Cecilia Ziniti, general counsel, Lambda School. (Courtesy photo)

An online school that helps people get jobs in the tech industry announced Wednesday the hiring of its first general counsel who previously worked as the first full-time attorney for Amazon.com Inc.'s Echo and Alexa products.

Cecilia Ziniti was named general counsel of San Francisco-based Lambda School. Ziniti, who is based in San Francisco, is the only attorney in-house at the school.

Speaking from Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Ziniti said she had been following co-founder and CEO Austen Allred for the past couple of years and believed in the mission.

"The mission was always interesting to me: giving people a skill that allows them to change their lives," Ziniti said.

She said, as she had done in previous jobs, she likes to be involved in emerging industries. The Lambda School operates on an income sharing agreement, or ISA, over traditional student loans. Once a graduate earns at least $50,000 a year, the graduate pays 17% of their income for two years and the repayments are capped at $30,000.

"ISAs are so new and we're the leader in the space," Ziniti said.

Ziniti has spent the majority of her career in-house, according to her LinkedIn profile. She most recently served as the lead counsel and director of product, regulatory and intellectual property legal at the self-driving car company Cruise. She has also served as general counsel at Anki and was the first full-time counsel dedicated to Amazon's Echo and Alexa products. She has also worked as an associate at Morrison & Foerster. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkley School of Law.

She said she is hiring and believes the in-house legal department at the school will include between three and five lawyers.

"We're actually three businesses in one," Ziniti explained.

She explained she has to consider the curriculum aspect, the income-sharing agreement and the sales team, which tries to place graduates into jobs.

"I'll be looking for attorneys with experience in regulation, fintech and education," Ziniti said.

In July, California fined the company $75,000 for not properly registering with the state, according to a report in Business Insider.

Ziniti said the school is working on getting licensed in California, which she described as relatively easy because that is where the company is based. She said she is working to get the company licensed in other states where it is applicable.

The Lambda School has 130 employees with 2,700 students. A spokesperson for the school said they project to have 4,000 enrolled by the end of the year.