation (Netconf, SDN), RPA (UiPath, Power Automate), and scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell). Knowledge of Kubernetes, GitOps (ArgoCD, Flux), and automation platforms is a differentiator.
Automation Engineers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who can create automated deployment pipelines, self-healing infrastructure, and internal developer platforms (IDP). The field offers opportunities from junior automation engineer to automation architect and head of automation.
About Product Manager
The Product Manager (PM) is the professional responsible for defining the strategy, vision, and roadmap of a digital product. They work at the intersection of technology, business, and user experience (UX), leading the discovery and delivery of solutions that solve real problems in a viable way for the company.
Key skills include product discovery, data and metrics analysis (AARRR, NPS, LTV), user research, go-to-market strategy, roadmapping, strategic prioritization, and leadership by influence. Tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Hotjar, Jira, and Notion are fundamental.
Product Managers play a central role in the growth of startups, scale-ups, and large technology companies, with career progression opportunities to Product Leader, Head of Product, and Chief Product Officer (CPO).
About Backend
The Backend area is responsible for all server logic, APIs, databases, and infrastructure that support web and mobile applications. Backend professionals ensure that systems are scalable, secure, and performant.
Key skills include languages like PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, Go, and Node.js, frameworks like Laravel, Spring Boot, Django, and Express, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis), software architecture (clean architecture, DDD, microservices), and API security (OAuth, JWT).
Backend developers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master microservices architecture, cloud computing, and high-scale performance. The field offers opportunities from junior developer to software architect, with a focus on scalability, security, and efficiency.
Comments 0