General Counsel (Remote)

Location: This role will be based remotely in EMEA time zones.

• Leading the global Legal and Compliance function: setting it's structure, standards and priorities across EMEA and the Americas.
  
• Building and managing a management capability: hire and develop managers, set objectives, review performance against a clear bar, and address under-performance directly.
  
• Setting the operating cadence of the function: intake and prioritization of legal work, service expectations with internal clients, and reporting on workload and risk to the leadership team.
  
• Owning public-market readiness on the legal side: corporate governance, group and entity structure, delegated authority, policies, disclosure controls and records, in partnership with Finance.
  
• Advising the CEO, COO, CFO and the Board, and supporting in Board and committee meetings.
  
• Owning the commercial contracting framework: standard templates, negotiating positions, and a deviation and escalation process that makes commitments visible before they are signed.
  
• Leading intellectual property and open source licensing strategy, including copyleft, trademark and the terms on which Ubuntu and our products are distributed.
  
• Owning the global compliance programme: data protection and privacy, export controls and trade compliance, anti-bribery and corruption, competition and AI regulation.
  
• Managing litigation, disputes and regulatory engagement, together with the external counsel panel, its budget and its quality.
  
• Advising on M&A, partnerships, strategic alliances and financing as the company grows.
  

• An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
  
• A degree in law, or equivalent, and an active licence to practice in an EMEA or Americas jurisdiction.
  
• Substantial senior in-house experience in a global technology or software business.
  
• Proven experience leading a distributed legal team, including managing managers across regions and time zones.
  
• A track record of setting and holding a high performance bar: hiring well, developing people, and dealing with under performance directly rather than waiting it out.
  
• Experience building or restructuring an in-house legal function, including deciding what is retained, delegated and sent to external counsel.
  
• Technology related experience of:
  • negotiating and owning commercial technology contracts, including enterprise software and subscriptions, channel and reseller agreements, hardware manufacturer agreements, cloud and services
    
  • advising on open source licensing, including permissive and copyleft licences, and familiarity with how open source communities operate.
    
• Experience of, or demonstrable readiness for, public company governance: listing preparation, board and committee support, disclosure and controls.
  
• Depth in at least two of: data protection and privacy, IP and trademark, export controls and trade, competition, or disputes.
  
• Confidence to respectfully speak up, exchange feedback, hold colleagues accountable, and share ideas without hesitation.
  
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent drafting and presentation skills.
  
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability.
  
• International travel two to four times a year for company events up to two weeks long.
  

• Experience taking a company through an IPO, or practicing as counsel inside a listed company.
  
• A technical or engineering background, or fluency in how software is built and shipped.
  
• Experience of a subscription or recurring-revenue business model.
  
• Experience building or restructuring an in-house legal function.
  
• A qualification in more than one jurisdiction.