Group Head of Legal & Compliance

Responsibilities

Leadership of the legal function:

• Lead, develop and hold accountable the team leads across the legal function
• Hire and grow talent across the legal team
• Report regularly to the Group Head of Legal & Compliance and C-level on material legal risks, disputes and structural matters
• Work as a peer with Compliance, Finance, Product and HR leadership
• Set group-wide legal policies, standards and escalation frameworks

Oversight of legal matters:

• Disputes: strategy for commercial, corporate, client and employment disputes
• Corporate: the Group’s holding and entity structure, corporate governance and company secretarial function
• Commercial: B2B, IT and vendor contracts, banking and PSP arrangements, IP and brand protection
• Regional operations: legal support for the Group’s businesses across different regions, including cross-border employment and global mobility
• Data protection: oversight of the Group’s privacy framework and GDPR compliance

Personal mandate:

• Lead group restructuring, the legal side of M&A, and the Group’s most significant disputes and arbitrations
• Build contract playbooks, templates, approval workflows and legal tech that speed up time-to-contract
• Regulatory licensing and compliance sit with the Group’s Compliance and Licensing teams. You will work closely with them

Requirements

• 8+ years of legal experience, including senior and leadership roles
• At least 3 years leading managers or team leads, not only individual lawyers
• Master’s degree in law or equivalent
• Strong knowledge of Cyprus corporate and commercial law
• Hands-on experience structuring and maintaining multi-entity groups across offshore, midshore and onshore jurisdictions
• Track record of leading at least one cross-border acquisition, restructuring or major group reorganisation
• Experience managing a portfolio of disputes, arbitrations or regulatory matters through external counsel across several jurisdictions
• Deep experience with commercial contracts in financial services: client terms, partner agreements, IT and SaaS, PSP and banking
• Knowledge of GDPR and international data protection frameworks
• Experience with cross-border employment, global mobility and EOR models
• Knowledge of financial services regulation (e.g. MiFID II, CySEC) sufficient for close work with Compliance
• Experience managing external counsel and corporate service provider budgets and fee arrangements
• English at C1 level or higher
• Ukrainian or Russian (working language of the team)

Will be a plus

• Diploma-level professional qualification in Compliance or AML (e.g. ICA, ACAMS, CISI)
• Senior legal experience at a global brokerage, a major crypto exchange or a Tier-1 neobank
• Admission to the Cyprus Bar, or bar admission in the UK, US or another EU jurisdiction
• LL.M. from a leading UK, US or EU university
• Awareness of digital-asset regulation (e.g. MiCA, VARA)
• Experience with legal tech or contract lifecycle management tools

We offer

• 21 paid vacation days per year
• 10 paid sick leave days per year
• Public holidays according to the Cyprus
• Flexible working schedule
• Hybrid mode (after probation period)
• Medical insurance (after probation period)
• Professional education budget (after probation period)
• Language learning budget (after probation period)
• Wellness budget (gym membership, sports gear and related expenses) (after probation period)