Senior Manager - Legal & Compliance

Role Overview

The Senior Manager – Legal & Compliance fills a critical leadership role in driving legal governance, contract lifecycle discipline, and regulatory compliance across a global research institute and its commercial operations subsidiary in India.

This position operates across two distinct operating structures—a non-profit development organization and a commercial research entity. The primary objective is to act as a strategic enabler who facilitates programmatic and commercial success while maintaining robust legal guardrails and risk mitigation strategies.

Reporting To: Director – Finance & Administration

Location: New Delhi, India (Hybrid: ~3 days/week in-office)

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Legal Guidance & Risk Control

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all organizational contracts, agreements, legal queries, and risk frameworks.
• Balance business facilitation with regulatory rigor—establishing strong guardrails without creating operational friction.
• Act as the India Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for regional and global risk, legal, and compliance leadership.

2. Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

• End-to-end management of contract drafting, review, negotiation, and execution (grant agreements, collaboration agreements, commercial contracts, leases, NDAs, and MoUs).
• Manage the CLM tool and repository to enforce approval workflows, track Turnaround Times (TATs), and deliver executive reporting.

3. Statutory Compliance & Governance

• Lead full legal and regulatory compliance across both Non-Profit and For-Profit commercial operations.
• Oversee statutory compliance management platforms to track adherence to DPDP Act, EU GDPR, Civil/Criminal frameworks, and New Labour Codes.
• Maintain working knowledge of non-profit and commercial financial/regulatory requirements in India (FCRA, FEMA, Transfer Pricing, GST).
• Ensure full compliance across corporate secretarial, real estate lease, and employment law domains.

4. Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Direct management of two (2) legal and compliance team members—providing work allocation, coaching, review, and capability building.
• Collaborate across internal program divisions, infrastructure units, global leadership teams, and external legal counsel.

Candidate Profile & Qualifications

Educational Background

• Mandatory: Bachelor's degree in Law (LLB) from a recognized university.
• Preferred: Company Secretary (CS) certification and/or Master of Laws (LLM).

Required Experience

• 10–12+ years of progressive legal and compliance experience.
• Prior experience in Social Development, Non-Profit, NGO, Academic Research, or Global Public Health sectors is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience handling cross-border agreements, grant workflows, and complex multi-stakeholder contracts.
• Experience utilizing legal technology tools (CLM software, compliance tracking platforms, document management systems, and e-signatures).

Core Competencies

• High Emotional Intelligence: Calm, composed, and empathetic communication style suited to a social development culture.
• Balanced Judgement: Ability to make nuanced decisions on when to grant operational exceptions versus when to enforce hard legal boundaries.
• Proactive Ownership: A self-starter capable of managing multiple priorities in a dynamic, matrixed environment.

Work Culture & Benefits

Flexible Hybrid Environment: Outcome-focused work structure with an expectation of ~50-60% office presence (~3 days per week) at the New Delhi office.

• Fixed Salary Model: Pure fixed CTC structure.
• Comprehensive Healthcare: ₹5 Lakh Medical, ₹10 Lakh Accidental, and ₹20 Lakh Life Cover provided over and above CTC.
• Professional Growth: Dedicated annual Learning & Development allowance (₹48,500).
• Tech Reimbursements: Monthly allowance (₹1,250) for mobile and internet expenses.