General Counsel

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Europe.

📋 Description

• Oversee Canonical’s global Legal and Compliance function across EMEA and the Americas.

• Develop and manage leadership capabilities by recruiting and nurturing managers, establishing objectives, assessing performance, and addressing under-performance.

• Establish the operational rhythm for the function, which includes legal-work intake, prioritization, service expectations, and risk and workload reporting.

• Take responsibility for public-market legal preparedness, encompassing corporate governance, organizational structure, delegated authority, policies, disclosure controls, and record-keeping.

• Provide counsel to the CEO, COO, CFO, Board, and committees.

• Manage the commercial contracting framework, including templates, negotiation stances, deviation protocols, and escalation procedures.

• Direct the strategy for intellectual property and open source licensing, covering copyleft, trademarks, and terms for Ubuntu and product distribution.

• Oversee the global compliance program that includes data protection and privacy, export controls and trade compliance, anti-bribery and corruption, competition regulations, and AI oversight.

• Handle litigation, disputes, regulatory interactions, external counsel, budgeting, and quality assurance.

• Provide advisory support on M&A, partnerships, strategic alliances, and financing initiatives.

⛳️ Requirements

• Outstanding academic performance from both high school and university.

• A degree in law or an equivalent qualification, with an active license to practice in an EMEA or Americas jurisdiction.

• Significant senior in-house experience within a global technology or software organization.

• Proven track record in leading a distributed legal team, including managing managers across different regions and time zones.

• History of establishing and maintaining high performance standards, effective hiring, talent development, and directly addressing under-performance.

• Experience in building or restructuring an in-house legal department, including determining which tasks are retained, delegated, or outsourced to external counsel.

• Proficient in negotiating and managing commercial technology contracts, such as enterprise software and subscriptions, channel and reseller agreements, hardware manufacturer agreements, and cloud services.

• Experience advising on open source licensing matters, including permissive and copyleft licenses, along with familiarity with open source communities.

• Understanding of public company governance, including preparation for listing, board and committee support, disclosures, and controls.

• Expertise in at least two of the following areas: data protection and privacy, intellectual property and trademarks, export controls and trade, competition, or dispute resolution.

• Confidence to express opinions, provide feedback, hold peers accountable, and share innovative ideas.

• Proficient in professional written and spoken English with exceptional drafting and presentation abilities.

• Strong interpersonal skills, a sense of curiosity, adaptability, and a commitment to accountability.

• Willingness to travel internationally two to four times a year for company events, lasting up to two weeks.

🏝️ Benefits

• Performance-based annual bonus or commission.

• Flexible work environment with bi-annual in-person team sprints.

• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 annually.

• Semi-annual compensation evaluations.

• Company recognition awards.

• 40 days of annual leave, inclusive of public holidays and all company holiday periods.

• Maternity and paternity leave benefits.

• Team Member Assistance Program and Wellness Platform.

• Opportunities to travel to new locations to connect with colleagues.

• Priority Pass for lounge access.