C
General Counsel (remote)
Contract type
Ongoing
Work mode
Remote · EMEA
Experience
3 years
Job description
General Counsel reporting to the COO, leading Canonical's global Legal and Compliance function across EMEA and the Americas. The role owns the company's legal, regulatory and governance posture, including public-market readiness, commercial contracting, IP and open source licensing, and compliance.
At a glance
- Employment
- Full-time · Employee (employment agreement)
- Work mode
- Remote · EMEA
- Languages
- English – fluent
What you'll do
- Leading the global Legal and Compliance function: setting its 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.
What we're looking for
- 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.
- 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.
Nice to have
- 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.
Your team
Legal and Compliance
Global Legal and Compliance function across EMEA and the Americas.
Benefits
- Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person.
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
- Bi-annual compensation review.
- Company recognition rewards.
- 40 days annual leave per annum, including public holidays and our All Company holiday periods.
- Maternity and paternity leave.
- Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform.
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues, with Priority Pass for lounge access.
- Performance-driven annual bonus or commission.
Apply
About Canonical
A pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source
Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. Its platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. Canonical is founder-led, profitable, and growing, with no central headquarters and worldwide distributed collaboration since 2004.
Key facts
- 2004
- Open source software
- Founder-led, profitable, and growing
- Privately held with the intention to list on a public exchange
- No central headquarters
- Powered by worldwide distributed collaboration since inception in 2004
- Most team members work from home
What they value
- Excellence
- Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background
- Fair consideration
- Accountability
- Curiosity
- Flexibility