[Hiring] Head of Legal @Seqera

Role Description

Seqera is hiring a Head of Legal to own the day-to-day legal function and lead the team that delivers it. You will run the legal workload end to end, lead on legal strategy, complex special projects and corporate matters, and build the processes that let the business move fast while staying protected. You will report into the Director of Operations and work closely with our General Counsel, who you can escalate to with confidence, when necessary. This role is built to grow into a leadership position as the legal function scales.

We're looking for a commercially minded lawyer with 8 to 12 years' post-qualification experience, qualified in England & Wales or the US, who has worked in a startup or scale-up and has led people or large international projects. You'll work day to day with Sales, Finance, Product, Engineering, IT & Compliance and People, and act as a trusted business partner across the company.

This role is open to candidates based in the UK, the US or Spain, with the right to work.

What You'll Do

• Legal leadership and strategy
  • Own the day-to-day legal workload and set priorities across many competing requests.
  • Lead, develop and manage the legal team.
  • Lead on legal strategy, complex special projects and corporate matters.
  • Manage external and local counsel across jurisdictions, keeping cost and quality in check.
  • Know what to handle alone and when to escalate to the General Counsel.
• Commercial contracting
  • Draft, review and negotiate international technology contracts: SaaS, licensing, DPAs, NDAs, research collaborations, partner and vendor agreements.
  • Run complex enterprise and public sector deals with Sales from first draft to signature.
  • Own contract templates, fallback positions and playbooks to speed up deal cycles.
  • Give pragmatic, risk-weighted advice that helps the business say yes.
• Corporate and governance
  • Lead corporate governance, entity management and board documentation.
  • Support fundraising, investor relations (private equity / VC) and share option plans.
  • Advise on employment matters and compensation plans with Finance and People.
• Data privacy, security and licensing
  • Lead data privacy and data protection work (GDPR and global frameworks) with IT & Compliance and our external DPO.
  • Handle the legal input into customer security and procurement reviews.
  • Advise on IP and licensing, including open source licensing.
• Legal operations
  • Improve legal processes and tooling so the business can self-serve where possible.
  • Build trust across the business and position Legal as an enabler, not a blocker.

Qualifications

• 8-12 years of post-qualification experience.
• Qualified to practise law in England & Wales or a US jurisdiction.
• Strong commercial legal background with extensive hands-on technology contracting experience.
• Previous startup or scale-up experience.
• Demonstrable experience leading teams or managing large international projects.
• Fluent business English.
• Based in the UK, the US or Spain, with the right to work.

Requirements

• Commercially pragmatic: practical, risk-weighted advice rather than legal theory.
• Sound judgment on what to own and when to escalate.
• Explains legal issues simply to non-lawyers.
• Proactive, organised and able to prioritise across many small requests.
• Balanced approach to risk management in a fast-paced environment.

Mindset

• Leader and builder: you develop people and create structure where none exists.
• Business partner first, not a gatekeeper.
• Autonomous and proactive, with strong ownership.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, a broad remit and limited resources.

Nice to have

• Data privacy, security and licensing expertise.
• Corporate governance, fundraising and share option plan experience.
• Employment matters and compensation plans.
• Experience in life sciences, healthtech or regulated industries.

Benefits

• Time off: 23 days for vacations per year, 3 days given by Seqera in December, and the national/public holidays according to your location.
• Equity
• Private health insurance
• Private life insurance
• Home office allowance (valued over 1,000 USD)
• Learning and development budget per year (1,000 USD)