The opportunity
Our client is a substantial Australian-owned business selling consumer and commercial goods at scale, primarily through online channels, and trading nationally across every state and territory. The business is investing heavily in technology and is applying that same thinking to how its legal, governance, risk and compliance function should operate.
Selling online at volume, direct to consumers and commercial buyers, produces a genuinely broad Australian Consumer Law and regulatory risk profile. The remit is to build the legal, governance, risk and compliance function with the efficiency and technology-first thinking the rest of the business is applying.
The role
This is not a conventional head of legal brief. You will own the legal function and the group's governance, regulatory and compliance risk posture – and you will be expected to redesign how that work is delivered, not simply do more of it.
- Own the legal, governance, risk and compliance technology stack – selecting, implementing and driving genuine adoption across the function
- Automate contract generation, amendment and execution, and put in place registers, workflow and reporting that maintain themselves
- Deploy AI where it earns its place – first pass drafting and review, continuous regulatory monitoring, and triage of routine matters – with human accountability retained where outcomes affect customers
- Build fit-for-purpose governance, risk and compliance frameworks sized to the business as it is now, not to a best-practice template
- Own Australian Consumer Law compliance end to end – online advertising and product descriptions, consumer guarantees, misleading and deceptive conduct, and unfair contract terms across all sales channels
- Own privacy and data obligations across a very large online customer database, working with the technology and marketing functions on data handling and personalisation
- Manage regulator matters as they arise, with a fast, commercial and proportionate response
- Act as Privacy Officer and as the accountable officer for the group's Whistleblower Policy
- Lead and develop a small, capable team including an experienced Legal and Compliance Manager
About you
You are a qualified lawyer, comfortable operating across a broad remit of legal, governance, risk and compliance. You give commercially pragmatic advice – a clear recommendation in plain language – and you have designed frameworks sized to the organisation you were in.
Critically, you have genuinely selected, implemented or governed technology inside a legal, governance or compliance function. Not simply used AI tools personally – actually built the workflow, the guardrails and the escalation logic around them, and got an organisation to adopt them. Australian Consumer Law experience is strongly preferred – consumer guarantees, misleading and deceptive conduct and unfair contract terms in a consumer-facing business. Experience in an online, retail or digital sales environment will be well regarded.
Why it is worth a conversation
A broad remit across legal, governance, risk and compliance in a genuinely commercial, fast-moving business, with the mandate and the backing to build the function around efficiencies. You will work closely with the Executive Leadership Team and report to the Managing Director of the group. Where the role sits in the leadership structure will be shaped by the person appointed.
Contact
Greenfields Executive Recruitment & Search has been retained on an exclusive basis for this appointment. All applications and enquiries are managed directly by Greenfields. Please send your resume in confidence to Catherine Wolfe-Coote, Managing Director, Greenfields Executive Recruitment & Search. Email [email protected]
About Greenfields Executive Recruitment & Search
Greenfields is one of Sydney's most highly valued, top ranked executive search firms in legal, governance, risk, compliance and company secretarial appointments. We are led by Catherine Wolfe-Coote, Owner, Founder and Managing Director, and are frequently retained by ASX-listed companies, private and family-owned groups, not-for-profits and government to appoint Chief Legal Officers, General Counsel, General Counsel & Company Secretary, Heads of Legal, Heads of Legal, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Head of Governance and Company Secretary, Heads of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), and highly technical senior in-house counsel. We have particular expertise in appointments where legal and governance capability intersects with technology and AI – the emerging profile of the modern in-house legal function.