Wadhwani AI Global builds and deploys AI solutions for governments across the Global South, working as their technology partner from development through deployment. We work with implementing partners across Africa and Southeast Asia to put AI to work for the bottom 95% of the world's population, where the hardest problems sit and market incentives are weakest.
About the RoleOur partners sit across Africa and Southeast Asia, and we have clients in the US and other geographies. Most of our work is cross-border, and every agreement involves aspects of AI, IP ownership, data ownership, and data governance and sharing. You will play an essential role in shaping our partnerships and some of the key questions in there: regarding IP, data, model trainings and ownership, how IP is captured and can be transferred, and what can be shared across which borders. We are a small team, so this is a high-ownership role with direct access to leadership and real accountability from day one. The role is a full-time, in-house one.
As our in-house Legal and Data Governance Specialist, you will:
Own contracts and commercial legal end to end, with the AI, data, and IP questions in every deal as the core of the job.
Be the single point of contact across every party to a deal, our clients in the US and other geographies, implementing partners, governments, funders, and our own internal teams, each of whom arrives with differing needs, and bring those together into one document that works for all of them.
Coordinate with cross-border legal teams on contracts and documentation
Drive every contract to signature, and build the positions, playbooks, and processes our partnerships run on.
Own every project documentation end to end, with timely finalization and signature: You take complete ownership of every agreement the organization signs, from first draft to signature: drafting, reviewing, negotiating, finalizing, and tracking. You make sure documents are in place with agreement between all stakeholders, that they are signed on time, and that every partner gets a prompt response. Contract types include MOUs, master service and service-level agreements, data-sharing agreements, NDAs, vendor and contractor agreements, licensing agreements, partnership and strategic alliance agreements, and anything else the business enters into.
Stakeholder management: Work across teams (engineering, product, growth and strategy, operations, and any others) to understand the organization's priorities, translate them into contract terms, and negotiate with partners, governments, and the US parent to get those terms mutually agreed.
Own the AI, IP, and data clauses, and set our positions on them: Most of our contracts are with partners, and most carry clauses on artificial intelligence, IP ownership, data ownership, and data sharing. This is where your judgment matters most: ownership of the AI models we build and fine-tune, ownership of training data, annotations, model outputs, and the improvements our models generate as projects scale, along with licensing, foreground and background IP, donor mandates, data storage, retention, and cross-border transfer. Define how Wadhwani AI Global approaches IP and data whenever we work with a partner, and turn that into clear, reusable, defensible positions.
Own cross-border partnerships and international law: Handle dispute-resolution clauses in partner contracts (seat, jurisdiction, and arbitration). Research the international laws (AI, data, personal data, and others) we need to understand to partner and deliver projects in foreign jurisdictions, with governments, nonprofits, and private organizations.
Own corporate and intercompany matters: Handle service agreements between the US and other international clients, and Wadhwani AI Global. Oversee ongoing compliance, intercompany arrangements, permanent-establishment risk, transfer pricing, and staff movement between entities.
Own corporate compliance in India: Keep Wadhwani AI Global compliant with its Indian corporate, statutory, and regulatory obligations as a private limited company.
Build and run legal operations: Create and maintain the templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and contract processes that keep things moving and let the next deal go faster than the last, and sharpen them as you go.
Address any other legal questions that arise as the organization continues to grow and evolve.
LLB, or a master's degree in law (LLM), or an equivalent recognized law degree.
6 to 8 years of post-qualification legal experience.
Substantial, hands-on experience with technology, data, and AI-related legal matters, and with commercial and technology contracting, including drafting and negotiating the terms that decide deals (liability and indemnity, IP and data ownership, confidentiality, data protection, dispute resolution) preferably on multi-country, cross-border matters involving parties in more than one jurisdiction.
Strong, practical understanding of IP and data ownership, data protection, and privacy, and how these play out differently across different contracting relationships.
Able to work fully independently and take complete ownership while collaborating closely with business, technical, and leadership teams.
Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, in English.
In-house experience, ideally as an early or sole legal hire, or experience building a legal function, contract-management processes, and playbooks in a growing organization.
Deeper experience with the IP and data-ownership questions specific to AI: ownership of models, training data, model outputs, and rights in model improvements, ideally gained advising AI, SaaS, data, or cloud businesses.
Experience working with governments, development or philanthropic funders, and implementing partners, particularly in the Global South (sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia).
