General Counsel – Global Legal & Compliance Lead

About the role

This senior leadership position reports to the COO and is responsible for shaping the global legal, regulatory, governance and risk posture of a fast‑growing technology business. The role is remote within EMEA time zones and includes periodic international travel.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the Legal and Compliance function across EMEA and the Americas, defining structure, priorities and operating model.
• Build and manage a distributed legal team, hiring managers, setting objectives and ensuring high performance.
• Own legal readiness for a future public‑market environment, including corporate governance, disclosure controls and entity structures.
• Advise senior executives and the Board on legal, regulatory, commercial and risk matters and participate in Board meetings.
• Develop and enforce the commercial contracting framework, intellectual property and open‑source licensing strategy, and global compliance programs (data protection, export controls, anti‑bribery, competition law, AI regulation).
• Oversee litigation, disputes and external counsel management, and provide guidance on M&A, partnerships and financing.

Required profile

• Law degree with an active license in an EMEA or Americas jurisdiction.
• Significant senior in‑house experience in a global technology or software company.
• Proven track record leading distributed legal teams and scaling an in‑house function.
• Experience with public‑company governance, IPO preparation and board support.
• Strong commercial mindset, excellent judgment and ability to challenge constructively.

Required skills

• Commercial technology agreement negotiation (enterprise software, SaaS, cloud services).
• Open‑source licensing (permissive and copyleft) and community engagement.
• Data protection and privacy compliance.
• Export controls and trade compliance.
• Intellectual property and trademark management.

What we offer

• Remote working within EMEA time zones.
• Executive‑level ownership of a global function.
• Twice‑yearly in‑person team sprints and international travel opportunities.
• Annual learning and development budget of USD 2,000.
• Bi‑annual compensation reviews, performance‑driven bonus and reward programs.
• 40 days of annual leave, parental leave, wellness platform and Priority Pass lounge access.