Overview
A growing organization is seeking a hands-on Corporate Counsel – Contracts to provide day-to-day legal support for contracts and broader business operations. This role involves managing a recurring queue of NDAs/MNDAs and a steady flow of routine to moderately complex commercial and government-facing agreements, applying established templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and risk tolerances with independent judgment. Novel, strategic, or unusually complex matters will be escalated to the fractional General Counsel with recommended positions.
This position reports administratively to the Manager, Regulatory Compliance and Contracts, operates under the legal direction of the fractional General Counsel, and collaborates closely with the Contracts Administrator and teams across compliance, program management, procurement, finance, HR, engineering, and business development.
Responsibilities
- Draft, review, revise, and negotiate customer, vendor, and supplier agreements, including services and consulting agreements, teaming agreements, subcontracts, licensing agreements, statements of work (SOWs), and amendments
- Serve as the primary legal point of contact for NDAs/MNDAs, managing matters from intake through signature using approved forms and fallback positions
- Manage assigned legal matters from intake through resolution, including reviewing and negotiating counterparty paper and developing practical positions and fallback language; maintain and improve templates, fallback language, and playbooks
- Provide day-to-day legal support on routine corporate governance, employment questions, intellectual property and data rights, data privacy, vendor disputes, internal policy, and proposal review
- Identify terms outside standard positions and escalate novel, strategic, or unusually complex matters to the fractional General Counsel with clear explanations and recommended positions
- Review routine government contracts, subcontracts, and flowdowns, handling ordinary contract issues and identifying matters requiring specialized government-contract or compliance review
Requirements
- Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an ABA-accredited law school
- Active bar membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction
- Meaningful hands-on experience drafting, redlining, and negotiating commercial agreements, including substantial work on counterparty paper
- Demonstrated experience negotiating substantive private-party terms such as indemnity, limitation of liability, intellectual property and licensing, confidentiality, warranties, termination, and dispute provisions
- Strong contract drafting, legal research, analytical, and issue-spotting skills
- Pragmatic, business-oriented judgment with the ability to explain legal risk, options, and recommendations in plain English
- Ability to manage a high volume of agreements and competing priorities independently
- Strong attention to detail and sound judgment on when to decide, ask, or escalate
- Typically 3–10 years of relevant legal experience (in-house or law firm), with meaningful hands-on commercial contracts or transactional experience
Preferred Qualifications
- In-house experience, particularly at a small/mid-size, growth-stage, or engineering-driven company
- Experience with federal government contracts, subcontracts, FAR/DFARS regulations, or the defense industry
- Familiarity with intellectual property and data rights, SBIR/STTR, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), cybersecurity, or export-related terms
- Experience with contract lifecycle management, e-signature, or legal operations tools
Compensation and Benefits
- Salary range: $130,000 – $200,000 annually
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage fully paid by the employer for employees
- Three weeks of vacation to start
- Automatic company contribution to 401(k) plan of 5% of earned wages (no matching required)
- Educational assistance and professional development opportunities
Additional Requirements
- Must have, or be eligible to obtain and maintain, a U.S. Department of Defense Secret security clearance. Obtaining and maintaining the required clearance is a condition of employment; inability to do so makes the candidate ineligible for the role. The clearance process includes a U.S. Government background investigation and vetting to determine eligibility for access to classified information.
ITAR Requirements
- To comply with U.S. Government export regulations, applicants must be one of the following: (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Equal Employment Opportunity
The employer is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law. Reasonable accommodations are provided for qualified individuals with disabilities in the application and hiring process.
This employer participates in E-Verify.