General Counsel

Canonical
London
Workplace: RemoteFull timeFunction: Legal, Risk & ComplianceEducation: bachelorsSkills: ["Judgement","Leadership","Accountability","Communication","Drafting","Interpersonal skills","Flexibility","Curiosity","Ability to speak up"]

Lead the company’s global Legal and Compliance function, reporting to the COO and owning legal/regulatory posture worldwide. Build and manage a distributed legal team across EMEA and the Americas, set operating cadence and performance standards, and drive public-company readiness through governance, policies, controls, and disclosure. Own commercial contracting, IP and open source licensing strategy, compliance programs, and litigation while advising senior leadership and the Board.

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Canonical
Canonical
14 hours ago

General Counsel

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Last checked: 10 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead the company’s global Legal and Compliance function, reporting to the COO and owning legal/regulatory posture worldwide. Build and manage a distributed legal team across EMEA and the Americas, set operating cadence and performance standards, and drive public-company readiness through governance, policies, controls, and disclosure. Own commercial contracting, IP and open source licensing strategy, compliance programs, and litigation while advising senior leadership and the Board.
Location: London
Workplace: Remote
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Legal, Risk & Compliance
Seniority: Director level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Lead Canonical’s global Legal and Compliance function, setting structure, standards, and priorities across EMEA and the Americas.
  • •Build and manage management capability by hiring/developing managers, setting objectives, reviewing performance, and addressing under-performance.
  • •Set the operating cadence for intake/prioritization, service expectations, and reporting workload and risk to leadership.
  • •Own legal-side public-market readiness, including corporate governance, entity structure, delegated authority, policies, disclosure controls, and records.
  • •Own commercial contracting, including templates and negotiation/deviation/escalation processes, and lead IP/open source licensing strategy and compliance programs; also manage litigation and regulatory engagement.
Travel: Low travel

Pay and Benefits

Perks:Annual BonusLearning BudgetPaid LeaveMaternity LeavePaternity LeaveWellness Stipend

Key Requirements

  • •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.
  • •Track record building or restructuring an in-house legal function, including deciding what is retained, delegated, and sent to external counsel.
  • •Depth in at least two of data protection & privacy, IP & trademark, export controls & trade, competition, or disputes.
Experience:TechnologySoftwareOpen sourceGlobal operationsIn-house legal
Education:Bachelor's
Skills:JudgementLeadershipAccountabilityCommunicationDraftingInterpersonal skillsFlexibilityCuriosityAbility to speak up
Licenses:Active licence to practice
Languages:English
Tech Stack:Ubuntu

Company Brief

Canonical
Develops and maintains Ubuntu, a leading open-source Linux distribution, and provides cloud, IoT, and enterprise support, tooling, and services to enable deployment, management, and security of infrastructure and applications.
Industry: Enterprise Software
Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)
Growth: Established Company
Funding: Bootstrapped
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 2004
WebsiteLinkedIn