Legal and Compliance Counsel

About Us

We’re building the AI infrastructure powering the future of financial operations - starting with automating the most painful and complex workflows in loan servicing.

Backed by a16z and Y Combinator, with $65M raised in Series A funding.

8-figure ARR

20% of the auto lending industry, and processing millions of real customer calls and transactions daily.

Fully deployed with major financial institutions - not just PoCs.

We are expanding into new financial services segments!

In-person office culture in San Francisco, CA.

We're fully integrated with our customers, own the full stack, and are moving fast to bring modern AI into regulated industries where precision, reliability, and performance matter most.

About the Role

As our Legal and Compliance counsel, you will be Salient’s first dedicated compliance team member. You’ll partner with our various teams to design and implement scalable compliance policies, manage vendor management reviews with enterprise customers, and ensure we’re adhering to industry standards and regulatory requirements as well as assist with redlining enterprise contracts as we move further and further up market. You’ll be both strategic and hands-on : drafting procedures, responding to customer compliance questionnaires, and preparing us for audits.

What You’ll Do

Develop, document, and maintain compliance policies, procedures, and internal controls across Salient.

Work with the executive team and support staff in redlining and reviewing enterprise contracts

Lead the completion of enterprise customer compliance / vendor management requests during onboarding.

Partner with Sales and Business Operations to ensure smooth and timely responses to security, privacy, and compliance questionnaires.

Support readiness for external audits (SOC 2), including evidence collection and control testing.

Educate internal teams on compliance requirements and help operationalize best practices across functions.

Serve as the primary point of contact for compliance inquiries from customers, vendors, and partners.

Who We’re Looking for

5+ years of experience in compliance, risk, or audit roles within SaaS, fintech, or regulated industries.

Familiarity with common compliance frameworks (SOC 2, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, etc..) and vendor risk management processes.

Strong project management skills and ability to own processes end-to-end.

Excellent communication skills - able to translate compliance concepts into practical guidance for business teams.

Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-growth startup environment.

Legal Education / Law degree

Nice to Have

Experience building compliance functions from scratch at a startup.

Prior success supporting enterprise sales processes through compliance / vendor reviews.

Background working with lenders, financial institutions, or other highly regulated partners.

As an early-stage company building at the frontier of AI, we work with high intensity and commitment. While schedules can vary by role / team, many weeks will demand extra focus, flexibility and time particularly during major launches and high impact sprints. We're seeking those who are aligned to and able to commit to that expectation which includes 4 days per week in our San Francisco Office.

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