Head of Legal

Responsibilities

Deal structuring and documentation

• Draft and negotiate JV agreements, LLC operating agreements, site host and lease agreements, feedstock supply agreements, tipping fee arrangements, and O&M agreements with partners
• Structure deals across our multi-entity architecture ensuring JV terms are compatible with existing financing and offtake contracts
• Own the term sheet process: translate commercial deal points from the business development team into structures that survive diligence, financing, and audit
• Risk allocation and specialist issues
• Negotiate liability, indemnity, insurance, and environmental risk allocation provisions — including waste acceptance specifications, title/risk transfer for waste streams, and long-tail environmental liability between generator, hauler, site host, and operator
• Build and maintain waste-stream-specific contract standards

Team leadership and process ownership

• Manage and develop a team of two direct reports: a Corporate Counsel and a Contract Specialist / paralegal
• Allocate deal work across the team — first-chair the complex JV negotiations yourself while delegating routine agreements, diligence, and contract lifecycle work with appropriate supervision
• Set quality standards, review the team's work product, and build the team's capability so more of the deal pipeline can be handled below your level over time
• Manage outside counsel on matters that genuinely require specialist support (tax, permitting, regulatory, litigation), keeping spend tight and scoped
• Continue build out of template library and negotiation playbook so deal velocity increases as the partnership pipeline scales
• Support diligence workstreams for financings and equity raises as they touch partnership agreements

Requirements

• Demonstrated first-chair experience drafting and negotiating JV agreements or comparable complex commercial arrangements without outside counsel support

Preferred

• Experience with waste management, environmental services, or adjacent industries
• Familiarity with environmental liability frameworks (RCRA, CERCLA, state waste regulation) and how they drive contract terms
• Exposure to project finance structures (SPVs, lender consent rights, collateral assignment of material contracts)
• Experience at a venture-backed or growth-stage company
• Not required
• Carbon markets or CDR experience — we will teach you the industry; we need you to already know how to paper the deals

The Role

You will own the legal workstream for Vaulted’s partnerships end-to-end — from term sheet through definitive documentation through post-closing amendments — as our senior in-house counsel for partnership transactions. You will lead a two-person legal team, managing a Corporate Counsel and a Contract Specialist (paralegal), and will draft and negotiate directly against sophisticated counterparties (and their counsel), with the expectation that routine and mid-complexity deals are papered fully in-house.

Required

• J.D. from an accredited law school; licensed and in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction (Texas admission or ability to register as in-house counsel)
• 8–12 years of transactional experience in energy, infrastructure, environmental/waste, or project development — at a major law firm, in-house at a sponsor/developer, or both
• Fluency in commercial risk allocation: indemnities, limitations of liability, insurance requirements, force majeure, default and termination mechanics
• Comfort negotiating against large, sophisticated counterparties and their Big Law counsel
• Experience managing and reviewing the work of junior attorneys and/or paralegals, with the judgment to delegate effectively and the willingness to remain hands-on in documents
• Ability to operate independently in a lean, fast-moving company — you and your team are the legal function for this workstream

Location

Houston, TX (hybrid). Periodic travel to partner meetings and operating sites required