Director of Legal Affairs

The role

As the first in-house lawyer, you will report to the COO and work with the executive team on agreements, structures, and decisions. You will manage commercial agreements, supply chain contracts, corporate governance, and compliance programs.

What you will do

• Draft, negotiate, and own commercial agreements including NDAs, MOUs, LOIs, term sheets, and power purchase and offtake agreements
• Own supply chain and procurement contracts including supply agreements, statements of work, and major equipment purchases
• Build contract templates, negotiation playbooks, signature authority rules, and a single system of record
• Manage outside counsel across corporate, energy, regulatory, tax, IP, and trade matters
• Support equity and debt financings with corporate counsel
• Run corporate governance and entity management for the parent company and project companies
• Work with External Affairs and outside counsel on federal offshore leasing and international project agreements
• Stand up compliance programs for export controls, sanctions screening, and anti-corruption
• Advise the People team on employment matters
• Manage the IP portfolio with outside counsel

Required qualifications

• Active bar membership in good standing in at least one US state
• Eligible to register as in-house counsel in Washington
• 8+ years of directly applicable experience
• Extensive experience drafting and directly negotiating complex commercial agreements
• Experience in energy, infrastructure, industrial, or hardware businesses
• Proven ability to manage outside counsel to a budget, including scoping matters and negotiating fees
• Generalist range across commercial, corporate, employment, and compliance work
• Clear communication that a busy engineer or executive can action on
• High ownership mindset and comfort operating without support staff like a paralegal
• Track record of working effectively in fast-paced environments where business needs change quickly
• Able to work on-site at our Seattle headquarters, with occasional travel to project sites and counterparties

Nice to have

• Experience with power purchase agreements, offtake, or project development, especially in offshore wind, geothermal, or other first-of-a-kind energy
• Project finance experience for energy or major industrial projects
• Experience within a law firm as well as an operating company as their first or second in-house lawyer
• International commercial experience, especially in Asia-Pacific or with development finance institutions
• Experience building export control (EAR/ITAR), sanctions, or FCPA compliance programs
• Venture-backed corporate experience: equity financings, venture debt, board governance, and equity administration
• Maritime and offshore agreements, such as vessel charters, equipment purchases, and marine insurance
• Federal offshore leasing (BOEM) or government contracting experience
• Experience building contract management systems and self-serve templates for a growing team

Benefits

• Health, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage
• Flexible PTO including 12 paid company holidays
• Travel to deployment sites in locations like the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and the Azores
• Participate in sea trials and deployment operations
• Work with technology spanning high-power electronics, marine systems, and clean energy
• Company-sponsored recreational dive certification
• Access to the company boat
• Free meals and snacks

About the company

Endurance is building the world's first modular subsea geothermal power plants, converting vast thermal resources under the ocean into gigawatts of baseload power.