Exempt Organizations Counsel, Legal

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to harness the power of technology to pursue some of society’s most ambitious goals — from curing or preventing all disease to transforming how students learn.

At CZI, you’ll join a deeply collaborative, mission-driven community where your work helps drive breakthroughs across our flagship nonprofit organizations, Biohub and Learning Commons. Whether enabling scientific breakthroughs via open science and AI-powered biology or strengthening the tools teachers and students rely on every day, your contributions help turn bold ideas into real-world impact.

Our teams operate at the intersection of innovation and scale, building the infrastructure, partnerships, and capabilities that allow scientists, educators, and innovators to tackle some of the most complex challenges of our time — and to do so with urgency, integrity, and optimism.

The Team

Our Legal and Grants team (“Team LeGiT”) is a key partner in enabling Biohub’s pioneering work to combine frontier AI with frontier biology to prevent and cure disease and Learning Commons’ mission to build AI infrastructure that aligns how students learn with the tools that shape their learning experiences.

Team LeGiT helps accelerate Biohub’s and Learning Commons’ missions by structuring, negotiating and executing on strategic partnerships, grants and contracts, as well as providing advice that spans IP, technology, exempt org and labor law. We work directly with scientists, engineers and educators in the development of frontier AI models, partnerships with universities, and a wide range of science and education tools and products. In addition to supporting our programmatic colleagues, we regularly collaborate across Executive, Operations, Central Tech and Investments teams to advance the organization’s philanthropic goals. Our team also manages Mark and Priscilla's Family Giving to provide funding for nonprofit organizations, including in the communities where they live and work.

At its core, this team exists to build trust — with our partners, our grantees, and the communities we serve — and to help our organizations operate with integrity as we take on some of the world’s most complex challenges.

The Opportunity

As a Exempt Organizations Counsel, Legal, you will be an integral member of team LeGiT, focused on supporting CZI’s tax-exempt organizations, including Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Inc. (Biohub), Learning Commons, Inc. (LC), and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation (CZIF). You will collaborate with scientists, educators, grantmakers, operations staff, and our partners across the enterprise to help ensure we remain in compliance with laws and regulations applicable to tax exempt organizations while pursuing our mission. Your guidance will be critical to furthering programmatic strategies and operational goals, and will span all aspects of our work. In addition, you will structure, manage, and execute complex transactions and develop templates, policies, processes, and trainings for a fast-moving, mission-driven organization. If you are a team player who enjoys solving nuanced and varied legal issues, and doesn’t mind rolling up your sleeves and diving into new projects, then we’re looking forward to hearing from you!   

What You'll Do

• Provide legal and compliance advice with respect to our tax-exempt organizations, which will require a strong understanding of the sections of the Internal Revenue Code, and accompanying regulations, applicable to public charities (specifically including medical research organizations), private operating and nonoperating foundations, and other tax-exempt organizations.
• Review, draft, and negotiate a broad range of agreements and related documents, partnering closely with program colleagues on grantmaking, impact investing, and other funding and collaboration activities.
• Draft and implement clear and concise policies, practices, and other resources needed to establish and scale compliance for our tax-exempt entities.
• Establish, implement, and improve our client service-oriented approach to ongoing inquiries about tax exempt-specific legal rules and processes.
• Develop and deliver trainings to key stakeholders at all levels across the organization. 
• Assist on governance and other corporate matters from time to time.
• Engage in other legal and compliance projects as needed, proactively contributing to a scaling team and organization.

What You'll Bring

• JD required and an active membership in at least one U.S. state bar, preferably California.
• 7+ years of legal experience with at least 3 years of experience handling legal issues associated with complex philanthropic organizations.
• Law firm experience is a plus. 
• Demonstrated interest in science, artificial intelligence, and / or education.   
• Ability to analyze legal risk based on variable facts and communicate compliance considerations.
• Demonstrated project management ability and the desire to work on projects across diverse client groups with unique professional experiences. 
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and an ability to partner effectively at all levels both internally and externally to CZI .
• History of demonstrating good judgment and integrity.
• A learning and growth mindset coupled with humility and mission- and team-oriented sensibilities.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $193,000 - $265,100. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

Better Together

As we grow, we’re excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be onsite for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team’s manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager's discretion and communicated during the interview process.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

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