Director of Legal, Mass Timber Factory

Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company that tackles cities' greatest challenges. We create products and solutions, invest in new companies, and help developers build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places around the world. Our ambitious vision requires us to push ourselves beyond conventional thinking, and we work hard in pursuit of our mission. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

Our urban innovations include Delve (a generative design product that empowers real estate teams to design better, faster, with less risk), Mesa (an easy-install kit for commercial buildings that cuts energy costs, improves tenant comfort, and simplifies building operations), Pebble (a low-cost vehicle sensor to help manage parking and curb space), and Affordable Electrification (a new way to manage home energy use to meet a customer’s monthly budget). We're also developing an offsite construction company that can deliver high-quality mass timber buildings for more sustainable living and working.

With the potential to radically improve quality of life in cities for all, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

To date, we've incubated and invested in multiple companies focused on solving urban problems.

We now seek to create an offsite construction company delivering high-quality mass timber buildings for more sustainable living and working. The company's end-to-end approach will combine craft design and advanced manufacturing to produce customizable buildings with speed and certainty. It will be based in the Pacific Northwest. We have a unique opportunity to transform the way our urban environment is built, and build a successful venture in doing so. This company’s efforts will include:

• Designing, building, and operating a world-class advanced manufacturing facility and supply chain to produce panelized mass timber building components (floor cassettes, structural members, facade panels, and walls).
• Working with developers and architects to create high performance, market ready buildings that are optimized for production in our factory.
• Using advanced model-based digital manufacturing techniques to simulate and validate the production system design and performance, enabling us to deliver greater and earlier certainty project delivery price and schedule for our customers.
• Shipping optimally flat-packed, ready-to-assemble building parts to a customer’s development site, once the site is prepared for vertical construction.
• Investing in and scaling multiple business lines beyond the first factory, including digital design products, new material technologies, and digital factory solutions.

What is the role?

We're looking for a strong attorney with extensive experience in providing strategic legal and business advice that mitigates risk and supports business growth in a high-growth, dynamic startup environment. This Director of Legal will work independently, but collaboratively, with the Sidewalk Labs business and legal teams, and report to the President and COO of the mass timber buildings factory team, with a dotted line and specific reporting requirements to the General Counsel or Director-level attorney at Sidewalk Labs.

This role includes providing advice and counsel on a variety of business issues, both daily and long-term strategic; setting up legal practices for this high-growth startup; negotiating with clients; and partnering across the AEC value chain to deliver offsite construction projects. This role requires experience with construction, real estate, intellectual property, insurance and manufacturing. You will manage client contracting, in close coordination with developers, contractors, and architects, including drafting, negotiating, and managing execution of non-disclosure agreements, letters of intent, consultant agreements, contractor agreements, supply agreements, purchase orders, and other related agreements. You will lead supply chain/procurement contracting, including Master Supply Agreements, consulting agreements, purchase orders, and amendments. You will advise on, set up, and manage corporate legal structures, IP and risk strategies, insurance and bonding programs, employment practices and labor strategy, litigation, and production facility construction. You will create and solidify legal templates and processes. You will interface and coordinate with various functions within the mass timber and broader Sidewalk Labs teams, including, but not limited to, HR and Finance. You are familiar with construction industry contract forms, including with the American Institute of Architects, and have experience with manuscript agreements. This position will require management of the mass timber buildings factory legal department and the ability to strategically engage and manage outside counsel.

We are confident this opportunity will be interesting to you if you have a curiosity for sustainable urban development, thrive on cross-disciplinary work, and enjoy a fast paced startup environment that is tackling novel questions and problems.

What You Will Achieve

Legal workstreams:

• Corporate - Draft, revise, and present strategic documents in support of entity formation, IP, risk, and compliance; manage outside counsel as needed
• BD/Commercial - Draft, revise, and negotiate project documents, including commercial term sheets, LOIs, development agreements, joint venture agreements, consultant agreements, and contractor agreements
• Supply Chain - Coordinate with Procurement team to draft Master Supply Agreements, Consulting Agreements, purchase orders, and amendments and modifications to the same
• Process/Programs - Establish insurance and bonding programs; finalize IP strategy and process; create an efficient contracting system for every day procurement and business development

After 3 months you will have :

• Setup weekly touchpoints with President and COO of the Mass Timber Buildings Factory team and Sidewalk Labs Legal and attended BD Pipeline, Project, Procurement, and Leads meetings as needed to understand the different business legal needs, the teams, and OKRs

After 6 months you will have :

• Created a universal naming and filing system for business contracts, COIs, NDAs, etc.
• Drafted policies and process for a temporary production facility
• Worked with procurement team on using form templates to draft Master Supply Agreements, Consulting Agreements, purchase orders, and amendments and modifications to the same
• Onboarded and provided guidance to a Contracts Manager who is responsible for drafting NDAs and coordinating with Procurement to use form templates
• Completed an RFP for outside counsel for team legal needs, as needed

After 12 months you will have :

• Worked with HR to draft HR policies for production facility floor
• Established an insurance program
• Established a bonding program
• Finalized an IP strategy and process

What We Expect

• Strong Legal Foundation: You are a transactional attorney (licensed or immediately eligible for a license to practice law in Pacific Northwest states) with dispute resolution experience and have 8-10 years of experience in construction (from design to construction to operation) in a large firm and with a wide breadth of projects; experience in real estate, manufacturing and intellectual property / technology is a plus
• You have strong transactional drafting and independent negotiation experience, deal leadership, and demonstrated ability to organize internal and external deal team members.
• You have an understanding of litigation and other dispute resolution processes, including mediation and arbitration.
• You have experience advising on commercial contracting, complex partnerships, and are familiar with compliance and regulatory matters, intellectual property and privacy.
• You are comfortable counseling senior business leaders.
• You have experience with real estate development projects, including negotiating contracts with developers with some exposure to municipal regulations and processes.
• Flexibility: In this role you will own and execute on both exciting and not-so-exciting work. All of it is crucial to deliver on our vision and mission. We expect you to have a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-dive-in attitude all the time.This is a startup — your scope will change and stretch and you’re happy to roll with the punches.
• Stellar Partner: This work requires a legal expert and adept business partner. Our team relies on exceptional collaboration to get our work done; you are no exception to this workstyle.
• Bias to action: You will have autonomy in this role. We’ll trust you to self-direct, but it’s crucial you have an inherent bias to action. Our team at large relies on you to be a proactive partner; you keep the process moving and you get things done quickly, every time. You’re known to chase down the answers when you don’t have them to take your work across the finish line.

We are very excited to hear from you.

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.