Head of Legal

Job description

**About Until** Until is a moonshot company building a “pause button” for biology. Our near-term focus is organ-scale reversible cryopreservation: preserving donated organs at subzero temperatures without ice formation, then rewarming them uniformly for transplant. By solving this challenge, we are laying the foundation for whole-body reversible cryopreservation, giving patients a bridge to future cures. To achieve our goal, we are assembling an interdisciplinary team to develop perfusion systems, cryoprotectant formulations, and vitrification and rewarming hardware. We envision a future where no transplantable organ is lost to logistics, and no terminal diagnosis is final because patients can safely wait for future medicine to arrive. **Role Overview** This is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping Until’s legal, IP, and risk posture as the company moves toward the clinic. The Head of Legal will act as a strategic partner to the executive team, influencing core technical, commercial, and regulatory decisions. ### Key Responsibilities - Own Until’s IP strategy across hardware, software, chemistry, and biology. - Coordinate proactive FTO/Patentability searches with external IP counsel and translate results into clear strategic guidance for leadership. - Manage outside patent counsel across prosecution, continuation strategy, and portfolio development. - Partner closely with R&D and engineering to ensure technical iterations are reflected in IP filings and risk assessments. - Maintain visibility into the competitive IP landscape, including competitor monitoring and potential licensing targets. - Oversee protection of trade secrets, confidential know-how, and proprietary data across internal teams and external collaborators. - Serve as the company’s internal legal lead, responsible for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating legal risk across the organization. - Own the interface with external corporate counsel on governance, financings, and corporate matters. - Advise the executive team on legal considerations across product development, regulatory strategy, and commercialization. - Partner with Regulatory and Clinical teams on legal risk and positioning related to FDA interactions, clinical studies, and labeling. - Build and maintain lightweight, scalable legal processes appropriate for a fast-growing biotech company. - Lead or support negotiation of licenses, sponsored research agreements, collaborations, and other types of strategic partnerships. - Draft, review, and negotiate complex commercial agreements with a strong understanding of technical and IP implications. - Ensure consistency, risk discipline, and speed across contracts as the company scales. - Work closely with Strategy, Regulatory, and R&D to ensure legal posture is aligned with the company’s clinical and regulatory roadmap. - Support diligence for partnerships, financings, and strategic transactions. - Provide pragmatic, technically grounded legal advice to non-legal stakeholders. - Support board-level legal matters and investor diligence, including preparation of legal risk summaries and IP positioning. - Define the long-term legal function, including decisions around in-house versus external support and future hires. ### Required Qualifications - JD with 7+ years of relevant legal experience (law firm, in-house, or hybrid). - Experience shaping IP strategy in novel or first-in-class technologies. - Experience with continuation strategy, claim scope negotiation, and portfolio construction. - Strong technical background with comfort engaging engineers, scientists, and inventors on complex technical systems. - Experience negotiating and executing complex commercial, licensing, or sponsored research agreements. - Ability to operate independently as the senior legal owner in a fast-moving startup environment. - Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous legal risk into clear strategic options for leadership. - Comfort making high-stakes decisions with incomplete information. ### Strong Preferred - Experience in biotech, medtech, deep tech, or another highly regulated technical domain. - Prior in-house experience at a growth-stage company (e.g. as a first or second legal hire at a startup) - Comfort working across hardware, software, and biological IP. - Familiarity with legal considerations around clinical studies, investigational use, or regulated product development.