Renewable Energy, Environmental Services, Energy Consulting

Head of Legal

El Segundo, CAOnsiteFull TimeManager / Head$200,000–$235,000 /yrPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

Is this role right for you?

Upload your resume and get a skill-by-skill breakdown — see exactly where you match, where you're close, and what to highlight. Not a mystery percentage.

Get a tailored resume highlighting what this role needs.

Required skills

J.D
accredited law school
active membership
good standing
U.S. jurisdiction
in-house counsel
California
10+ years
legal experience
in-house experience

Nice to have

startup environment

Role summary

Arbor Energy is seeking its first senior in-house legal leader, a highly hands-on Head of Legal reporting to the COO. This strategic advisor will personally lead critical legal work, build repeatable processes, and manage the legal budget and external firms. The role encompasses intellectual property, corporate governance, financing, commercial and project transactions, regulatory compliance, and enterprise risk. Responsibilities include developing legal strategy, advising the executive team and Board, leading financing and corporate governance efforts, structuring complex commercial and IP agreements, and establishing a legal-risk and compliance framework. The ideal candidate has 10+ years of progressive legal experience, including significant in-house advising in hardware technology, energy, or advanced manufacturing, with a proven ability to build and scale an in-house legal function. Experience in venture/growth-stage financing and complex commercial transactions is essential.

About Us

At Arbor Energy & Resources Corporation ("Arbor Energy"), we’re creating technology to power our lives while protecting the planet that sustains them. Our advanced power systems deliver clean, reliable baseload electricity with zero operating emissions—modular, fuel-flexible, and engineered for the realities of today’s energy demand. At the core is a supercritical CO₂ turbine with integrated carbon capture, designed to bring carbon-neutral power online quickly at meaningful scale.

Our team includes aerospace engineers, combustion experts, and systems thinkers with a shared goal: to build technology worthy of the world we want to live in. While many of us began our journeys looking to the stars, we’re applying that expertise here at home to deliver dependable, emission-free baseload power and a future of lasting abundance.

If you share our values and are drawn to rigorous work with lasting impact, we’d love to learn more about you. Come build what the future will run on.

Steward our planet: We build for tomorrow, ensuring every bolt we tighten and every hand we lend leaves our environment stronger than we found it.

Lead with Love: We champion the success of our people, partners, and planet, nurturing excellence through camaraderie and rigor.

Explore the Uncharted: We embrace the unknown with curiosity, using courage and discipline to transform uncertainty into opportunity.

Role Overview

As Arbor Energy’s first senior in-house legal leader, this is a highly hands-on role reporting the COO. You’ll serve as a strategic advisor to the executive team, personally lead our most consequential legal work, build repeatable processes for recurring needs, and determine when specialized outside counsel is required. You’ll set functional priorities, manage the legal budget and external firms, and build internal legal capability over time.

The role spans intellectual property, corporate governance and financing, complex commercial and project transactions, regulatory and compliance matters, and enterprise risk. You’ll help the company move from technology development to first-of-a-kind deployment and scale manufacturing while protecting the company’s core assets and enabling the business to move quickly and responsibly.

Responsibilities

Legal Strategy and Functional Leadership

Develop and execute Arbor's legal strategy in partnership with the COO and executive leadership team, aligned with the company's technical and commercial objectives.

Advise the executive team on significant legal, governance, fiduciary, financing, and enterprise-risk matters.

Manage the legal budget and set functional priorities, decision authorities, and escalation thresholds.

Personally lead high-priority matters; manage and develop legal resources, including outside counsel, legal-operations support, and future direct reports, with clear accountability and performance expectations.

Financing and Corporate Governance

Lead legal strategy and execution for equity, debt, project-finance, and other strategic capital transactions, including diligence and coordination with internal stakeholders and external counsel.

Advise the executive team and Board on transaction structure, financing terms, investor rights, disclosure obligations, equity-compensation matters, and the long-term implications of capital decisions.

Lead Board and committee governance, including minutes, consents, resolutions, delegations of authority, corporate records, required filings, and compliance with Arbor's charter, investor agreements, and securities obligations.

Commercial, IP, and Project Matters

Structure and negotiate revenue-generating agreements, including power purchase agreements, capacity reservations, services, licensing, and development partnerships.

Develop contracting and risk-allocation strategies for first-of-a-kind deployment, addressing performance, warranties, acceptance, schedule, intellectual property, indemnities, and limitations of liability.

Structure and negotiate strategic supplier, engineering, construction, and manufacturing agreements addressing capacity, schedule, quality, tooling, intellectual property, warranties, change control, and supply continuity.

Lead intellectual-property strategy and oversee patents, trade secrets, invention capture and assignment, publication, and technology licensing with technical leadership and specialized IP counsel.

Partner with Policy, Commercial, Finance, and Project Development on siting, permitting, interconnection, environmental review, real estate, regulatory requirements, and energy, carbon-management, and tax-credit developments.

Risk, Compliance, and Legal Operations

Establish a right-sized legal-risk and compliance framework; identify material contractual, regulatory, litigation, compliance, and reputational risks; and coordinate responses to disputes, investigations, claims, and litigation.

Partner with Finance on insurance and contractual risk, with People on employment matters, and with technical and operational leaders on export controls, government contracting, privacy and cybersecurity, and environmental obligations.

Build scalable systems for contract lifecycle management, matter tracking, corporate governance, entity management, and intellectual-property administration; develop practical templates, playbooks, approval authorities, and contracting guidance.

Provide leadership with clear reporting on material legal matters, transaction status, contractual exposure, legal spend, and enterprise risk, using automation and enterprise AI where appropriate.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school; active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction; and eligibility to practice as in-house counsel in California.

10+ years of progressively responsible legal experience, including significant in-house experience advising executives and Boards in hardware technology, energy, advanced-manufacturing, infrastructure, or similarly complex business.

Experience building or scaling an in-house legal function in a high-growth organization and leading legal resources, including direct reports, legal-operations professionals, and outside counsel.

Experience leading venture or growth-stage financing, corporate-governance work, and complex commercial transactions.

Working knowledge of intellectual-property strategy and experience managing specialized patent counsel.

Strong commercial judgment and the willingness to move between Board-level advice and detailed legal work as the technology, business model, and risk profile evolve.

Clear, direct communication skills and the ability to make complex legal issues understandable and actionable for technical and business leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

Advanced degree.

Experience working in a startup environment.

Benefits & Compensation

Pre-IPO stock options

Medical, dental, and vision insurance (Arbor covers 90% for employees)

Basic life insurance fully covered

Health savings account (HSA) with matching

Flexible savings account (FSA)

Unlimited PTO

12+ company holidays, including Earth Day!

401(k)

Commuter benefits

Annual learning and development stipend

And more!

Base Pay: $200,000 - $235,000 USD/year. The salary is subject to the applicant's skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Our Commitment

Arbor Energy is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Solving global energy challenges requires a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and we are committed to building a team that reflects the world we serve.

Our hiring process is designed to be accessible, fair, and focused on the work that matters most for this role. Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the hiring process and employment—please let us know if you need one.

Ready to apply?

You'll be redirected to Arbor Energy's application page.