Senior Counsel, Commercial & Energy

Job Description

Job Description

Antora builds and deploys thermal energy storage to power always-on industrial operations and data centers with low-cost energy. Factory-built in California, Antora's thermal batteries deliver reliable and cost-effective heat and power for industrial loads of any size. Antora is electrifying global industry while supporting U.S. manufacturing jobs, lowering costs for energy consumers, and enhancing the competitiveness of American industry.

We are growing our company with people who put team and mission first, value connection through laughter and joy, and build with humility and openness. We are committed to continue building a diverse, passionate, and creative team dedicated to a future where every industrial facility, everywhere on earth, is powered by abundant, clean, low-cost energy. Position Summary

Antora's Senior Counsels will be foundational members of the company's legal function, reporting to the Chief Business Officer and acting as trusted partners to the executive team. This is a high-autonomy, high-impact role for a lawyer who combines top-tier law firm training with the commercial pragmatism and ownership mentality of in-house practice.

You will own the corporate legal infrastructure — the internal plumbing that keeps the company compliant, protected, and operationally efficient — while managing the "outside counsel supply chain" to ensure Antora receives excellent, cost-effective legal services across specialist domains. You will enjoy exposure to deal-making and project finance (driven by our Chief Business Officer) and corporate finance (partnering with our CFO and CBO) as you build the internal legal foundation that makes everything else possible.

A background in energy transition, infrastructure, project development, or power is a major plus. Antora builds and deploys physical, capital-intensive energy assets, and a lawyer who already understands the commercial, regulatory, and contracting realities of that world - whether from a firm energy/infrastructure practice or in-house at a developer, IPP, utility, or energy technology company - will be bale to partner credibly with engineering, commercial, and project teams from day one.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Take ownership of tactical manufacturing, supply chain, and vendor contracts critical to delivering our near term engineering, production and commercial goals.
• Assess with the CBO, Antora's outside counsel network — mapping current engagements, spend, and coverage gaps — and identify opportunities to consolidate with fewer firms with better rates and accountability, but with a focus on obtaining the best advice and execution available.
• Integrate AI tools into your daily legal workflows (contract reviews, first-draft generation, legal research, document analysis, etc.) to measurably increase the speed and volume of work the legal function can handle; assist in selecting the most appropriate CLM and AI enhancements.
• Support cross-functional compliance needs related to fundraising.
• Become familiar with how we manage our capital stack and execute global project development, and partner with our co-investors in projects, although you may not own these work streams day-to-day.

By month 6–12, you will:

• Operate as an autonomous legal decision-maker across corporate finance and governance, international corporate structuring, tax coordination, and compliance; insourcing work where volume and context justify it, and routing specialist matters to the right outside counsel.
• Have helped build a rationalized, evaluated outside counsel network with secured volume discounts and clear accountability by practice area.
• Improve AI-enhanced legal workflows as a standard operating model for the function, tracking productivity gains and using those metrics to inform resourcing decisions as the legal team scales.
• Ensure Antora's corporate, compliance, and governance infrastructure best reflect our corporate practices.
• Serve as a thought partner to our executive team on legal risk, corporate structure, and operational scaling.

Key Qualifications

• 8+ years of legal experience, with a strong foundation at a top-tier law firm followed by meaningful in-house experience (e.g., Assistant GC, Senior Counsel, or equivalent at a growth-stage company).
• Energy transition, infrastructure, or power background — a major plus: experience with project development, power generation or delivery, high-capex infrastructure, construction contracts, or related regulatory frameworks — from a firm practice or in-house at a developer, IPP, utility, or energy/climate technology company. You understand the physical and commercial realities of building energy infrastructure and can speak the language of engineering and project teams.
• Breadth across corporate legal domains: you've touched corporate governance, commercial contracts, LLCA or operating agreements for partnerships, and can help manage (with Co-Senior Counsel and specialist outside counsel) IP, litigation, employment, and compliance matters, and vendor management; you're comfortable operating across stakeholders and making judgments about when specialist support is and is not appropriate.
• Hardware / climate tech / energy exposure: experience with high-capex manufacturing, construction contracts, supply chain agreements, or project-adjacent work is a strong differentiator.
• Financial discipline: you know how to manage legal spend — running RFPs, negotiating fee arrangements, evaluating outside counsel performance, and making hard calls about what to insource vs. outsource.
• AI fluency: you're already using AI tools in your legal practice, or you've been closely involved in AI governance, risk frameworks, or adoption strategy at a firm or company with a serious desire to access AI efficiencies. Antora is aggressively embracing AI and we want a lawyer who embraces AI and we want our legal team to embrace AI.
• Poise and autonomy: you thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with minimal oversight. You exercise exceptional judgment to make calls independently and know when to access others' experience — you are able to build trust quickly across a collaborative, engineering-driven culture.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Competitive base salary and equity in a high-growth climate tech company approaching Series C.
• The opportunity to build a legal function from the ground up at a company with a clear path to commercial scale and significant societal impact.
• A seat at the table with a collaborative, mission-driven executive team.
• A respectful and collaborative working environment that values speed, ownership, and intellectual curiosity.

Work Location: Onsite - San Jose, CA

Salary Range: $221,000 USD - $265,000 USD

Salary Basis: Annual

Please note that the salary range listed above reflects Antora Energy's estimated pay for this position. The actual salary offered will be within the posted range and determined based on several factors including but not limited to a candidate's experiences, credentials and expertise, as they pertain to the position's requirements.

In addition to a competitive base salary, Antora Energy's Total Rewards program includes equity compensation in the form of stock options, a premium health benefits package with life and disability insurance, a 401K plan with employer contributions, flexible spending accounts, and an industry leading paid-time-off policy that features flexible and inclusive holiday observance, as well as paid volunteer time off.

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When it comes to stopping climate change, we need everyone. We believe that having a diversity of backgrounds and experiences strengthens all of us, and we strive to create an environment where every one of us is empowered to create meaningful change.