The Chief Legal Officer (CLO) is a senior executive leader responsible for overseeing all legal, regulatory, and compliance matters at STR. The CLO reports to the CEO and is pivotal in safeguarding STR’s legal interests, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and providing strategic legal counsel to senior leadership and the Board of Directors. The CLO works as a strategic business partner integrating legal considerations into STR's overall strategic planning and decision-making processes. This role combines deep legal expertise with sound business judgment to enable innovation, growth, and mission success.
Duties of the position include:
- Strategic Legal Leadership: Serve as principal legal advisor to the CEO, executive leadership, and the Board of Directors on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, risk management, and major corporate transactions. Ensure enterprise legal considerations are integrated into STR’s strategic planning and decision-making.
- Securities, Disclosure, and Public Company Readiness: Lead legal support for IPO readiness and public-company compliance, including securities-law matters, S-1 registration statement preparation, SEC comment process, public-company disclosure controls, periodic and current reporting, Regulation FD, insider trading, Section 16, Rule 144, Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, lock-up arrangements, stockholder communications, annual meeting and proxy matters, and coordination with outside securities counsel, underwriters’ counsel, auditors, and other advisors.
- Government Contracts: Oversee legal aspects of all federal government contracting and related regulatory requirements (FAR, DFARS, CAS, other transactions, etc.). Support the Contracts organization with legal oversight of proposal development, contract negotiation, administration, dispute resolution, investigations, claims, and bid protests. Act as escalation point for significant, novel, or high-risk contract issues in accordance with STR’s Delegation of Authority. Train internal stakeholders on legal risks and evolving requirements on government contract law.
- Commercial Law: Provide counsel on commercial transactions, UCC, risk management, and dispute resolution.
- Corporate Governance: Lead legal support for the Board of Directors and its committees, including Board and committee governance processes, charters, corporate governance guidelines, Board and committee materials, minutes, and resolutions, director onboarding, Board evaluations, stockholder approvals, and public-company governance best practices.
- Related-Person Transactions and Conflicts Governance: Oversee legal processes related-person transactions, including D&O questionnaires, director and officer independence questionnaires, Regulation S-K Item 404 analysis, related-person transaction policy administration, and coordination with the Audit Committee and disclosure committee.
- Equity, Insider Trading, and Stockholder Matters: Oversee legal aspects of equity transactions, equity plan administration support, lock-up agreements, insider trading policy, 10b5-1 plans, Section 16 reporting, Rule 144 / Rule 701 matters, anti-hedging and anti-pledging policies, and stockholder-related legal matters.
- Litigation Management: Oversee and manage all litigation and major investigations involving STR. Engage, coordinate, and manage outside legal counsel as needed to safeguard the company’s interests. Lead responses to government inquiries and enforcement actions.
- Intellectual Property: In collaboration with the CTO and business leadership, oversee the development, protection, enforcement, and strategic commercialization of the company’s intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and technology licensing. Oversee creation and maintenance of intellectual property records.
- Export Compliance Legal Support: Provide legal guidance and oversight to ensure compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Advise senior leadership and the export compliance function on policy development, risk mitigation, and incident response. Collaborate with the SVP Contracts (or designated Export Compliance Officer) who will maintain day-to-day responsibility for the administration and operational implementation of STR’s export compliance program.
- Regulatory Affairs: Monitor and respond to changes in laws and regulations that affect STR’s operations. Provide guidance on regulatory compliance and work with regulatory agencies as needed.
- Legislative Affairs: Support Chief Strategy Officer in activities, processes, and responsibilities involved in managing and fostering relationships between STR and legislative bodies, e.g., Congress or state legislatures.
- Support Compliance Oversight: Support Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer as needed to ensure STR complies with all applicable laws and regulations. Develop and implement policies and procedures to manage legal and regulatory risk.
- Record and Document Retention: Refine policy on record and document retention and lead compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements. Report on compliance to Board of Directors.
- Support Employment Law Needs: Support Chief Human Resources Officer as needed to advise on employment law matters, including hiring practices, employee relations, and terminations. Ensure compliance with labor laws and regulations.
- Other: Support M&A, real estate, and environmental needs.
- Team Leadership: Lead and develop the legal team, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture. Ensure the legal department is equipped to meet the company’s needs and objectives.
- Leadership of Outside Legal Advisors: Lead engagement with outside legal specialists, and act as STR conduit to their services.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Build and maintain relationships with external partners and internal stakeholders. Advise on the legal and contractual aspects of agreements and support strategic decision-making.
Requirements include:
- Experience: Minimum of 15 years of progressive legal experience, including significant experience in a leadership role within a corporate legal department. Prior experience with government contracts, including negotiation, compliance, and dispute resolution under FAR, DFARS, CAS, and related federal procurement statutes and regulations, is essential. Experience as a Chief Legal Officer (CLO), General Counsel (GC) or Deputy GC is strongly preferred. Experience with a business(es) similar to STR (US defense & IC national security contractor providing technical services, products and systems, subject to customer contracting and regulatory requirements). Experience interacting with a corporate board of directors (BoD) and BoD committees, familiarity with corporate governance structures and processes, and corporate secretary duties.
- Growth and Regulatory Complexity: Experience advising organizations through periods of significant growth, increased regulatory complexity, or major corporate transitions.
- Legal Qualifications: Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school and membership in good standing with a state bar association. Generalist in terms legal expertise.
- Security Clearance: Ability to obtain and maintain a TOP SECRET security clearance.
- Leadership Skills: Demonstrated organizational and business leadership capability.
- Communication: Motivated collaborator with effective communication skills.
- Adaptability and Execution: Ability to operate both strategically and tactically as needed in a growing, fast-paced environment.
- Travel: Ability to travel periodically for key business meetings.
Full-Time Salary Range: $295,000-$415,000
The salary range listed is based on external market data. Offers are based on factors, such as but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, training, key skills/critical skills, security clearances, and prevailing market and business conditions.
STR is a growing technology company with locations near Boston, MA, Arlington, VA, near Dayton, OH, Melbourne, FL, and Carlsbad, CA. We specialize in advanced research and development for defense, intelligence, and national security in: cyber; next generation sensors, radar, sonar, communications, and electronic warfare; and artificial intelligence algorithms and analytics to make sense of the complexity that is exploding around us.
STR is committed to creating a collaborative learning environment that supports deep technical understanding and recognizes the contributions and achievements of all team members. Our work is challenging, and we go home at night knowing that we pushed the envelope of technology and made the world safer.
STR is not just any company. Our people, culture, and attitude along with their unique set of skills, experiences, and perspectives put us on a trajectory to change the world. We can't do it alone, though - we need fellow trailblazers. If you are one, join our team and help to keep our society safe! Visit us at www.str.us for more info.
STR is an equal opportunity employer. We are fully dedicated to hiring the most qualified candidate regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
If you need a reasonable accommodation for any portion of the employment process, email us at appassist@str.us and provide your contact info.
Pursuant to applicable federal law and regulations, positions at STR require employees to obtain national security clearances and satisfy the requirements for compliance with export control and other applicable laws.