Deputy General Counsel

About the role

IES Holdings is looking for a senior legal leader to run its legal function day to day. The title will be Deputy General Counsel or General Counsel depending on the candidate’s experience and fit; in either case, the role carries full operational leadership of the department and reports to the Chief Administrative Officer, who has served as IES’s General Counsel for nearly seven years and will continue in the CAO role. This is a close working partnership: the CAO and this role will set legal and compliance strategy together, drive initiatives through the organization, and jointly oversee the function as it scales. The CAO retains Board-facing responsibilities and will serve as a thought partner across the full scope of the department’s work. For a candidate joining as Deputy General Counsel, this position is structured as a clear transition to the General Counsel title.

IES is a publicly traded infrastructure services company operating at the center of several powerful market trends: data center construction, power infrastructure, and electrification. The company has grown significantly through an active acquisition program that now includes international operations, and the legal function needs a leader who can grow with it. The team is experienced, trusted across the business, and well positioned to build the next chapter.

Responsibilities

Department Leadership

A key priority of this role is leading the legal department. The position oversees a team of three attorneys and three paralegals at the holding company level and coordinates with divisional legal professionals who report through their respective business lines. The right candidate will invest in the development and growth of this group, strengthen the connective tissue between the corporate legal team and divisional resources, and bring the operational discipline needed to scale a high-trust, high-output team without losing what makes it effective. This work is done in close partnership with the CAO, who remains actively engaged in shaping the department’s strategy and priorities. This includes championing the modernization of legal operations through AI and technology tools that improve both efficiency and quality of work product.

The legal department at IES is a strategic partner to the business, and this role is responsible for embedding legal strategy and risk awareness into business decisions across the company.

SEC Compliance and Corporate Governance

This role owns IES’s SEC reporting calendar, including periodic filings, the proxy statement, Section 16 reporting, Reg FD compliance, and disclosure controls. The position drafts executive compensation disclosure for the proxy in collaboration with the CAO. Over time, the role takes on increasing direct participation in board and committee presentations, preparing materials and building independent relationships with directors and committee chairs.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Commercial Oversight

IES has an active acquisition program, and this role plays a central part in the legal execution of that strategy, collaborating with the CAO and other members of the legal team on diligence, structuring, and integration. The role also sets standards and provides direction for the company’s broader contract function, including vendor MSAs and procurement, and builds scalable contract templates, playbooks, and approval processes that allow the business to move efficiently.

Compliance and Risk

The position builds on and further develops IES’s corporate compliance program, including code of conduct administration, whistleblower and ethics hotline procedures, and compliance training. This includes partnering with other departments, including Internal Audit, HR and Finance, to maintain a strong compliance framework across the organization. The goal is continued maturation of these programs as IES grows in size and geographic reach.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

The role develops IES’s approach to data privacy and cybersecurity from a legal perspective, including considerations arising from the company’s expanding international footprint. This means partnering closely with IT leadership to assess risk, establish policies, and stay ahead of a regulatory landscape that continues to evolve.

Litigation Oversight and Outside Counsel Management

The position provides strategic direction and escalation support for litigation across IES, in conjunction with the established legal team members.

Path to General Counsel

For a candidate joining as Deputy General Counsel, the transition path is concrete. In the first phase, the Deputy General Counsel takes ownership of the SEC reporting calendar, day-to-day leadership of the team, and the next stage of the compliance program. As relationships with board members and business segment leaders develop, the role expands to include direct committee presentations and broader subsidiary governance. For a more senior candidate, the position could include immediately assuming the General Counsel role.

Specific Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• J.D. from an accredited law school; active Texas bar membership (or willingness to obtain promptly)
• 10 to 15 years of legal experience, including meaningful time as in-house counsel at a publicly traded company
• Hands-on experience with SEC reporting
• Track record of leading an effective legal team in an operationally focused environment
• Commercial, practical, and solution-oriented approach to legal work, with sound judgment and the ability to balance risk with business objectives and build credibility across functions

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with corporate compliance programs and enterprise risk management
• M&A experience, particularly in a serial-acquisition environment
• Big Law background, particularly at a firm with a strong corporate or transactional practice
• Experience in the construction, manufacturing, fabrication, or infrastructure industries; interest in IES’s core markets (data centers, power infrastructure, and electrification) is a meaningful plus

Why IES

IES is in a period of significant growth, driven by strong tailwinds in data centers, power infrastructure, electrification, and an expanding international footprint. The legal function is already strong, and this role offers a rare opportunity to grow with the business and help shape what the department looks like at the next stage. The right candidate will scale a proven, high-performing team into a larger, more modern, technology-forward legal department at a company whose business is accelerating.

The right candidate will also have a genuine partner in the work: the CAO, who led this function as General Counsel for nearly seven years, will remain closely involved in strategy, initiatives, and oversight of the department. For a Deputy GC candidate, there is a clear path to the General Counsel title.

The legal department at IES covers a broad mandate with an experienced, high-trust group that steps in where needed and consistently delivers. The right candidate finds that energizing, and would rather pick up the phone and solve a problem than act as a roadblock. The best legal advice at IES starts with understanding the business problem: spending time with the people who run our projects and operating subsidiaries, learning how the work gets done, and offering solutions that move things forward.

This is a full-time, in-person position based at IES’s Houston headquarters.

Company Overview

IES is a national provider of industrial products and infrastructure services to a variety of end markets, including electrical, mechanical and communications contracting solutions for the commercial, industrial, residential and renewable energy markets. IES is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol IESC. As of the end of IES’s 2025 fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, IES produced over $3.3 billion in revenue and employed over 10,200 employees at over 174 domestic locations across the United States.