Operations - Head of Legal

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.