Business Affairs Officer

Description

The Business Affairs Officer is responsible for owning and administering the company’s export compliance program and serving as the operational bridge between the business and external legal counsel. This role ensures adherence to U.S. export regulations (including ITAR and EAR), manages export classifications and documentation, and establishes scalable compliance processes that minimize regulatory risk.

This role also supports legal operations by coordinating contract review, maintaining standard legal templates, and facilitating communication with external legal counsel. This position does not own customer order processing or transactional contract administration, which are managed by the Contracts team. Instead, this role focuses on risk, structure, and governance across export compliance and legal workflows.

This is a process ownership role responsible for building clarity, consistency, and control in areas of high regulatory and legal impact.

Responsibilities

• Export Compliance (Primary Ownership)
• Own and administer the company’s export compliance program, including ITAR and EAR requirements
• Classify products, technologies, and technical data (ECCN/USML) in partnership with engineering
• Maintain export records, documentation, and audit readiness in accordance with regulatory requirements
• Determine licensing requirements and coordinate license applications with external advisors as needed
• Develop, implement, and maintain export compliance policies, procedures, and internal controls
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert for export compliance and escalation point for risk-related decisions
• Conduct internal audits and support external compliance reviews or government inquiries
• Legal Operations & Contract Coordination
• Coordinate contract review workflows between internal stakeholders and external legal counsel
• Review and redline NDAs, terms and conditions, and other agreements for risk alignment prior to legal escalation
• Maintain and standardize legal templates in partnership with counsel
• Identify non-standard terms, compliance risks, or export-related restrictions within agreements
• Track contract-related risk items and ensure proper documentation and visibility
• Process Ownership & Cross-Functional Support
• Establish and maintain scalable processes for compliance and legal request intake, review, and tracking
• Partner with Contracts, Sales, Engineering, and Operations to ensure clear delineation of responsibilities
• Train internal teams on export compliance fundamentals and contract risk awareness
• Improve documentation, organization, and accessibility of compliance and legal records
• Proactively identify areas of risk and implement process improvements to mitigate exposure
  
  

Requirements

• 5 years of experience in export compliance, legal operations, paralegal work, or related field
• Working knowledge of U.S. export regulations (ITAR and/or EAR)
• Experience reviewing contracts or supporting contract workflows (NDAs, commercial agreements, or similar)
• Strong ability to identify risk and translate legal/regulatory requirements into business processes
• High attention to detail with strong organizational and documentation skills
• Ability to work cross-functionally in a technical or manufacturing environment
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in aerospace, defense, RF/microwave, or regulated manufacturing environments
• Familiarity with export classification (ECCN/USML) and licensing processes
• Paralegal certification or equivalent experience working with external legal counsel
• Experience building or improving compliance programs or legal operations processes
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment