Head of Legal

Job description

About Pulley Pulley helps the country’s top architects, builders, and retailers speed up every project in their portfolio. With AI-powered permitting intelligence and expert guidance, we eliminate costly delays and bring predictability across the full lifecycle of commercial projects. Today, permitting is the slowest, most uncertain part of building, spread across 19,000+ jurisdictions with different rules, timelines, and surprises. Pulley gives project teams the clarity and predictability they need to move from planning to opening without delays. We support rollout programs for brands like J.Crew, Solidcore, and Hibbett Sports, as well as major data center buildouts, EV charging networks, and other commercial projects. Our platform dramatically reduces approval timelines, improves forecasting accuracy, and removes thousands of hours of manual work from design and construction teams. Founded in 2021, Pulley combines deep permitting expertise with purpose-built AI from people who have created products used by millions. We’re backed by CRV, Susa Ventures, Fifth Wall, and leaders from Plaid, Segment, ServiceTitan, and Procore. WHAT YOU'LL DO As Pulley's first Head of Legal, you'll build and own our commercial legal function, taking on the legal and contract work our team has been absorbing as we've grown, and putting real infrastructure behind it. In this role, you will: - Build the legal processes, templates, and playbooks Pulley needs as it scales; much of this doesn't exist yet, so you'll be creating it. - Advise leadership on corporate legal matters and flag risk before it becomes a problem. - Partner closely with co-founders and cross functional leaders to help shape new products and service lines, weighing in early on legal and strategic considerations as we expand into new markets. - Manage relationships with outside counsel for specialized needs outside your core focus (e.g., litigation, M&A, IP). - Act as a trusted legal partner to teams across the company, translating legal complexity into clear, actionable guidance. - Own end-to-end drafting, review, and negotiation of customer, vendor, and partner contracts. - Partner closely with Sales and Revenue teams to structure deals and unblock negotiations. WHO YOU ARE - You're commercially minded: you see your role as helping the business move faster, not just minimizing risk. - You're comfortable being the first legal hire and building a function from scratch, without a playbook handed to you. - You default to pragmatic, business-friendly solutions over rigid process. - You communicate clearly with non-lawyers and build trust quickly across functions. - You're energized by high ownership and ambiguity in a fast-moving startup environment. NEED TO HAVE - 6–9 years of experience in corporate/commercial legal work, ideally with a mixture of experience at a top startup-focused law firm with experience working in-house. - Background in general corporate law, tech transactions, and commercial contracts, ideally supporting emerging companies, venture-backed startups, or growth-stage companies. - Strong track record in commercial contracting: drafting and negotiating customer, vendor, and partner agreements. - J.D. from an accredited law school and active bar admission. - Excellent judgment on when to solve something yourself versus loop in outside counsel. - Comfort operating as a generalist, not a narrow specialist. NICE TO HAVE - Prior in-house experience at a startup or growth-stage technology company. - Experience supporting corporate governance or financing-related work. - Exposure to the construction, real estate, or proptech industries.