General Counsel (Open Source)

Location: Remote, based in EMEA time zones; international travel two to four times per year for company events lasting up to two weeks.

Company

Canonical is a profitable, founder-led technology company building Ubuntu and advancing enterprise open source across cloud, data science, AI, engineering, and IoT.

What you will do

• Lead the global Legal and Compliance function across EMEA and the Americas, setting its structure, standards, priorities, and operating cadence.
• Build and manage a distributed leadership layer by hiring managers, setting objectives, developing people, and addressing underperformance.
• Own legal readiness for a potential public listing, including corporate governance, entity structure, delegated authority, disclosure controls, policies, and records.
• Advise the CEO, COO, CFO, Board, and Board committees on legal, regulatory, governance, and strategic matters.
• Lead commercial contracting, intellectual property, open source licensing, compliance, litigation, disputes, regulatory engagement, M&A, partnerships, alliances, and financing matters.

Requirements

• Law degree or equivalent and an active licence to practice in an EMEA or Americas jurisdiction.
• Substantial senior in-house experience in a global technology or software business, including leadership of distributed legal teams across regions and time zones.
• Experience building or restructuring an in-house legal function and deciding which work is retained, delegated, or assigned to external counsel.
• Experience negotiating commercial technology contracts and advising on permissive and copyleft open source licences.
• Experience with public-company governance, listing preparation, Board and committee support, and at least two areas including privacy, IP, export controls, competition, or disputes.
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent drafting and presentation skills; remote work must be performed in EMEA time zones.

Nice to have

• Experience taking a company through an IPO or working as counsel inside a listed company.
• Technical or engineering background and fluency in how software is built and shipped.
• Experience with subscription or recurring-revenue business models.
• Qualifications in more than one jurisdiction.

Culture & Benefits

• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Annual and bi-annual compensation reviews, plus performance-driven annual bonus or commission.
• 40 days of annual leave including public holidays and company holiday periods, plus maternity and paternity leave.
• Team Member Assistance Program, Wellness Platform, recognition rewards, and travel support including Priority Pass access.