Principal Counsel

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.

 

Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

About You and The Role  

The Zipline Legal Team is searching for an experienced, technically-sound, and process-oriented Principal Counsel who will smoothly and repeatedly close material revenue contracts alongside our Go-to-Market and Partnerships Team. In this role, you will be the lead lawyer on all sales and business development agreements and partnerships, working especially closely with the Sales and Finance Teams on scoping, drafting, negotiating, and closing agreements across a number of core business verticals, including healthcare, food, and retail. You’ll pair your surgical legal drafting and deft negotiation skills with your tireless project management skills to capture and execute strategic commercial agreements that the business is proud of. You’ll be at the center of a strong, friendly, passionate, in-house legal function and will report to Zipline’s General Counsel.

This is an in-office role based out of our South San Francisco HQ. Relocation offered if needed. 

What You'll Do  

• Develop a deep understanding of Zipline’s past, present, and future business and sales strategy, mission and values, and product and service offerings. 
• Draft, structure, review, negotiate, advise, and close material customer agreements and strategic partnerships across all of Zipline’s Sales Teams and business verticals, including healthcare, food, and retail. 
• Build and socialize thoughtful, repeatable, and rigorous deal processes that bring predictability and calm to your clients on the Sales Team and streamline and simplify deals. 
• Project manage the entire customer contracting process–from initial scoping to final execution, working cross-functionally with almost every business unit at Zipline, including the Sales, Finance, Information Security, Privacy, Aviation, and Operations Teams. 
• Build and enhance Zipline’s deal templates, forms, and policies, taking into consideration the business’s goals and any factors unique to the customers that the applicable agreement is targeting.
• Think outside the box when a strategic transaction, joint venture agreement, or other complex transaction calls for it, bringing simple and elegant contractual solutions to potentially convoluted and chaotic situations. 
• Build genuine relationships with each member of the Sales Teams so that you are in sync when closing contracts. 
• Pinch hit for members of the Legal Team, helping to creatively and efficiently address novel questions that come up each day across Zipline’s global business.

What You'll Bring 

• A deep understanding of and familiarity with commercial and revenue contracts (including and especially outbound service agreements). 
• Clear, cogent, and pragmatic contract drafting skills that you are a passionate and prideful nerd about.
• You thrive in high-pressure and time-sensitive situations, and love the feeling of undramatically and quickly closing critical revenue contracts for and with the business.
• Effective, tactful, friendly, and high-integrity negotiation skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Strong communication and project management skills that you deploy when leading the charge to close a deal.
• You are not easily overwhelmed or fearful of first-in-time deals or contractual provisions–rather, you seize the opportunity to draft from scratch and gain new contracting experience.
• Strong time management skills that enable you to set aggressive but realistic deadlines that you meet (and usually beat), even with competing priorities.
• Empathy for your internal customers and stakeholders as well as the customers that you’re negotiating against.
• Confidence to make independent judgment calls with conviction–and the instincts to recognize when issues require escalation or input from others.
• You don’t overthink issues, rabbit-hole on theoretical risk, or over-negotiate against yourself.

What Else You Need to Know