Vice President, Legal – San Francisco or New York (Hybrid) (986-SLS)

Our client, a rapidly growing global technology company is seeking a Vice President, Legal to help lead its legal function through its next stage of growth and maturity. The company has operations across numerous countries and a complex corporate structure comprising approximately 50 entities worldwide.

This is a highly visible leadership position reporting to the company’s Chief Legal & Risk Officer. This executive will manage a global legal team of seven professionals and will work closely with senior business leaders throughout the organization. This is a hybrid position based in either San Francisco or New York.

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as the Chief Legal & Risk Officer’s senior partner on legal matters and help lead the global legal function.

Manage, develop, and mentor a global team of seven legal professionals, creating a cohesive, collaborative team and helping individual team members perform at their highest level.

Partner closely with the Chief Legal & Risk Officer on IPO readiness and a potential IPO process, including diligence, corporate governance, outside counsel management, and coordination with bankers, underwriters, and other advisors.

Manage legal matters including general commercial, product, IP and employment

Lead and continue to professionalize global corporate governance across approximately 50 legal entities in numerous jurisdictions.

Develop the governance infrastructure, processes, controls, and documentation necessary to support continued growth and eventual public-company readiness.

Partner with senior executives and business stakeholders to provide practical, commercially oriented legal advice that enables the business to move quickly while appropriately managing risk.

Modernize and systematize the legal department through the thoughtful use of AI, legal technology, workflow tools, knowledge management systems, and automation.

Evaluate emerging legal technology and develop dashboards, metrics, and tools that improve effectiveness, resource allocation, and communication with business stakeholders.

Build repeatable processes, playbooks, systems, and institutional knowledge so recurring legal issues can be addressed efficiently and consistently.

Work cross-functionally with business, product, commercial, finance, risk, and other teams to embed Legal more effectively into business decision-making.

Manage and strategically deploy outside counsel, balancing specialized expertise with cost, efficiency, and the development of internal capabilities.

 

Qualifications:

J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar.
Meaningful experience in private practice coupled with substantial in-house experience.
Significant experience with corporate governance, ideally involving a complex global corporate structure.
Experience supporting an IPO, IPO-readiness initiative, public-company transition, or similarly significant corporate transaction is strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to manage, mentor, and develop high-performing legal professionals.
Experience working within a global business and managing legal matters across multiple jurisdictions.
Strong understanding of AI and how technology can improve legal operations, workflows, knowledge management, and service delivery.
Experience implementing or meaningfully participating in the modernization of a legal department through technology, AI, automation, CLM, knowledge-management tools, or similar systems is highly desirable.
Technology company experience, with comfort operating in a lean, hands-on environment.
Strong business acumen and the ability to translate sophisticated legal concepts into practical guidance for non-legal stakeholders.
Excellent judgment, communication skills, executive presence, and stakeholder-management capabilities.
Experience in a regulated business; insurance, insurtech, fintech, financial services, or another complex regulated environment is a plus, but not required