General Counsel

Astro Mechanica • San Francisco, CA

22h • Onsite

About The Position

Astro Mechanica is a vertically integrated aerospace company building a faster, more connected future. Our mission is to democratize high-speed flight by making supersonic travel flexible, accessible, and sustainable. We believe that rapid, on-demand, point-to-point global mobility will become the new standard for moving people and goods across the planet. To achieve this, we are integrating our advanced airframe and engine technologies—which include Duality™, our proprietary dual-use propulsion system—with a new flight operations model to make supersonic transport as efficient and economical as commercial air travel is today. In the near term, we are developing adaptable, high-speed systems to close aircraft performance gaps for the United States government. As General Counsel, you will be Astro Mechanica's first in-house legal leader, owning the full legal function across commercial, regulatory, and strategic workstreams. You will bring business judgment to every legal decision, acting as a true executive partner to the CEO, COO, and the broader leadership team. The ideal candidate is a seasoned legal operator who thinks like a business partner first and a lawyer second, has built legal functions from the ground up at high-growth companies, and is comfortable with ambiguity, energized by complexity, and hungry to help scale a company that is doing something genuinely hard and genuinely important.

Requirements

• 8–12+ years of legal experience, with meaningful time at a top tier law firm and in house at a high growth company
• Demonstrated experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements - you are a builder of deals, not just a redliner of them
• Experience with government contracting law and the regulatory landscape surrounding defense and dual-use aerospace programs (ITAR, EAR, FAR/DFARS, CUI)
• Comfort operating within complex corporate structures, including subsidiaries, affiliated entities, and dual-use business models
• Experience supporting or leading legal workstreams for venture-backed fundraising rounds
• Strong business judgment, you calibrate your advice to the commercial context, know when to push and when to move, and help the business do the same
• Exceptional communication skills, you are able to translate complex legal issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyers
• Experience scaling a legal function at a company going through rapid growth
• A passion for aerospace, deep technology, or defense, or a demonstrated ability to go deep on a technically complex domain quickly

Responsibilities

• Anticipate legal and regulatory risk across the business and help us get ahead of it — not just react to it
• Own all contract review and negotiation across the business, drafting creative commercial agreements from LOIs and term sheets through purchase agreements, licensing deals, and long-term partnership frameworks, with an eye toward business context and counterparty relationships, not just legal risk mitigation
• Lead negotiation of key vendor and partner agreements, including strategic relationships with aerospace OEMs, government agencies, and commercial partners
• Manage and advise on complex entity and subsidiary structures spanning our commercial and federal operations
• Navigate the legal complexities of government contracting, including ITAR/EAR compliance, FAR/DFARS obligations, CUI handling, and FCL planning
• Build out the legal function over time - managing outside counsel efficiently and developing internal processes and playbooks
• Partner with leadership on corporate governance, board matters, equity and compensation structures, and M&A or partnership transactions as they arise

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, including Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) program and transparent stock option plan
• Self-managed and flexible time-off policy, including PTO, paid holidays, and sick time
• Flexible work environment

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree