Commercial Counsel, Compute & Infrastructure

Anthropic Anthropic · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Legal

This role is for a Commercial Counsel focusing on legal execution for Anthropic's infrastructure transactions, including server rack compute, networking, semiconductor procurement, robotics, manufacturing, supply chain, data center leases, construction, and energy procurement. The counsel will negotiate strategic agreements, support hardware development and procurement, coordinate construction agreements, and manage legal workstreams related to infrastructure investments. The role requires close collaboration with internal teams and external counsel to ensure alignment with commercial objectives and Anthropic's compute strategy, with a focus on understanding how legal structures interact with compute capacity and AI-specific requirements.

What you'd actually do

  1. Negotiate strategic agreements with key technology partners, major developers, and represent some of Anthropic’s largest and lengthiest capital commitments
  2. Support, structure, and negotiate hardware development and procurement agreement, capacity reservation agreements, power purchase agreements, negotiate utility interconnection agreements, and manage utility-related legal requirements or initiatives (e.g., renewables)
  3. Coordinate construction and adjacent agreements including design-build contracts, equipment procurement, and commissioning schedules; manage the related legal workstreams
  4. Work closely with specialized outside counsel, ensuring their work product aligns with Anthropic’s commercial objectives
  5. Collaborate with the Compute team’s transaction managers who handle operational execution and project management, providing legal and risk management expertise

Skills

Required

  • JD and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar
  • 8-12+ years of relevant legal experience with meaningful exposure to cloud-hardware development and procurement, semiconductor procurement or development, networking, supply chain/logistics, datacenter construction, real-estate, colos or data center operations.
  • Fluency in commercial real estate and construction contracting; datacenter lease structures, construction risk allocation, and financing arrangements (and how they will interact)
  • Experience with EPC, AIA, and design-build arrangements at scale
  • Comfort with project finance structures and the interplay between lease, financing, and development agreements
  • Ability to coordinate effectively with specialized outside counsel while maintaining strategic direction
  • Strong judgement about when deal terms create downstream risk for operational flexibility
  • Effective collaboration skills for working with business teams who handle transaction management and site selection
  • Genuine interest in infrastructure development and appreciation for why compute and datacenter capacity is mission-critical for frontier AI

Nice to have

  • In-house experience at cloud service providers, neo-clouds, datacenter developers supporting leasing, project development, and financing transactions
  • Experience at large technology companies with datacenter construction programs supporting development transactions from the buy side
  • Law firm experience at practices with infrastructure finance or project development specialization, particularly those who have worked on datacenter, power, or similar infrastructure financings
  • Prior involvement in transactions requiring sophisticated understanding of custom hardware development, global supply chain and logistics, construction timelines, commissioning requirements, and operational handoff
  • Familiarity with tax structures, sale lease-back arrangements, or other financing vehicles used in large-scale infrastructure development

What the JD emphasized

  • AI-specific requirements
  • frontier AI