Head of Legal

About the role

This role is owned by an individual who will drive the legal and operational backbone of a fast-moving defense and dual-use aviation company. The hire will be responsible for owning the day-to-day legal workflow, ensuring that contracts move efficiently from intake to execution without bottlenecks. They will build and maintain practical business operations that insulate the founders from routine legal and administrative noise. This position requires strong judgment and the ability to translate complex legal concepts into clear actions for non-legal stakeholders. The person in this role will directly enable the company to scale its contracting and compliance processes while maintaining a high tolerance for ambiguity.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design and 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.
• Establish and maintain contract templates and fallback positions that align precisely with the company's stated risk tolerance and operational needs.
• Drive deal timelines forward by coordinating reviews, nudging stakeholders, and making pragmatic decisions about what must be elevated to leadership or legal counsel.
• Coordinate reviews of government and prime/sub agreements along with any associated flowdowns, ensuring all external counsel inputs are synthesized into plain-language summaries.
• Track and monitor key contract obligations, deliverables, reporting requirements, security requirements, data handling protocols, and publication restrictions for the business.
• Own the administration of invention assignment and contractor IP paperwork, maintaining clean, auditable records that protect the company's innovations.
• Partner with engineering and technical teams on lightweight open-source software hygiene, including tracking, approvals, and maintaining basic notices to mitigate compliance risk.
• Own offer letter, contractor agreement, and confidentiality plus invention assignment workflows, while coordinating separation paperwork and maintaining strict confidentiality where required.
• Act as the operational front door for outside counsel, managing scope, intake, first drafts, budget discipline, and the translation of legal advice into clear, actionable next steps.
• Build and maintain simple operational systems such as trackers, playbooks, checklists, and a single source of truth for contracts, approvals, and obligations.
• Establish clear escalation paths and decision rules for contracts, ensuring that the company's risk appetite is consistently reflected in executed documents.
• Proactively identify renewal dates and critical milestones, using simple systems to prevent lapses or unexpected terminations.
• Reduce founder involvement in routine legal and operations work by creating durable processes that can be followed by staff and junior team members.
• Serve as the primary liaison with government and prime/sub partners on contracting matters, ensuring alignment between commercial terms and regulatory constraints.

Requirements

• Hold either a background as a Senior Paralegal with extensive contract and operations experience or a Juris Doctor with hands-on commercial practice history.
• Demonstrate at least 5 years supporting legal work in-house or at a firm, with a proven ability to manage contracts, corporate records, and deal coordination.
• Show strong written and verbal communication skills, with the capacity to read agreements thoroughly, spot issues, and escalate appropriately without needing constant direction.
• Exhibit exceptional organizational skills and the discipline to run processes end-to-end while maintaining accuracy under pressure.
• Possess a practical operational instinct, focusing on building systems and processes rather than only producing redlines or reactive edits.
• Comfortably review and interpret government and defense-related contracting language, including understanding when items require escalation to counsel or leadership.
• Maintain strict confidentiality and professionalism when handling sensitive employee, contractor, and partner information.

Nice to have

• Prior exposure to government contracting frameworks such as FAR or DFARS, including familiarity with primes, subs, and flowdown clauses.
• Basic understanding of export controls and the ability to recognize when a situation requires escalation to a compliance specialist.
• Experience with IP workflow, including invention intake, coordination with patent counsel, and open-source compliance fundamentals.
• Startup experience in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where processes are built on the fly and inputs are often messy.

Practical notes

This is a hybrid role based in San Carlos, CA, with a requirement to be onsite for 3 or more days per week. The position offers the flexibility to work additional days remotely where appropriate. No specific visa sponsorship details or working hour constraints are stated in the source material. There are no published compensation figures or deadlines for submission mentioned in the source.