Legal Counsel, Subcontracts & Supply Chain

Job description

Hermeus is a venture-backed defense aviation company reclaiming the lost art of rapid iterative prototyping to build the fastest aircraft in the world today. By prioritizing relentless hardware iteration, we deliver high-speed systems at the pace of the modern battlefield. We work with the Department of War to provide the high-speed capabilities our nation and its allies need to maintain a durable, asymmetric advantage. As Hermeus expands and scales the company, we're looking for a Legal Counsel, Subcontracts & Supply Chain to own subcontracting, translating the terms we sign on the prime side into subcontracts our supply base can execute against. This role is for those that want to work in a high-volume, fast-moving, and where you own your work and demonstrate initiative daily to accelerate the company. ### About The Role: You will be the legal partner to our subcontracts, supply chain, and program teams, turning customer requirements into clean, compliant, back-to-back subcontract terms at the pace Hermeus moves. You'll connect the customer-facing side, prime contracts, OTAs, and program agreements, to the implementation side, ensuring obligations, flowdowns, and risk allocation carry through from our customer down to every supplier touching the aircraft and other business lines. You'll draft and negotiate a continuous flow of subcontracts and supplier agreements, and just as importantly, you'll equip our supply chain and subcontracting team to move on their own with the playbooks, templates, and judgment to do it right. ### Responsibilities: - Draft, review, and negotiate a high volume of vendor and supplier agreements, including subcontracts, statements of work (SOWs), purchase orders (POs), master service agreements, NDAs, technical services agreements, master supply agreements, teaming agreements, and others with speed, precision, and a bias toward closing. - Connect prime contract obligations to the subcontract side, ensuring required flowdowns, certifications, and risk terms pass through from customer to supplier. - Map and manage FAR, DFARS, and OTA flowdown requirements across the supply base, and build the systems that keep flowdowns accurate as programs evolve. - Partner directly with subcontracts, supply chain, program management, and engineering and finance teams to unblock and accelerate deals. - Build and continuously improve user-friendly playbooks, templates, fallback positions, and self-service tools so business partners can navigate routine contracting and compliance independently. - Develop and maintain Hermeus' representations and certifications to government and commercial counterparties in close coordination with the broader Legal and Supply Chain teams. - Partner with trade compliance on export controls (ITAR/EAR), sanctions, customs, and sourcing-restriction requirements (e.g., supply chain provenance and prohibited-source rules) as applied to subcontracts. - Provide clear, pragmatic, business-focused risk analysis and recommendations to program leads and company leadership. - Support effective dispute resolution with suppliers. - Establish, refine, and scale legal processes and SOPs from the ground up. ### Minimum Requirements: - Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school. - Active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar (with the ability to register as in-house counsel in the relevant jurisdiction if needed). - 5+ years of relevant experience with a strong transactional focus on subcontracts, procurement, supply chain, or government contracts. - Direct, hands-on experience with FAR/DFARS flowdowns, certifications, and government contracting compliance. - Demonstrated ability to manage a high volume of commercial contracts work and drive deals to close on tight timelines. - Strong drafting and negotiation skills with meticulous attention to detail. - Comfort operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous, hardware-driven environment, picking up problems and figuring things out with a track record of demonstrated initiative. - Enthusiasm for aerospace and defense and Hermeus' mission. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills.