Demo

Head of Legal

Gigascale Capital
Scotts Valley, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 4/26/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 5/25/2026
Location

Scotts Valley

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

Operations

OverviewApplication

What To Expect

Heron Power is a startup building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and cost-effective hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.

Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron’s leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products.

We believe no one person knows everything. We learn together, build together, and solve hard problems from first principles. You’ll work in a fast-moving, deeply technical environment where ownership and impact are real.

Job Overview

We are seeking a Head of Legal to serve as Heron Power's first in-house trusted legal partner to the entire company. As the company scales from R&D toward mass production and customer deployments, you will lead execution of commercial contracts with customers, suppliers, and partners. You’ll also own the critical legal workstreams for a hardware startup, including protecting our IP portfolio, negotiating leases, and ensuring proper compliance with applicable regulation. You are a leader who is technically exceptional while simultaneously solutions oriented, and knows how to balance commercial execution vs. critical risk protection.

This is a high impact role that will own every legal workstream end-to-end, and have a direct seat at the table on key business decisions. You’ll manage relationships with outside counsel and be an individual contributor short-term, with the capacity to recruit a dynamic legal function as Heron scales.

How You Will Contribute

  • Draft, negotiate, and manage the full spectrum of commercial agreements — customer supply agreements, long-term service agreements (LTSAs), supplier purchase agreements, NDAs, consulting and service agreements
  • Develop Heron's standard contract playbook, including templates, systems, and processes that allow the business to move quickly
  • Own and execute Heron's IP strategy in partnership with engineering leadership, coordinating with outside counsel on patent & trademark filings
  • Collaborate with HR on employment law compliance across the full employee lifecycle — offers, immigration, equity, performance, and separations
  • Manage corporate legal matters including entity formation, governance, insurance, and fundraising support
  • Provide informed advice to cross-functional partners across environmental permitting, data privacy and cybersecurity, tax credit eligibility
  • Ensure compliance with export controls, trade regulations, and other requirements relevant to global hardware deployment
  • Recruit, motivate, and manage future legal team members

What You Will Bring

We have a short list of must-have requirements. We prioritize a strong grip on first principles, hands-on skills, and a sense of initiative. Domain-specific knowledge and experience will help determine the career level for each hire.

Must-Have Requirements

  • JD from an accredited law school
  • 8 years of legal experience, with a meaningful mix of law firm and in-house roles; high-growth technology company or energy project development experience strongly preferred
  • Demonstrated experience negotiating complex commercial agreements involving hardware, manufacturing, or physical goods, including supply, procurement, or deployment contexts
  • Working knowledge of IP strategy and patent/trademark portfolio management; you don't need to be a patent attorney, but you know how to work with one
  • Familiarity with equity, securities, and corporate governance matters at a venture-backed company
  • Comfort with the ambiguity and juggling multiple projects; you're as comfortable rolling up your sleeves on an NDA as you are advising the CEO on a strategic deal
  • Exceptional communication skills and judgement, with the ability to distill complex legal concepts into practical advice for non-legal stakeholders
  • Genuine enthusiasm for AI-powered legal tools and a bias toward building leverage through systems, not headcount

Nice-to-Haves

  • Background in power electronics, energy, climate tech, or capital-intensive manufacturing
  • Familiarity with 45X or similar federal tax credits

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.

Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges from $240,000 to $280,000 per year.

How You Will Contribute

  • Draft, negotiate, and manage the full spectrum of commercial agreements — customer supply agreements, long-term service agreements (LTSAs), supplier purchase agreements, NDAs, consulting and service agreements
  • Develop Heron's standard contract playbook, including templates, systems, and processes that allow the business to move quickly
  • Own and execute Heron's IP strategy in partnership with engineering leadership, coordinating with outside counsel on patent & trademark filings
  • Collaborate with HR on employment law compliance across the full employee lifecycle — offers, immigration, equity, performance, and separations
  • Manage corporate legal matters including entity formation, governance, insurance, and fundraising support
  • Provide informed advice to cross-functional partners across environmental permitting, data privacy and cybersecurity, tax credit eligibility
  • Ensure compliance with export controls, trade regulations, and other requirements relevant to global hardware deployment
  • Recruit, motivate, and manage future legal team members

Must-Have Requirements

  • JD from an accredited law school
  • 8 years of legal experience, with a meaningful mix of law firm and in-house roles; high-growth technology company or energy project development experience strongly preferred
  • Demonstrated experience negotiating complex commercial agreements involving hardware, manufacturing, or physical goods, including supply, procurement, or deployment contexts
  • Working knowledge of IP strategy and patent/trademark portfolio management; you don't need to be a patent attorney, but you know how to work with one
  • Familiarity with equity, securities, and corporate governance matters at a venture-backed company
  • Comfort with the ambiguity and juggling multiple projects; you're as comfortable rolling up your sleeves on an NDA as you are advising the CEO on a strategic deal
  • Exceptional communication skills and judgement, with the ability to distill complex legal concepts into practical advice for non-legal stakeholders
  • Genuine enthusiasm for AI-powered legal tools and a bias toward building leverage through systems, not headcount

Nice-to-Haves

  • Background in power electronics, energy, climate tech, or capital-intensive manufacturing
  • Familiarity with 45X or similar federal tax credits

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.

Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges from $240,000 to $280,000 per year.

How You Will Contribute

  • Draft, negotiate, and manage the full spectrum of commercial agreements — customer supply agreements, long-term service agreements (LTSAs), supplier purchase agreements, NDAs, consulting and service agreements
  • Develop Heron's standard contract playbook, including templates, systems, and processes that allow the business to move quickly
  • Own and execute Heron's IP strategy in partnership with engineering leadership, coordinating with outside counsel on patent & trademark filings
  • Collaborate with HR on employment law compliance across the full employee lifecycle — offers, immigration, equity, performance, and separations
  • Manage corporate legal matters including entity formation, governance, insurance, and fundraising support
  • Provide informed advice to cross-functional partners across environmental permitting, data privacy and cybersecurity, tax credit eligibility
  • Ensure compliance with export controls, trade regulations, and other requirements relevant to global hardware deployment
  • Recruit, motivate, and manage future legal team members

Must-Have Requirements

  • JD from an accredited law school
  • 8 years of legal experience, with a meaningful mix of law firm and in-house roles; high-growth technology company or energy project development experience strongly preferred
  • Demonstrated experience negotiating complex commercial agreements involving hardware, manufacturing, or physical goods, including supply, procurement, or deployment contexts
  • Working knowledge of IP strategy and patent/trademark portfolio management; you don't need to be a patent attorney, but you know how to work with one
  • Familiarity with equity, securities, and corporate governance matters at a venture-backed company
  • Comfort with the ambiguity and juggling multiple projects; you're as comfortable rolling up your sleeves on an NDA as you are advising the CEO on a strategic deal
  • Exceptional communication skills and judgement, with the ability to distill complex legal concepts into practical advice for non-legal stakeholders
  • Genuine enthusiasm for AI-powered legal tools and a bias toward building leverage through systems, not headcount

Nice-to-Haves

  • Background in power electronics, energy, climate tech, or capital-intensive manufacturing
  • Familiarity with 45X or similar federal tax credits

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.

Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges from $240,000 to $280,000 per year.

Salary : $240,000 - $280,000

If your compensation planning software is too rigid to deploy winning incentive strategies, it’s time to find an adaptable solution. Compensation Planning
Enhance your organization's compensation strategy with salary data sets that HR and team managers can use to pay your staff right. Surveys & Data Sets

What is the career path for a Head of Legal?

Sign up to receive alerts about other jobs on the Head of Legal career path by checking the boxes next to the positions that interest you.
Income Estimation: 
$227,038 - $316,008
Income Estimation: 
$251,896 - $339,533
Employees: Get a Salary Increase
View Core, Job Family, and Industry Job Skills and Competency Data for more than 15,000 Job Titles Skills Library

Job openings at Gigascale Capital

  • Gigascale Capital Devens, MA
  • Devens, MA Corporate Operations – Operations - Manufacturing / Full-time / On-site apply for this job About Commonwealth Fusion Systems: Commonwealth Fusio... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • Gigascale Capital Devens, MA
  • Devens, MA Global Affairs – Open Innovation / Full-time / Hybrid apply for this job About Commonwealth Fusion Systems: Commonwealth Fusion Systems is on a ... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • Gigascale Capital Palo Alto, CA
  • Location Palo Alto Employment Type Full time Department Software OverviewApplication At Rhoda AI, we're building the full-stack foundation for the next gen... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • Gigascale Capital El Segundo, CA
  • Location El Segundo, CA Employment Type Full time Location Type On-site Department Engineering Compensation $45 – $61 per hour Offers Equity OverviewApplic... more
  • 1 Day Ago


Not the job you're looking for? Here are some other Head of Legal jobs in the Scotts Valley, CA area that may be a better fit.

  • Heron Power Scotts Valley, CA
  • What to Expect Heron Power is a startup building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity... more
  • 6 Days Ago

  • University of California - Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA
  • Position overview Position title: Legal Studies Pre-six Lecturer Salary range: A reasonable estimate for an appointment to teach a standard five-credit cou... more
  • 8 Days Ago

AI Assistant is available now!

Feel free to start your new journey!