Head of Legal

About PopVax

PopVax is a clinical-stage, Indian full-stack biotech using generative AI to build first-in-class and best-in-class vaccines for infectious diseases, targeted cancer therapeutics, and personalized autoimmune therapies.

Our mission is funded by Vitalik Buterin's Balvi Fund, the Gates Foundation, the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Renaissance Philanthropy, and Good Ventures, with individual investments from Enveda founder Viswa Colluru and Tesla self-driving AI pioneer Dhaval Shroff.

We conduct our R&D work and GMP manufacturing at our integrated RNA Foundry in Hyderabad, India, in support of our Million Lives Mission to develop vaccines and therapeutics over the next decade with the potential to cumulatively save 1 million lives each year.

Our pipeline includes a broadly-protective COVID-19 vaccine, currently in a Phase I trial in Australia, first-in-class vaccines against Hepatitis C, Strep A and adult TB, as well as precision cancer therapies against pancreatic and liver cancer. We intend to take at least 5 novel vaccine and therapeutic candidates into clinical trials over the next two years.

About The Role

PopVax now produces a steady stream of contracts, along with employment, corporate and clinical-compliance decisions, across India, the UK and the US. At that volume, and at the speed the company needs to move, this work needs an owner inside the company. External specialists will stay involved, but they cannot do the day-to-day drafting and follow-up.

We are hiring a Head of Legal to be that owner. The hard part is doing two jobs at once. When a leadership discussion ends, you write the first draft or make the risk call yourself. Alongside that, you build the legal systems PopVax needs. You will cover three jurisdictions without being the expert on every jurisdiction or technical question, so much of the job is deciding what to handle yourself and when to bring in a specialist. If you want to run a legal function without drafting yourself, this role will not suit you.

This role is based on-site at our RNA Foundry in Hyderabad and reports jointly to the CEO and the Head of Operations. You will lead a team of 4. You will work closely with the operations, finance, people, scientific, clinical, quality and programme teams.

In your application, describe a contract or employment matter you drafted and negotiated yourself, and the hardest call you made on it.

What Success Looks Like In Your First Six Months

• The legal intake and prioritisation process is in use. Urgent matters get a response within one working day, and each routine matter has a named owner.
• Approved templates and escalation paths cover recurring CDAs, commercial contracts, consulting engagements and work trials.
• Corporate, employment and clinical-compliance obligations across India, the UK and the US are mapped in one working calendar with owners and records.
• Every outside counsel has a written scope and agreed deliverables, and their work is tracked to completion. Leadership gets a monthly summary of material legal decisions and risks.
  
  

Responsibilities

You will draft, negotiate and advise directly. Where specialists handle company-secretarial filings, clinical-compliance advice, tax and IP, you instruct them, keep the records and deadlines, and stay accountable for the result.

• Draft, review and negotiate CDAs and NDAs, vendor and commercial contracts, consulting and professional-services agreements, work-trial arrangements and other day-to-day documents.
• Lead the legal response to sensitive employment matters in India, the UK and the US, including escalation and local counsel. Employment administration stays with the People team.
• Run corporate governance: approvals, signatures, records and entity maintenance.
• Work with the clinical and quality teams to identify legal requirements and escalation points in clinical compliance, and turn specialist advice into a decision the company can act on.
• Partner with Finance and external advisers on tax, transfer pricing and valuation, handling the entity and contract implications. The technical positions, calculations and filings stay with them.
• Run invention intake, assignments and IP-related contracting, and manage the outside IP counsel who handle IP strategy, prosecution and filings.
• Turn legal risks into options leadership can choose between, weighing legal and financial exposure, reversibility, precedent, confidentiality or safety, regulatory implications, urgency and available mitigation.
• Protect confidential scientific, employee and business information, and keep improving the templates and workflows behind routine decisions.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Recent in-house or corporate legal experience advising on commercial contracts and day-to-day business questions. We cannot bend on this: the role exists because outside counsel cannot do this day-to-day work.
• Cross-border work: you have spotted jurisdiction-specific issues, worked with local counsel and turned their advice into one course of action. This is also fixed, because PopVax's legal work already spans India, the UK and the US.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Qualified to practise law in India, or qualified in another recognised jurisdiction with substantial recent India-facing corporate and employment experience.
• Recent in-house or corporate legal experience, with strong judgment on commercial contracts and day-to-day business questions.
• Evidence that you personally draft, negotiate and drive matters to completion—not only review work produced by a large team.
• Cross-border fluency: you can spot jurisdiction-specific issues, work with local counsel and integrate advice into one practical path.
• Sound risk judgment across legal and financial exposure, reversibility, precedent, confidentiality or safety, regulatory implications, urgency and available mitigation.
• Clear, direct communication, excellent drafting and strong discretion with sensitive information.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Contracts and employment advice you have drafted and negotiated yourself, written so non-lawyers can act on them.
• Qualified to practise law in India, or in another recognised jurisdiction with substantial recent India-facing corporate and employment experience.
• Experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, deep technology or another regulated, research-driven environment.
• Employment and corporate work in more than one of India, the UK and the US.
• Experience coordinating tax, transfer-pricing, company-secretarial or IP specialists.
  
  

Pay And Benefits

We pay in the top 1% for comparable roles in India, and your exact salary will depend on your skills, experience and qualifications. You'll also receive stock options, and we'll help you relocate to Hyderabad. Our comprehensive health insurance covers you, your spouse and your children, including pre-existing conditions, and you can add your parents. You'll also get accidental and term insurance, and free access to doctors 24x7.