Head - Legal & Company Secretary

We are partnering with a fast-growing, venture-backed organization to hire a seasoned and business-oriented Head Legal & Company Secretary to lead the Legal, Governance, Secretarial, and Compliance function.

This is a strategic leadership role that requires someone who can partner closely with the founders and leadership team while driving day-to-day legal execution across commercial, corporate, regulatory, governance, and secretarial matters.

Key Responsibilities:

- Lead and manage the end-to-end Legal, Secretarial, Governance, and Compliance function for the organization.

- Draft, review, negotiate, and manage commercial contracts, customer agreements, vendor agreements, technology agreements, strategic partnerships, and other legal documentation.

- Advise founders, leadership, and business teams on the legal implications of strategic, commercial, and operational decisions.

- Lead all corporate secretarial matters, including Board Meetings, Committee Meetings, Annual General Meetings, statutory filings, and ensuring compliance with applicable corporate laws and regulations.

- Own corporate governance, regulatory compliance, ESG initiatives, and enterprise risk management frameworks.

- Manage the company's capitalization table (cap table), equity records, shareholder registers, ESOP administration, and related governance documentation, ensuring accuracy and compliance throughout fundraising and equity transactions.

- Lead legal support for fundraising, investor documentation, shareholder agreements, share issuances, board governance, restructuring, acquisitions, investments, and M&A transactions, including legal due diligence.

- Partner closely with Finance, Tax, HR, and business teams to build legally compliant and scalable business processes.

- Build and strengthen internal legal processes, SOPs, contract lifecycle management, governance policies, and compliance frameworks.

- Oversee litigation strategy, dispute resolution, intellectual property matters, and manage relationships with external legal counsels.

- Ensure compliance with all applicable laws, regulatory requirements, data privacy obligations, and industry-specific regulations.

- Support organizational structuring, expansion initiatives, and strategic business transformation projects from a legal and governance perspective.

Ideal Profile:

- LLB with Company Secretary (CS) qualification preferred.

- 10-18 years of progressive experience across top-tier law firms and/or in-house legal leadership roles.

- Prior experience with leading law firms such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co., Trilegal, AZB & Partners, JSA, or similar, followed by an in-house leadership role is highly preferred.

- Experience in high-growth startups, manufacturing, automotive, EV, technology, mobility, industrial, consumer, or other regulated businesses will be an advantage.

- Strong hands-on experience managing capitalization tables (cap tables), equity ownership structures, ESOPs, shareholder records, and supporting multiple fundraising rounds.

- Proven experience working on venture capital/private equity investments, investor documentation, shareholder agreements, corporate restructuring, and M&A transactions.

- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution in a fast-paced environment.

- Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to partner effectively with founders, investors, Board members, Finance, Tax, HR, and business leadership.

- Demonstrated experience in building scalable legal, governance, and compliance functions while enabling business growth.

- If this opportunity aligns with your experience or someone in your network, please feel free to reach out or share relevant profiles.