Senior Associate, Legal & Government Operations

Solugen

Houston TX 77035

Position

Senior Associate, Legal & Government Operations

About Solugen:

Solugen is a groundbreaking technology company on a bold mission to decarbonize the physical world. At the heart of our innovation is the world's first sustainable molecule factory—the Bioforge ® . This unique manufacturing platform uses a chemienzymatic process to convert plant-derived substances into essential materials that have historically been made from fossil fuels—all with minimal emissions and no hazardous waste. A highly scalable and localized alternative to conventional approaches, the Bioforge ® enables us to produce a range of high-performance, cost-competitive, and sustainable solutions to meet the diverse needs of our customers.

Role Summary

The Senior Associate, Legal & Government Operations serves as the primary operator for legal operations at Solugen, ensuring legal workflows, outside counsel coordination, governance processes, and regulatory coordination function smoothly across the company.

This role operates as the General Counsel's execution partner and proxy for day-to-day legal coordination, managing legal execution infrastructure, outside counsel engagement, and cross-functional legal initiatives.

In addition to leading legal operations, the role provides execution support to government affairs and external affairs initiatives and serves as a flexible resource across the department.

Key Responsibilities

Legal Operations (Primary Responsibility)

• Coordinate legal workstreams across internal teams and outside counsel.
• Serve as first-line triage for inbound legal matters.
• Maintain legal request tracking systems and document repositories.
• Track timelines, dependencies, and deliverables for legal initiatives.
• Coordinate document collection and closing readiness.
• Maintain legal execution dashboards and reporting.

Outside Counsel & Legal Vendor Management (Primary)

• Coordinate outside counsel engagement across corporate, regulatory, export control, and contracting matters.
• Manage legal billing workflows and matter tracking.
• Support scoping of legal work and ensure efficient use of outside counsel.
• Maintain legal document management discipline across the company.

Export Control & Regulatory Coordination

• Coordinate internal export control compliance workflows.
• Support ITAR and EAR compliance processes.
• Interface with engineering, business development, and outside trade counsel.
• Track export licensing activities and regulatory obligations.

Corporate Governance & Entity Management

• Maintain entity records and subsidiary documentation.
• Support board governance documentation.
• Track corporate maintenance obligations.

Government Affairs & External Affairs Support

• Support execution of government relations and policy initiatives.
• Assist with preparation of policy materials and briefings.
• Support lobbying compliance, bill tracking and corporate reporting.
• Must be willing to register as a lobbyist if required.

Departmental Execution Support

• Serve as a flexible execution resource across the External Affairs department and provide coordination support to the General Counsel and/or other senior executives on legal and external-facing matters as needed.
• Assist with preparation of trackers, briefings, and coordination for priority initiatives.
• Support project planning across legal and government workstreams.

Key Competencies

Job Specific

• Strong project management capability
• Ability to identify legal risk areas and route matters to internal or external counsel as appropriate
• Ownership mentality
• High attention to detail
• Comfort coordinating senior stakeholders
• Execution-focused mindset
• Ability to operate independently
• Strong organizational discipline

Company Specific

• Ask a lot of questions, be curious, and have insights into your work.
• Be nimble, embrace the speed and ambiguity of startup culture.
• A passion for green chemistry and fighting climate change.
• Ability to self-manage and set your own priorities and schedule.
• Be comfortable working in multiple roles.
• Emphasize safety above all else.
• Respect for others.
• Creative problem solving.
• Willingness to learn and research new engineering/science concepts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; paralegal or JD preferred
• 4–8 years of experience in legal operations, paralegal work, program management, consulting, or transaction coordination
• Experience coordinating outside counsel and managing legal workflows
• Familiarity with ITAR, EAR, and export control compliance required
• Experience supporting government affairs or lobbying efforts preferred
• Experience in venture-backed, manufacturing, chemical, or defense environments preferred

Travel: +25%

Location: Houston, TX or Washington D.C

Salary: $100,000-$125,000 annually, based on experience and location

Solugen is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected status.