GC + Head of Legal roles in Tech — UK, Europe, Singapore — Jan 2024

Hey, this is Mila Read . You are reading our most recent newsletter issue with senior in-house counsel opportunities across tech companies.

After a slow finish to 2023, January has kicked off the hiring activity and there are currently some very interesting roles on the market.

You will probably see something that will catch your eye. How can you give yourself a good chance?

?? DO

• Make sure that your experience is a good fit for the role. At senior level, there is always a lot of competition and employers look for someone who has worked in a similar industry. No point to apply for the sake of applying, it will only deflate you and it's important to stay optimistic when job hunting.
• Tailor your CV to the role: study the requirements, make a note of 3-5 critical hard skills and write a new Profile Summary for your CV based on those. Tweak your most recent 5 years of employment to make sure they reflect what the employer is looking for. You can use the language from the job advert (no, they won't notice, but you will get a few nods as they skim read your CV). Fold the 1st page of your CV in half. If you haven' started to solve the employer's problem by halfway down the page, it's probably going on the 'No' pile.
• Find the decision makers (COO, CFO, CEO, CLO, Global CG - depending on the opportunity) and get in touch with them via LinkedIn or email. If they think you are the right person for the job, they will push your CV to the top of the interview queue.
• Tidy up, update and optimise your LinkedIn profile. It's as important as your CV. When you apply on LinkedIn, it's your LinkedIn profile and not your CV that the Talent Acquisition team will see first. With hundreds of applicants, they may go down the route of 'filtering out the wrong candidates' based on LinkedIn profiles only and your perfect CV may never get noticed.

? DON'T

• Don't write a cover letter. Nobody has time for those anymore. Cover letters used to exist so people could tailor their applications to the jobs. Now we do it in a Word processor, so anything you'd put into a cover letter should just go into your CV.
• Don't apply on LinkedIn and forget. Use several channels: hiring manager, HR, anyone you know within the company. Try to get a referral.
• Don't worry about high numbers of applicants. The 'Easy apply' button is ensuring a steady flow of unqualified clickers who do not read the job ads. There are plenty of 'job search' gurus around teaching people to speed apply to hundreds of jobs a week without reading the specs. Besides, whether it's 5 or 500 applicants, it does not matter as long as you are the right person for the role.

And here are the exciting roles of January 2024. My two personal favourites are the opportunities with HubSpot and DeepL in the UK.

And if you are in Crypto, then Singapore looks like the place to be.

Global VP of Legal, HubSpot — 15+ PQE, manage a team, experience at fast growing companies required. UK remote. Global headcount ca. 9,000. I am personally a huge fan of HubSpot and they are an undisputable market leader.

Lead Lawyer Commercial Team (SLC), DeepL — 5 direct reports, knowledge of German law required. Remote role (company has offices in Cologne, Berlin, London and Amsterdam). Ca. 900 employees. I believe that DeepL is one of the most exciting companies in the world - read more here. Hidden gem of a role being advertised as Senior Legal Counsel and therefore not getting the attention it deserves. Can be part-time (4 days a week). Locations: Work from home or hybrid. Total funding: ￡87m, €1B valuation. Forbes Cloud 100 list.

Head of Legal, Lottie — ￡80-120K + equity - hybrid role in London; total funding ￡25.5m, ca. 150 employees. Care home marketplace.

Head of Legal and Compliance, Beam — ￡90-120K + share options + unlimited holiday - hybrid role in London; one of Top 10 Hottest Start Ups in London, ca. 200 employees. Award winning social impact business.

Legal Director, Flo — role for a 10+ PQE lawyer with B2C tech experience. 5 direct reports - remote within the UK. Health App #1 in the iOS Health category, backed by 7 VCs, revenue at 9 figures, and a valuation close to $1B.

EMEA Head of Legal, Wheely — Role for an 8+ PQE commercial and corporate lawyer. Ride hailing, Luxury-as-a-Service competitor to Uber. Total funding: ￡22m. London, on site with flexible working 'as required'. Stock options.

Senior Director Legal Counsel, Vonage — Opportunity for a 7+ PQE commercial lawyer with SaaS experience. Manage a team, report to CLO. London or UK remote.

Director, Legal, Corporate xScale, Equinix — Great in-house role for an experienced corporate lawyer with a leading digital infrastructure company, operating 240+ data centres across the globe. People manager. The role is advertised as on-site which will explain that it currently only has 11 applicants. Don't let it put you off: Talent Acquisition teams get frustrated with overseas candidates applying and may advertise a role as on-site while it may well be hybrid, especially 'for the right candidate'.

Legal Director, PayPal — Role for a senior payments lawyer, ideally with crypto experience. London.

Legal Director, Arm — Rare opportunity for an M&A lawyer with tech sector experience to continue practicing their specialism in-house. Don't think twice about applying. The semiconductors industry is the place to be. Arm is a fantastic place to work and after a couple of years you'll probably get headhunted by Nvidia ;)

General Counsel, Oper Credits — Role for a B2B SaaS Lawyer with a cloud-based digital mortgage software provider, part-time in Belgium. This one is a great fit for a lawyer early in their career (3+ PQE).

General Counsel, dentsu — Helsinki, Finland. Great role with a major communications and advertising multinational (50,000+ employees globally) for a Finland qualified Tech / TMT lawyer, fluent in Finnish and English. I know many people who work for dentsu and are very happy there. It's an inspiring place to work and you get to work with a bunch of creative people, what can be better?

General Counsel, dss+ — Geneva, Switzerland. The opportunity will suit a senior level lawyer with experience in Professional Services; reporting to COO.

General Counsel, EY — Luxembourg. Great role for a 15+ PQE commercial lawyer fluent in French and English with knowledge of Luxembourg laws and regulations and expertise in structuring, drafting and negotiating complex contracts.

Assistant General Counsel, Shein — Role for a 12+ PQE lawyer with a focus on ESG and other regulatory related matters. Global fashion and lifestyle e-retailer you may have heard about. It is the largest fast-fashion firm in the world, valued at $100 billion. Generated US$24 billion in revenue in 2022, becoming almost as large as traditional fast fashion brands such as Zara and H&M.

General Counsel, Aspire — Fantastic opportunity for a 10+ PQE lawyer, with 5+ years in-house experience in a fintech or financial services company. Aspire has raised over $300M and in 2023 closed an oversubscribed $100 million Series C equity round led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures. Awards: Best Employer of the Year, Startup of the Year, Top Startup in Singapore; Top 100 Global Fintech List.

General Counsel APAC, Gemini — Another gem of a role for a 12+ PQE lawyer with crypto or financial services experience. No need to introduce Gemini, but briefly - it is a prominent cryptocurrency exchange and custodian; one of the few crypto exchanges that has secured a New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) license.

Deputy General Counsel, OKX — Exciting role for a 10+ PQE lawyer with experience in digital assets, Web3 and blockchain. OKX is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot trading volume and serves over 20 million users globally.

Remember to take a look at the recommendations at the top of this issue if you decide to apply.

Best of luck.

______________________________

Ways to work with me

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Mila Read — Legal Recruiter and Career Advancement Coach for In-House Lawyers in Tech.