Head of Legal (m/f/d)

An established, technology-led business operating across Europe is looking to appoint a Head of Legal to lead its legal function.

Reporting directly to the CEO, you'll be the most senior lawyer in the business, partnering closely with the executive team on strategic, commercial and operational matters. While the remit is broad, the immediate focus is on supporting the commercial side of the business and helping build a legal function that enables the next stage of operational maturity.

Tasks

• Act as the leading legal adviser to the CEO, leadership team and Board, providing commercially focused advice on strategic decisions, legal risk and business priorities.
• Lead and develop the legal function, mentoring a multidisciplinary team and fostering a pragmatic, business-oriented approach to legal support.
• Take ownership of the company's commercial legal work, advising on a broad range of customer, supplier, technology, procurement and strategic partnership agreements.
• Support complex commercial negotiations, balancing legal risk with practical solutions that enable the business to move forward.
• Partner closely with teams across commercial, operations, product, finance and technology, becoming a trusted adviser on day-to-day legal matters.
• Drive improvements to legal operations by refining contract templates, playbooks and internal processes, helping the legal team deliver advice more efficiently and consistently.
• Champion the thoughtful adoption of AI and legal technology to streamline legal workflows and improve how the team supports the business.
• Oversee the company's corporate governance framework, including entity management, Board matters and shareholder-related activities across multiple jurisdictions.
• Support strategic projects, including acquisitions, investments, partnerships and other corporate transactions as they arise.
• Advise on a broad range of regulatory and compliance matters, working closely with internal stakeholders to ensure the business continues to operate responsibly across Europe.

Requirements

• German-qualified lawyer (Volljurist) with around 10+ years' PQE gained in a combination of private practice and in-house.
• Strong commercial experience is essential. You'll likely have spent a significant part of your career supporting sales, procurement, technology or strategic partnerships.
• A proven track record of supporting businesses in the logistics, transportation or mobility sector is essential.
• Previous experience leading or mentoring legal teams.
• Comfortable operating at both strategic and operational levels - one minute advising the Board, the next helping refine a contracting process.
• Experience building legal processes, introducing legal operations improvements or leveraging technology to increase efficiency would be highly valued.
• Fluent in both German and English.

This is an opportunity to lead a well-established legal function while helping shape how it supports the business over the coming years. If you enjoy combining commercial legal work with leadership, operational improvement and strategic influence, this is a role where you'll be able to make a genuine impact.

Deep Blue Recruitment is a specialist legal recruitment and legal headhunting firm in Germany, focused exclusively on recruiting in-house legal professionals.

Founded in 2019, we combine deep knowledge of the German legal market with one of Germany's largest networks of in-house counsel and legal leaders. We partner with innovative start-ups, scale-ups, DAX-listed companies, investment funds, and international businesses to build exceptional in-house legal teams.

Through discreet headhunting, market intelligence and one of Germany's strongest in-house legal networks, we help businesses secure exceptional legal talent across Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and beyond.