# Legal & Business Director

**Company:** [Beacon AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/beacon-ai)
**Location:** San Carlos, CA
**Role:** Legal
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Contract Drafting, Contract Negotiation, Government Contracting, Far/Dfars, Intellectual Property Management, Corporate Governance, Vendor Management, Process Improvement, Document Management, Risk Assessment
**Posted:** 2026-05-28

> Owns contracts workflow, government contracting coordination, IP hygiene, and business operations for a defense tech startup. Requires 5+ years legal/contracts experience and strong operational judgment.

## Job Description

## 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)

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