Assistant General Counsel, Transactions

About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear—even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held. Investors include: institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

This in-house corporate attorney will play an important role in building a global AI-driven clean-tech company that invents breakthrough technology, discovers billions of dollars of minerals, and helps to stop climate change. 

Responsibilities 

The Assistant General Counsel will:

• Be an integral part of an in-house legal team in a technology and mineral exploration company growing rapidly around the world
• Provide leverage and support to the CLO and DGC so that they are more effective at advancing the company’s priorities
• Develop major parts of the company’s legal function with a particular focus on M&A, project and debt financing, and transactions
• Have many opportunities to be involved in other areas as the company and its legal functions grow
• Create processes and policies to help build a high-functioning legal department
• Represent the company in negotiations throughout the U.S. and abroad with mining companies, tech companies, governments, universities, vendors, and individuals
• Review, draft, and advise on complex transactions spanning multiple jurisdictions
• Lead due diligence efforts when the company is conducting diligence about an opportunity and when we are responding to diligence requests
• Provide immediate legal and business advice to internal clients who include senior executives, finance, corporate development, HR and talent acquisition, geologists, data scientists, and software engineers
• Write, revise, and review documents regarding every part of the business
• Guide and support the company’s global business operations using legal and business skills, such as management of confidential information, tax structuring, and building organizational processes
• Work across the company to set and meet high standards of ethics, with a focus on safety, anti-corruption, community support, environmental protection, anti-discrimination, and integrity
• Hire and supervise outside counsel across many subject areas and jurisdictions
• Work on whatever needs to be done

Qualifications

The candidate must have:

• 8-12 years of experience, with a minimum of 4 years at a top law firm as a corporate associate, ideally followed by time working in-house supporting an business development group as their client
• Solid experience being primary attorney on transactions from diligence to close (including joint ventures, project financings, credit agreements, and purchase and sale agreements)
• Excellent drafting and contracts skills
• Strong desire and ability to provide leverage, support, and partnership to the CLO and DGC
• Interest in working in a global company and learning many different foreign legal systems and business environments
• Interest in working in a company that requires high levels of collaboration and communication among teammates working remotely across many time zones and continents 
• Strong desire and ability to develop relationships throughout the company and beyond
• Strong organizational and communication skills
• Interest in working in a science-based company where most colleagues are scientists and science is the focus of many company meetings and documents
• Strong ability to learn new tools and solve new problems continuously
• An optimistic attitude toward work, people and problem-solving bespoke problems of first instance
• Strong ability to be a leader in setting a high standard of ethics
• Ability and desire to travel periodically (roughly 1x per quarter)
• J.D. (from a top law school a plus) and active admission to a state bar 
• French language skills a plus
• Experience in other areas such as tax restructurings; subsidiary management; commercial contracts (vendor, consulting, services, SaaS, licensing, IT); and/or employment-related agreements a plus

It is not necessary to have experience with mining or mineral exploration; the successful candidate will be able to learn what’s needed about the industry on the job.

This position is Full-time Exempt.

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $210,000 - $280,000, plus equity and benefits including 401k matching.

Location: Remote, Candidates can be located anywhere in the United States or Canada. All candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.