In House Counsel
US$170,000 – US$250,000 / yr base salary
Posted 8 Sep 2026
Advertised as “In-House Counsel”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- Hybrid
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$170,000 – US$250,000 / yr |
|---|
In-House Counsel
Location: Salt Lake City, UT (in-office, hybrid)
Hours: Full-time; Salaried
Manager: Founders
The Role
Zanskar is at a pivotal inflection point. As we scale our geothermal development pipeline, we are consolidating legal work that has largely been managed through outside counsel into a focused, high-leverage in-house function. We are seeking an In-House Counsel to be a trusted legal partner to the Co-founders and leadership team—translating legal and regulatory risk into practical decisions that help the company move with speed and discipline.
As Zanskar’s first in-house legal leader, you will lead day-to-day legal work across corporate governance, financing, project development, commercial contracting, public policy, employment, intellectual property, compliance, and real property. You will help make our projects financeable, strengthen how we make decisions and manage risk, and lay the groundwork for a legal function that can grow with the company. As Zanskar grows, we expect this role to grow with it.
What You’ll Do
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Legal Partnership: Be a responsive, practical legal resource to the Co-founders and leadership team on day-to-day decisions, flagging enterprise-level risk and looping in outside counsel or the leadership team on the highest-stakes calls.
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Support Bankability: Help structure and negotiate project development, construction, financing, tax, offtake, interconnection, and other critical agreements so projects can meet lender and investor diligence standards.
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Project Development: Support legal work across mineral and surface rights, site control, land use, permitting, environmental review (including NEPA and CEQA where applicable), and federal, state, and local regulatory matters. Anticipate issues early and help development teams maintain momentum.
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Team Building (Humans + Agents): Help design a forward-thinking legal department. You will be expected to aggressively utilize AI and automation to handle high-volume workflows, keeping the internal team lean and high-leverage.
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Outside Counsel Management: Help manage outside-counsel strategy, selection, scope, budgets, performance, and knowledge transfer. Match work to the right provider, hold firms accountable for commercial advice and cost, and bring repeatable work in-house when it creates leverage.
Who You Are
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Experienced: You are an attorney in good standing and eligible for admission or registration in Utah, with meaningful experience in an in-house role — or as outside counsel with direct accountability to business clients — at a high-growth company, energy or infrastructure business, independent power producer, project developer, or similarly complex organization. Exposure to project finance, bankability, or energy development is a strong plus, though we're equally interested in strong generalists ready to grow into the space.