Associate General Counsel

Overview

Reporting to the VP, General Counsel and Special Operations, the Associate General Counsel will serve as a hands-on, business-minded attorney supporting Nkarta’s commercial, compliance, promotional review, employment, and corporate needs. This role will help lead the company’s legal function and will partner closely with leaders across the company.

Beyond day-to-day legal support, the Associate General Counsel will help Nkarta meet its obligations as a public company, from SEC reporting and Board and committee support to compliance more broadly. We’re looking for someone who thrives on speed and agility, understands the risk landscape of a biotech company, and gives clear, practical advice the business can act on in a fast-paced, clinical-stage environment.

Responsibilities

Commercial and Contracting

• Oversee the contracts function and serve as the escalation point for the contracts team on non-standard terms, negotiation positions, and risk allocation to ensure consistency across agreements.
• Advise on complex and high-value agreements, including license, collaboration, and strategic vendor agreements.

Compliance and Promotional Review

• Maintain and update corporate policies, deliver compliance training, and support compliance programs, including conflict of interest, HCP engagement, and data privacy.
• Review promotional, scientific, and corporate communications, including press releases, investor and conference presentations, website, social media, and disease awareness materials, for compliance with FDA, SEC, and other applicable requirements.
• Advise on pre-approval communications and help prepare the company for future product launch and commercialization.

Legal Operations

• Manage outside counsel relationships, engagements, and budgets, and coordinate intellectual property matters with outside counsel, including patent, trademark, and brand protection.
• Support litigation, disputes, and regulatory or governmental inquiries as needed.
• Help build scalable legal processes and tools, including supporting the rollout of the company’s AI-enabled contract lifecycle management platform.

Employment

• Advise on employment matters, including employment agreements, equity awards, severance, workplace policies, investigations, and HR compliance.
• Manage the company’s immigration program in partnership with outside immigration counsel.

Corporate, Securities and Governance

• Support preparation of SEC filings, including Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K, the proxy statement, and Section 16 filings.
• Support Board and committee meetings, including materials, minutes, resolutions, and the annual stockholder meeting.
• Support capital markets, financing, and strategic transactions, including due diligence and transaction documents.

Role Specific Competencies

• Sound, risk-calibrated judgment that enables the business.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and meet tight deadlines with strong attention to detail.
• Comfortable with ambiguity in a lean, evolving organization.
• Strong communicator, able to present effectively to senior leadership, the Board, and outside counsel.
• Collaborative, low-ego team player who builds trust across functions.
• Comfortable adopting technology and AI tools to work efficiently and scale the legal function.

Qualifications

• Active state bar membership in good standing (California preferred) and eligibility to practice as in-house counsel in California.
• Minimum 7 years of legal experience, ideally at a public biotech or life sciences company.
• Strong transactional experience negotiating complex commercial agreements, ideally in a life sciences setting.
• Working knowledge of SEC reporting, corporate governance, and public company compliance.
• Employment law experience preferred.
• Experience with FDA advertising and promotion review and trademark and brand matters preferred.
• Experience managing outside counsel and supervising or mentoring others.
• Prefer candidate that is located in the Greater San Francisco area and able to work a hybrid schedule in the South San Francisco office.
• Embodies the Nkarta culture of empowerment, diversity, and inclusion.

Education

• J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school.