Head of Legal

AIC; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Unlimited PTO

Commuter benefits

Job summary

AIC, a software-led industrial holding company, is seeking its first in-house lawyer to lead the legal function from day one. You will report to the CEO and shape the playbook for all acquisitions, governance, and compliance across the growing portfolio.

You will draft and close agreements, build scalable templates, and partner with outside counsel on financings, cap table administration, and regulatory obligations such as ITAR/EAR and FAR/DFARS.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of legal experience, ideally at a lower-middle-market private equity firm, in-house at an industrial business in regulated A&D industries, or at a hands-on boutique firm serving PE clients — ready to own the top legal seat.
• Substantial buy‑side M&A execution: sponsor dynamics, holdco structures and operations, credit agreements, management incentive equity.
• JD and active bar admission in good standing; NY or CA preferred.
• Direct experience in aerospace, defense, or adjacent industries, and comfort with the legal texture of physical operations — certifications, customer flowdowns, shop floors.

Responsibilities

• Takeover the legal function and act as a force multiplier for the CEO.
• Build the repeatable legal infrastructure — playbooks, templates, approval workflows, and recordkeeping — that lets the platform scale without adding complexity.
• Run every acquisition end to end, partnering with expert A&D M&A outside counsel — LOI through close through integration.
• Partner with top-tier outside counsel, alongside the CEO, on all corporate matters: financings, governance, board materials and resolutions, cap table, holdco structure.
• Serve as fractional general counsel to our portfolio companies — the first call when a portfolio-company president has a contract in hand. Over time, build playbooks to remove yourself from the loop as we scale.
• Own regulatory and compliance work end to end across the portfolio: ITAR/EAR, FAR/DFARS flowdowns, FAA, environmental.
• Own commercial risk and our proprietary software IP — trade-secret protection, license structure, and assignment hygiene for the operating system at the center of the model.
• Own insurance programs, HR and labor matters, entity management, internal policies and the other functions that keep a holding company clean and compliant.

Skills

Legal experience

M&A execution

Contract drafting

Regulatory compliance

IP and licensing

Education

Juris Doctor

Bar admission (NY/CA preferred)

Tools

Contract management systems

Outside counsel coordination

Job description

Physical AI will decide the balance of power for the next century. It runs on components built by Original Component Manufacturers at the base of America's most critical supply chains. The bottleneck isn’t workforce, it’s workflow, which AIC solves by deploying our software operating system to unlock trapped capacity in the companies we acquire by empowering the talented operators who have built those enterprises.
AIC is a software-led industrial holding company. We built our operating system on a proprietary framework called Decision Physics™. Our team deploys on-site to modernize the decision-making infrastructure that changes what a factory can do. We don’t sell SaaS.
Our mission is to secure America's position as the global leader in physical AI. We call ourselves Software Industrialists. We run toward complexity, not away from it. If that's how you see the world, AIC is where you belong.

The role

You will be our first lawyer and the number-one legal seat, with an active acquisition pipeline from day one and a legal playbook that is yours to write. You will report to the CEO, a repeat founder and former CIA Intelligence Officer. As the portfolio grows, you will have the opportunity to build your team to grow with it. You get intent and an end state; how you deliver is yours.

What You’ll Do

• Takeover the legal function and act as a force multiplier for the CEO.
• Build the repeatable legal infrastructure — playbooks, templates, approval workflows, and recordkeeping — that lets the platform scale without adding complexity.
• Run every acquisition end to end, partnering with expert A&D M&A outside counsel — LOI through close through integration.
• Partner with top-tier outside counsel, alongside the CEO, on all corporate matters: financings, governance, board materials and resolutions, cap table, holdco structure.
• Serve as fractional general counsel to our portfolio companies — the first call when a portfolio-company president has a contract in hand. Over time, build playbooks to remove yourself from the loop as we scale.
• Own regulatory and compliance work end to end across the portfolio: ITAR/EAR, FAR/DFARS flowdowns, FAA, environmental.
• Own commercial risk and our proprietary software IP — trade-secret protection, license structure, and assignment hygiene for the operating system at the center of the model.
• Own insurance programs, HR and labor matters, entity management, internal policies and the other functions that keep a holding company clean and compliant.

What You Have

• 5+ years of legal experience, ideally at a lower-middle-market private equity firm, in-house at an industrial business in regulated A&D industries, or at a hands-on boutique firm serving PE clients — ready to own the top legal seat.
• Substantial buy‑side M&A execution: sponsor dynamics, holdco structures and operations, credit agreements, management incentive equity.
• JD and active bar admission in good standing; NY or CA preferred.
• Direct experience in aerospace, defense, or adjacent industries, and comfort with the legal texture of physical operations — certifications, customer flowdowns, shop floors.
• True generalist across commercial, corporate, regulatory, employment, and IP.
• Sharp judgment on outside counsel — what stays in, what goes out, and spend managed like your own money.
• You personally draft, negotiate, and close.
• Pragmatic and commercial — you know when “good enough to sign” beats another week of redlines.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication.
• U.S. person within the meaning of ITAR; may require security clearance in the future.

What We Have

• Medical, Dental, Vision benefits
• Unlimited PTO Policy
• $180-$250k + equity

Nice to have

• Direct government contracting experience, prime or subcontract.
• Deal or counsel experience at a serial acquirer, holdco, or buy-and-build platform.
• Experience standing up a legal function as a company’s first legal hire.

The seat.

We hold companies permanently, and we staff this role the same way. Compensation is cash plus meaningful equity, standard four-year vesting. Benefits include full health/vision/dental and commuter benefits.