Sebana
Energy Infrastructure Built For Tomorrow

Business Counsel - Full-Time

 

Business Counsel & Operator

Sebana | New York, NY / Remote Eligible | Full-Time | sebana.co

Note: We also have a part-time Corporate Counsel posting live. We plan to fill only one of these roles, depending on which path yields the strongest candidate fit.

About Sebana

Sebana develops small and medium-scale battery energy storage and microgrid infrastructure that makes the energy system cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient. Focused on New York State and the broader Northeast, we partner with property owners and communities to bring distributed energy projects online closer to where power is needed, helping modernize and decarbonize the grid.

We are a small team - currently two people - and an early-stage company (founded in 2024). We are looking for someone to join the team who wants to have a hand in building the business, with the judgment and discipline that come from legal training and experience.

The Role

This is a full-time hybrid legal and business role for someone who wants to use their legal background, commercial judgment, and operating discipline to help build an early-stage energy infrastructure company. You will handle a meaningful amount of legal and legal-adjacent work, while also contributing broadly to business execution and development work.

Some days that will mean legal work - drafting or negotiating an agreement, or helping the team understand legal risk. Other days it will mean practical business work that needs an owner, such as evaluating a utility program, coordinating diligence, or identifying a suitable vendor.

AI is an important part of how we work, both in legal work and across the business. We expect this person to use AI for practical leverage in contract review, research, building internal tools, and whatever else becomes useful as the tools improve, while applying judgment, verification, and confidentiality discipline.

Because we are early-stage, the role will not be perfectly defined. You will have more exposure and more impact than you would in a more established company, but also less institutional structure around you. We want someone who is comfortable helping figure out what the job should become as the business grows.

What You'll Do

Legal counsel and commercial work:

  • Draft, review, and negotiate commercial, real estate, procurement, vendor, service provider, equipment supply, financing, development-related, NDA, purchase order, and engagement-letter agreements
  • Help the team understand legal risk and commercial tradeoffs in a way that fits the stage, economics, and practical reality of the business
  • Own how we use outside counsel, tapping specialist expertise where it is valuable and using it efficiently
  • Help the company identify, track, and meet its compliance obligations
  • Use AI and legal technology for contract review, drafting, research support, issue spotting, and workflow improvement

Business and development work:

Much of our day-to-day work is development: weighing legal, commercial, technical, regulatory, real estate, and financing factors to decide what is worth building and how to move it forward. You will build working knowledge of energy markets, the electrical concepts needed to understand our projects, and project-development mechanics. You will not need to be an expert in each area, but will need to absorb enough context to be able to contribute wherever the business needs leverage. This will include helping to:

  • Evaluate utility programs, tariffs, incentives, permitting paths, and market rules
  • Lead customer or landlord conversations
  • Support the development process and project diligence
  • Coordinate vendors, consultants, outside counsel, counterparties, and internal workstreams

Who We're Looking For

Desired qualifications:

  • J.D. and active bar admission in good standing in New York, or active admission in good standing in another U.S. jurisdiction with eligibility and willingness to register promptly as in-house counsel in New York and satisfy any comparable authorization required where you perform legal services
  • 5+ years of legal experience, with meaningful experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements directly with counterparties
  • In-house legal experience strongly preferred
  • Experience with energy, infrastructure, real estate, construction, project finance, regulated industries, startups, or operating businesses is helpful but not required
  • Active use of AI and modern tools to make legal and business work easier while applying independent judgment and verification
  • Interest in learning the business deeply and doing hands-on work across a small company's needs

Working style:

This role will suit a practical commercial generalist who is comfortable doing senior and hands-on work in the same week - leading a negotiation one day and filling out a permitting application the next.

Compensation and Employment Terms

  • Base salary: $190,000-$225,000, based on experience and fit for the role
  • Equity upside: In place of a cash bonus, this role includes ongoing grants of phantom equity units, awarded periodically. These are designed to provide ownership-like economic exposure to the value of the business we build together, subject to vesting and plan terms. Specific terms will be discussed during the process.
  • Benefits: 21 days PTO plus holidays; taxable stipend intended to help offset health care costs; travel for in-person gatherings is covered for remote team members
  • Employment model: Full-time W-2 employee

Location

This role is remote eligible. Sebana is based in lower Manhattan by Chambers St., and most of our work is focused on New York State and the broader Northeast.

We do not want geography to be the main filter for this role. At the same time, because we are a new and rapidly evolving business, remote candidates should expect occasional in-person working sessions to build shared context with the team.

How to Apply

Send your resume to careers@sebana.co, along with a few sentences on what draws you to the business-partner side of this role, beyond the legal work. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sebana is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, disability status, marital or partnership status, caregiver status, unemployment status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States and to provide in-house legal services to Sebana in applicable jurisdictions.

Note to recruiters: We do not pay placement fees to agencies or recruiters who have not been engaged by Sebana in writing for a specific search.