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Airbnb is seeking a highly qualified Associate Counsel to join our Commercial & Technology Legal Team with a focus on intellectual property and open source. You will provide day-to-day legal support on intellectual property and open source matters that shape how Airbnb builds, uses, and shares technology.
Job Responsibility:
Provide practical legal advice on a wide range of IP matters for data science, engineering, and business teams, including licensing issues tied to product development, tooling, and infrastructure, and issues relating to actual and potential disclosure of IP in external communications
Draft, review, and negotiate IP-related terms in commercial and intercompany agreements
Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to identify repeatable IP issues and help build templates, guidance, and escalation paths that enable faster, more consistent decision-making
Support the open source program by providing legal review and pragmatic guidance on licensing, compliance, and contribution practices (inbound use and outbound releases)
Partner with cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Engineering, Security, Infrastructure, Tech Brand) to improve open source policies and “policy-to-practice” workflows (intake, approvals, documentation, and training)
Advise on open source governance topics such as usage & contributing, owning & releasing, and permissions & access
Review and advise on external-facing Tech Brand materials, which may include blog posts, technical articles, engineering announcements, conference talks, presentation decks, speaker participation, developer/community programs, events, web content and social media posts
Identify and help manage key legal issues in Tech Brand workstreams, including intellectual property, confidentiality and protection of trade secrets, content substantiation and claims risk, third-party rights and permissions, and open source-adjacent considerations
Partner closely with Marketing, Comms, and colleagues in Legal to support consistent guidance across brand, marketing, and technology narratives
Create and maintain playbooks, templates, and training materials to help legal colleagues and business partners spot and resolve common IP and open source issues efficiently
Liaise with international colleagues to promote consistent guidance across regions and help enable global initiatives
Requirements:
J.D. degree and active membership in good standing in one or more U.S. jurisdictions
At least three years of relevant legal experience (law firm, government and/or in-house), with meaningful experience in IP transactions and licensing and advising technology-focused teams
Working knowledge of intellectual property law, including copyright, trademark, and patent fundamentals, and how these apply in technology and product contexts
Experience drafting and negotiating IP provisions in a range of agreements (including technology-related transactions and intercompany agreements)
Working knowledge of open source licensing concepts and compliance considerations
ability to issue clear, pragmatic guidance to technical teams
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and risk-framing skills
able to make practical cost/benefit tradeoffs in a fast-moving environment
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex legal issues into clear guidance for non-lawyers at all levels
Proven ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously, prioritize effectively, and drive issues to resolution with high ownership
Ability to operate independently on day-to-day matters, with sound judgment on when to escalate
Licensed to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction
Nice to have:
At least five years of relevant experience advising engineering, data science, infrastructure, or developer platform teams
Familiarity with common open source licenses (e.g., MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL/LGPL) and typical compliance workflows (e.g., dependency review, notices, attribution, policy-based approvals)
Familiarity with marketing/advertising law concepts that can arise in external messaging (e.g., FTC considerations, endorsements/testimonials, substantiation, comparative claims)
Familiarity with sponsored research agreements and contracting with private and public universities
Experience building scalable legal enablement (templates, intake processes, training, and playbooks) for repeatable issues
Comfort partnering cross-functionally with technical teams on external-facing communications