Founding General Counsel

Starbridge•New York, NY

16d•$250,000 - $400,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Starbridge is seeking its first in-house lawyer to build the legal, contracts, and public sector compliance function from the ground up. This role reports directly to the CEO and is crucial for Starbridge's growth as a public sector software distributor. The company has achieved significant ARR growth and is building a modern platform for quoting, contracting, compliance, and payment in the government sector. This is a builder role where the General Counsel will negotiate deals, design standard legal documents, create risk and approval systems, manage outside counsel, and collaborate with product and engineering to integrate legal logic into the platform. The ideal candidate will possess exceptional judgment, a proactive approach to identifying gaps, and a desire to leverage AI for legal work.

Requirements

Approximately 7-12 years of highly relevant legal experience (exceptional candidates outside this range are welcome).
Proven experience handling multi-party public sector technology transactions involving OEMs, distributors, resellers, contract vehicles, and government customers.
Deep understanding of SLED procurement, with the ability to quickly learn federal procurement differences.
Proficiency in negotiating commercial SaaS, channel, data, security, and IP terms, as well as government clauses.
Ability to draft, redline, participate in calls, make judgments, and provide executable paths rather than just complex explanations.
Intellectual honesty about knowledge gaps, ability to frame outside counsel questions effectively, and a focus on business recommendations.
Hunger for ownership, excitement for building from a blank page, and eagerness to use AI to eliminate repetitive legal work.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the public sector channel (distributor/reseller with OEM software, or scaled OEM managing channel).
Experience with pricing disclosures, transaction reporting, FAR and DFARS flow-downs, and False Claims Act controls.
Exposure to high-volume distribution economics, including payments, credit, collections, insurance, and channel conflict.

Responsibilities

Design the legal architecture for a four-party channel (OEM, Starbridge, vehicle holder/distributor, and government buyer), including privity, payment flow, liability, reporting, and audit responsibility.
Own the core legal documents: OEM authorization and distribution agreements, reseller and referral agreements, public sector order forms and addenda, EULA riders, DPAs and security terms, and enterprise SaaS agreements.
Build the government contracts operating system for federal and SLED transactions, covering vehicle eligibility, flow-downs, representations and certifications, pricing and transaction reporting, renewals, records, and audit readiness.
Establish a fast and trusted deal desk with templates, clause libraries, approval thresholds, fallback positions, and service levels.
Protect Starbridge's economics, including discounts, fees, markups, renewals, refunds, non-appropriation, credit, tax, insurance, and indemnity.
Treat legal as a product by working with engineering to encode vehicle rules, required terms, approvals, and compliance evidence into the Starbridge platform.
Advise the company on commercial contracts, privacy and AI, cybersecurity, IP, employment, and governance, utilizing specialists as needed.