Head - Legal, Company Secretary & Governance

Location: Delhi NCR

Experience: 12-18 Years

We are partnering with a fast-growing, venture-backed organization to appoint a seasoned and business-oriented Head - Legal, Company Secretary & Governance.

This is a strategic leadership role with direct exposure to the Founders, Board, investors and senior leadership team. The individual will own the organization's Legal, Secretarial, Governance and Compliance charter while partnering closely with the business to enable sustainable and compliant growth.

The role requires a leader who combines strong legal expertise with commercial acumen, is comfortable operating in a high-growth environment, and can build scalable legal and governance systems from the ground up.

A key mandate for this role will be to support the organization on its IPO readiness and eventual public-market journey.

Key Responsibilities

1. Legal Leadership & Business Partnership:

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

- Act as a strategic legal advisor to the Founders, Board and senior leadership team.

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

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

- Establish a pragmatic, business-oriented approach to legal risk while enabling speed and growth.

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

2. Corporate Secretarial & Governance:

- Own all corporate secretarial matters, including Board Meetings, Committee Meetings, AGMs, statutory registers and regulatory filings.

- Ensure compliance with the Companies Act, SEBI regulations and other applicable corporate and regulatory requirements.

- Drive strong corporate governance practices across the organization.

- Manage Board and shareholder documentation, resolutions, minutes and statutory records.

- Partner with the Board, investors and senior management on governance matters.

3. IPO & Capital Markets - Mandatory:

- Lead and provide legal/secretarial support for the organization's IPO readiness and public-market journey.

- Drive legal and governance preparedness for an IPO, including due diligence, corporate restructuring, documentation and regulatory readiness.

- Work closely with merchant bankers, external legal counsel, auditors, consultants and other IPO advisors.

- Support preparation and review of IPO-related documentation, including DRHP/RHP and related legal disclosures.

- Ensure readiness around corporate governance, statutory compliance, related-party transactions, disclosures and other listing requirements.

- Advise the leadership team on SEBI regulations, listing regulations and public-company governance requirements.

- Support the transition from a privately held organization to a listed entity and establish robust post-listing compliance frameworks.

- Hands-on IPO / IPO-readiness experience is mandatory.

4. Fundraising, Equity & Investor Matters:

- Lead legal support for VC/PE investments, fundraising rounds and strategic investments.

- Manage shareholder agreements, share subscription agreements, term sheets and other investor documentation.

- Own the company's capitalization table, equity records, shareholder registers and ESOP administration.

- Ensure accuracy and compliance across equity issuances, transfers, conversions and other capital-market transactions.

- Support preferential allotments, rights issues, ESOPs and other equity transactions.

- Work closely with investors, Board members and external advisors on governance and shareholder matters.

5. M&A, Restructuring & Strategic Transactions:

- Lead legal support for acquisitions, investments, mergers, restructuring and other strategic transactions.

- Manage legal due diligence and coordinate with external counsel.

- Identify legal, regulatory and commercial risks and provide actionable recommendations to the leadership team.

- Support organizational structuring and expansion initiatives.

6. Compliance, Risk & Regulatory:

- Establish and strengthen the organization's legal and regulatory compliance framework.

- Build scalable compliance processes, policies, SOPs and governance mechanisms.

- Own enterprise legal-risk identification and mitigation.

- Ensure compliance with applicable corporate, commercial, employment, data privacy and industry-specific regulations.

- Drive ESG and related governance initiatives where applicable.

7. Litigation, IP & External Counsel Management:

- Oversee litigation strategy, disputes and regulatory matters.

- Manage relationships with external law firms and specialist legal advisors.

- Drive intellectual property protection and related legal matters.

- Ensure effective management of legal costs, external counsel and legal documentation.

Ideal Profile:

- LLB mandatory; Company Secretary (CS) qualification strongly preferred.

- 12-18 years of progressive experience across leading law firms and/or in-house legal leadership roles.

- Prior experience with Tier-1 law firms such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co., Trilegal, AZB & Partners, JSA or similar is highly preferred.

- Ideally, experience in a Tier-1 law firm followed by a strong in-house leadership role.

- Hands-on IPO / IPO-readiness experience is mandatory.

- Strong understanding of SEBI regulations, Companies Act, listing regulations and public-company governance.

- Proven experience supporting VC/PE investments, multiple fundraising rounds, shareholder agreements and equity transactions.

- Strong hands-on experience managing cap tables, ESOPs, shareholder registers and equity ownership structures.

- Experience in M&A, restructuring, investments and legal due diligence.

- Strong commercial-contracting experience across customer, vendor, technology and strategic partnership agreements.

- Experience working with Founders, Board members, investors, merchant bankers, auditors and external legal counsel.

- Exposure to high-growth businesses, startups, technology, mobility, EV, manufacturing, consumer, industrial or other regulated sectors will be advantageous.

- Strong understanding of building legal, governance and compliance functions in a high-growth environment.