Legal & Business Director

What you'll own

1) Contracts and deal flow (daily work)

• Run intake, drafting, review, negotiation support, signature, and filing for NDAs, vendor agreements, consulting agreements, partnership/pilot agreements, MSAs/SOWs, and basic data/security addenda
• Maintain templates and "fallback positions" that match our risk tolerance
• Keep deals moving by driving timelines, nudging reviewers, and making decisions about what to escalate

2) Government / defense contracting support

• Coordinate reviews of government and prime/sub agreements (and flowdowns) with outside counsel as needed
• Track key contract obligations and deliverables (reporting requirements, security requirements, data handling, publication restrictions)
• Help internal teams understand "what we signed up for" in plain English

3) IP and information hygiene

• Maintain invention assignment and contractor IP paperwork; keep clean records
• Coordinate with outside counsel on patent filings or trademark basics if/when needed
• Partner with engineering on lightweight open-source software hygiene (tracking, approvals, basic notices)

4) People-related agreements and basics

• Own offer letter / contractor agreement workflows, confidentiality + invention assignment, and separation paperwork coordination with counsel
• Keep an organized approach to sensitive issues (routing to counsel, documenting, protecting confidentiality)

5) Business operations (your "second hat")

• Own a set of recurring operational workflows that keep the company running (vendor onboarding, insurance renewals coordination, corporate filing coordination, document retention, signature authority matrix, tooling admin related to the above)
• Build simple systems: trackers, playbooks, checklists, and a clean source of truth

6) Outside counsel management

• Be the front door: scope, intake, first drafts, budget discipline, and translating legal advice into next steps
• Ensure the business gets answers that are actionable, not memos

What success looks like (first 90 days)

• A working contract intake + approval process that doesn't live in email
• Core templates in place (at minimum: NDA, consulting agreement, basic MSA/SOW, vendor agreement, pilot/POC agreement)
• A simple "obligations tracker" for key contracts and renewal dates
• Outside counsel relationships and escalation rules are clear (what you handle vs what goes out)
• Founders spend meaningfully less time on routine legal/ops churn

Who you are

Minimum requirements (either background can fit)

Option A: Senior Paralegal / Contracts & Ops

• 5+ years supporting legal work in-house or at a firm (contracts, corporate records, deal coordination)
• Excellent organization, writing, and the ability to run a process end-to-end
• Comfort reading agreements, spotting issues, and escalating appropriately

Option B: Juris Doctor / Former Lawyer

• Juris Doctor (and ideally experience practicing, in-house and/or firm)
• Hands-on experience negotiating and managing commercial contracts
• Strong operational instinct: you build systems, not just redlines

What we care about most

• You close loops. You don't let open items sit
• You can prioritize. You know what's a real risk vs legal noise
• You can communicate tradeoffs in plain English and recommend a path
• You're comfortable working directly with execs and cross-functional partners

Nice-to-haves (not required)

• Government contracting exposure (FAR/DFARS basics, primes/subs, flowdowns)
• Export controls familiarity (knowing when to raise a flag and who to call)
• IP workflow experience (invention intake, patent counsel coordination, OSS compliance basics)
• Startup experience (speed, ambiguity, messy inputs)

Perks & Benefits (Full-Time Employees)

• Healthcare: 100% of employee medical premiums covered; 25% for dependents
• Time Off: 3 weeks PTO plus 13+ paid company holidays
• Stipends: Monthly phone and wellness benefits
• 401(k): Offered (no current employer match, but we are committed to enhancing this benefit in the future)