Head of Legal and Company Secretary

We’re not just another workplace we’re a team of like-minded people striving to make a real difference to the lives of as many Kiwis as we can. Trust is what makes us who we are. We’re passionate and committed to doing the right thing by caring for each other, our customers and our communities. We know you’re brimming with potential and so are we. Let’s continue our journey together. You'll build and develop a small team of lawyers to oversee the legal and corporate governance matters across our organisation. Your pragmatic style and demonstrated commercial experience working within a legal team, ideally within a financial services or consumer led business, will be the key to your success. Any Company Secretary experience would be to your advantage, and we are open to developing your skills in this area. Guide our leaders on a wide range of best practice legal matters, you'll have the finesse to simplify complex legal matters for your stakeholders, to ensure that we meet our obligations and foster a culture of delivering excellent ethical business and governance practices. Your energetic and personable style to work collaboratively and achieve excellent outcomes for our business and our customers will be important. If you're someone who enjoys working with genuine people every day and is enthusiastic about bringing your whole self to work, we could be an excellent fit for you!

What else will you be doing?

• Lead and develop a high-performing legal and governance team.
• Oversee all legal matters, including contracts, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, and regulatory enforcement issues.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align legal and governance strategies with business objectives.
• Identify, assess, and give advice on legal risk across the organisation.
• In collaboration with the CRO develop and maintain robust governance frameworks and practices, policies, and procedures.
• Undertake Company secretarial responsibilities and attending Board meetings.

To succeed in the role, we're looking for:

• Qualified lawyer with extensive PQE and in-house legal knowledge.
• Team leadership of other experienced lawyers.
• In-depth knowledge of New Zealand's legal, regulatory, and corporate governance landscape.
• Broad commercial legal skills - regulatory, governance and insurance matters and understand joint venture implications.
• Extensive commercial legal experience in financial services and/or consumer.
• Proven experience in advising at a CEO, senior executive, and Board level.
• Preferably Company Secretary and governance experience but otherwise at least some experience advising companies/Boards on Companies Act matters.

Why you'll love working with us:

• We embrace rewarding our people fairly and competitively through annual salary reviews and recognising high performance through our incentive schemes.
• We're committed to making our people's wellbeing a top priority, with benefits such as a $250 annual wellbeing allowance, discounts at Les Mills, Bay Audiology and Lumino The Dentists plus volunteer leave.
• We offer great discounts on our products and retail partners, like up to 50% off our car, home, and contents insurance, free NZAA membership, as well as a generous $1,500 refer-a-friend bonus.
• We invest in our people; we have an online learning portal, study leave and career break options, celebration of service, loyalty, and recognition programs.

Our culture and care for our people can be seen in our outstanding engagement and tenure. We believe the most important investment we can make is in you. We have an inclusive and supportive environment and believe every voice matters. We believe in investing in our people and creating an inclusive space that provides opportunities for all. Do you think you have the passion, collaboration, imagination, and values that match our own? Advertising closes on 5th March 2025 and we encourage early applications. #J-18808-Ljbffr