Lead the legal function at Valar Atomics, overseeing compliance, IP strategy, regulatory frameworks, and commercial agreements, while building a legal team.
Valar Atomics is entering a phase of rapid growth, regulatory complexity, and strategic partnering. As Head of Legal, you will be the foundational legal architect of the company, establishing core processes, overseeing compliance, and advising the leadership team on everything from IP strategy to commercial agreements to nuclear regulatory pathways.
This is a massively cross-functional role where judgment, discretion, and speed are essential. You will build the legal function from scratch while acting as a true strategic partner to our CEO, President, engineering leadership, and future government and commercial partners.
What You’ll Own
- Build and scale Valar’s internal legal function: contracts, regulatory, compliance, governance, and IP.
- Oversee licensing, export control, and nuclear regulatory frameworks in partnership with external counsel.
- Lead all commercial contracting, including vendor agreements, NDAs, MoUs, customer contracts, and government partnerships.
- Partner with engineering on IP protection, patents, licensing, and technology transfer considerations.
- Help shape fundraising transactions, corporate governance, equity documents, and board operations.
- Create scalable legal processes, templates, and risk frameworks to enable the company to move fast responsibly.
- Recruit and build a top-tier legal + compliance team over time.
Who You Are
- A seasoned legal leader with experience in high-growth environments — ideally deep exposure to climate, defense, hardware, aerospace, or regulated industries.
- Someone who can work from first principles, make crisp decisions with imperfect data, and communicate with clarity.
- A creative problem-solver who balances risk pragmatically, not dogmatically.
- A builder who loves designing systems and scaling them.
Valar Atomics El Segundo, California, USA Office
El Segundo, California, United States, 90245
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