Commercial Counsel, Networking & Datacenter Operations

Details

Anthropic is building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems and seeks a Commercial Counsel focused on Networking & Datacenter Operations for Compute and Infrastructure. This role leads legal execution for network connectivity and the steady-state running of Anthropic’s infrastructure, covering fiber, transit, peering, subsea capacity, network equipment procurement, and datacenter operations and maintenance contracting.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate dark fiber and IRU agreements (long-haul and metro), wavelength and lit-capacity services, IP transit and peering (settlement-free and paid), internet-exchange participation, subsea-cable capacity and landing-party agreements, carrier-hotel and meet-me-room agreements, and cross-connect MSAs
• Support telecom regulatory interface, including FCC Section 214 authorizations, submarine-cable landing licenses and Team Telecom review, compliance with emerging FCC subsea-cable security and IRU rules, private-carrier status determinations, and rights-of-way, franchise, and pole-attachment matters where Anthropic builds first-party fiber
• Structure and negotiate O&M and integrated-facilities-management contracts, critical-spares and break-fix agreements, smart-hands SLAs with colo landlords, and disaster recovery and resilience contracting
• Own asset disposition, decommissioning, and media-sanitization terms, and coordinate on data-hall fit-out and tenant-improvement work
• Support insurance placement and coordination (property, builder’s-risk, business-interruption, equipment-breakdown) with Treasury/Risk and work with Infrastructure Security Legal on guard-force, vendor-personnel, and physical-security contractual flow-downs
• Manage SLA-credit claims, outage/root-cause disputes, warranty and break-fix claims, and pre-litigation vendor escalations in coordination with Litigation
• Build and maintain contract template library, SLA-credit playbooks, and intake/approval workflows so Network and Site-Ops teams can self-serve standard transactions; train Procurement and operations partners
• Collaborate with Compute team production-site and network-operations leads on operational execution, change management, and governance; translate legal and risk considerations into clear guidance for business stakeholders
• Escalate novel terms that create downstream risk for availability or operational flexibility; ensure vendor arrangements accommodate AI-specific requirements (high-density power, liquid cooling, rapid scaling capacity)

Requirements

Minimum qualifications

• JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar
• Fluency in availability and SLA constructs, route diversity, and how network and O&M terms interact with colo leases, build-to-suit agreements, and financing arrangements
• Experience with high-volume, template-driven, recurring vendor contracting while balancing speed and risk control
• Comfort with telecom regulatory concepts (FCC Section 214, cable-landing licenses, Team Telecom review, rights-of-way) and the operational hand-off from construction to commissioning to steady-state
• Ability to coordinate effectively with specialized outside counsel while maintaining strategic direction
• Strong judgment about when vendor terms create downstream risk for availability, security, or operational flexibility
• Effective collaboration and communication skills to translate network and operations concepts into risk assessments for business stakeholders
• Genuine interest in digital infrastructure operations and appreciation for mission-critical network and site availability

Preferred qualifications

• At least 10–12 years of relevant legal experience with meaningful exposure to telecom and network transactions (dark fiber, IRUs, transit, peering, subsea), datacenter operations, facilities management, or critical-infrastructure O&M contracting
• In-house experience at cloud service providers, neo-clouds, carriers, subsea-cable consortia, or datacenter operators supporting network, colo, and O&M transactions
• Experience at large technology companies with first-party backbone or production-site programs supporting network and operations transactions from the buy side
• Law-firm experience in practices with telecom, technology transactions, or infrastructure specialization (fiber, peering, subsea, datacenter operations)
• Prior involvement in transactions requiring sophisticated understanding of commissioning requirements, operational handoff, change management, and decommissioning
• Familiarity with insurance and risk-transfer structures used in large-scale operating infrastructure, and with international vendor contracting for non-US production sites

Role-specific policy

• Staff are expected to be able to work from Anthropic’s San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., or New York office at least 3 days a week (the posting also notes a location-based hybrid policy expecting staff to be in office at least 25% of the time)

Compensation

• Annual salary range: $320,000 - $385,000 USD

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and office workspace

Logistics

• Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience
• Visa sponsorship: Anthropic states they do sponsor visas and retain an immigration lawyer to assist, though sponsorship success depends on role/candidate
• Applicants are encouraged to apply even if they do not meet every qualification listed