Head of Legal, Risk, Compliance & Governance

About the Role

We are looking for a Head of Legal, Risk, Compliance & Governance to build and lead the function through which Zeraki manages its legal, regulatory, risk and governance obligations. Reporting to our Co-Founder & CEO, you will own the legal operating model, regulatory strategy, enterprise risk, governance and transaction readiness — and build a lean internal team and external counsel bench to deliver them.

This is not a contract-review desk or a compliance-checklist role. It is a senior institution-building role at the intersection of strategy, product, finance, partnerships and the Board. Across our most consequential initiatives — embedded finance, AI-enabled products, fundraising and new markets — you will serve as Zeraki’s principal internal legal advisor: accountable for helping leadership decide which risks are worth taking, which need mitigation and which are inconsistent with our values.

Requirements

What You Will Do

01 Build Zeraki’s legal, risk and compliance architecture

Good looks like: Zeraki has one legal operating system, owned in-house and working in every market.

• Design the legal operating system: intake, approval workflows, repositories, compliance calendars, policy and risk registers, escalation protocols and reporting rhythms.
• Set the decision rights, standards and turnaround times the whole company works to.
• Build and lead the lean team and AI-enabled workflows that run it — and hold them to account.

02 Provide proactive, strategic legal advisory and business partnership

Good looks like: leaders seek Legal’s judgment before they decide, not after.

• Advise the CEO, executives and Board on Zeraki’s most consequential legal risks and trade-offs.
• Define, with the CEO, which risks Zeraki will take, which it will mitigate and which it will not accept.
• Challenge decisions that put Zeraki’s values or long-term position at risk — and commit fully once decided.

03 Own commercial contracting and legal support for business execution

Good looks like: Zeraki’s contracting protects value at scale, not one deal at a time.

• Set the contracting framework: templates, playbooks, approval thresholds and negotiation positions.
• Lead negotiation strategy on Zeraki’s highest-value and highest-risk agreements and partnerships.
• Approve or reject non-standard risk positions within your authority, and escalate the rest with a clear recommendation.

04 Lead regulatory compliance across products, countries and business models

Good looks like: Zeraki knows its regulatory position before it launches, enters a market or signs a partner.

• Own Zeraki’s regulatory strategy across data protection, payments, embedded finance, education, consumer protection and employment.
• Decide what Zeraki may do directly, what requires regulatory engagement and what must be structured through licensed partners.
• Lead engagement with regulators, and direct external counsel on licensing and jurisdiction-specific opinions.

05 Serve as legal and risk advisor to Product, Technology and AI-enabled transformation

Good looks like: compliance is designed into products from the start, and Zeraki’s use of AI is defensible.

• Set Zeraki’s responsible-AI and data-governance guardrails: consent, child and student data, automated workflows, vendor tools and internal AI agents.
• Embed Legal in product strategy and roadmap decisions, not only in launch reviews.
• Approve or stop launches that fail Zeraki’s legal, privacy or platform-liability standards.

06 Strengthen governance, board readiness and institutional discipline

Good looks like: Zeraki is board-ready and investor-ready every quarter, not only before a raise.

• Design Zeraki’s governance framework: Delegation of Authority, governance policies, and board and committee processes.
• Advise the CEO, Chief of Staff and Board on governance, shareholder and director matters.
• Hold the company to decision discipline: every material decision traceable, approved and filed.

07 Prepare Zeraki for fundraising, due diligence, audits and major transactions

Good looks like: investors, auditors and partners find a company whose legal house is in order.

• Lead legal strategy for fundraising, financing, strategic partnerships and potential M&A.
• Identify and resolve legal red flags long before diligence begins.
• Advise management and the Board on the legal and governance implications of every major transaction, and direct external counsel through to closing.

08 Build and maintain the enterprise risk management system

Good looks like: the Board sees the right risks, early, with credible plans.

• Design the enterprise risk framework, risk appetite statement and risk reporting to management and the Board.
• Prioritise Zeraki’s material risks, assign owners and hold them to their mitigation plans.
• Build a company habit of seeing risk early, discussing it clearly and resolving it deliberately.

09 Manage disputes, incidents and legal escalations

Good looks like: crises are handled with a steady hand and Zeraki’s reputation intact.

• Lead Zeraki’s response to material disputes, regulatory investigations, litigation and data incidents.
• Set the strategy on whether to settle, defend or escalate, and advise the CEO and Board.
• Build the incident-response protocols that the Legal Manager and business teams follow.

10 Manage external counsel for quality, cost and usefulness

Good looks like: Zeraki has the benefit of a full legal bench without the fixed cost of a large in-house team.

• Decide what is handled in-house and what goes to external counsel.
• Select and manage the external counsel panel; negotiate fees and hold firms to performance standards.
• Own the legal budget, and allocate it by risk, priority and expected value.

11 Build policies, templates, playbooks and training

Good looks like: good decisions happen across Zeraki without Legal needing to be in every room.

• Set Zeraki’s policy architecture: contracting, data protection, AI use, procurement, anti-bribery, whistleblowing and employment frameworks.
• Approve the templates, playbooks and checklists that the Legal Manager builds and maintains.
• Champion a company-wide compliance culture, including executive and Board-level training.

What Success Looks Like

First 90 days

• Time with every executive, function lead, Country Lead and key external counsel
• Audit of contracts, filings, governance records, policies and open disputes
• Top enterprise risks mapped, each with an owner
• Legal priorities, decision rights and operating cadence agreed
• First company-level legal, risk and compliance strategy
• Clear list of what to fix, build and automate

First six months

• Legal intake, templates and playbooks used across the business
• Compliance calendar live across every entity and market
• Board and statutory records complete and current
• Clear regulatory position for priority products, including embedded finance
• An external counsel panel with briefs, budgets and reviews
• Risk reporting running to management and the Board

First 12 months

• Zero missed statutory or regulatory deadlines
• A data room ready for diligence at short notice
• Privacy and AI guardrails built into every product launch
• Material risks owned, mitigated and reported
• A lean, high-performing, AI-enabled legal team
• Legal trusted as a strategic function, not a sign-off desk

What You Bring

• 7+ years of post-qualification experience (PQE) across commercial, corporate and regulatory law, risk and compliance, including leadership of a legal, compliance or governance function.
• A track record of building — or materially improving — a legal, compliance or governance function, system or major programme.
• Proven skill advising CEOs, executives and Boards, balancing legal risk with commercial objectives, corporate values and strategy.
• Strong company secretarial experience: board processes, shareholder approvals, ESOPs, statutory records and investor due diligence.
• Experience in regulated or multi-country businesses — fintech, payments, financial services, data-intensive or platform models.
• Experience managing external counsel, legal budgets and complex transactions through to closure.
• An LLB or equivalent; admission to the Bar in Kenya or another relevant jurisdiction; and a company secretarial qualification such as CPS(K). An LLM or MBA may help but is not required.

Skills and Attributes

• A strategic lawyer who can tell a business problem apart from a request for a document.
• A function builder willing to define the work, do the work, and build a team that does it well.
• Commercially courageous — you know which risks are worth taking and say clearly which are not.
• Board-ready — equally credible in a product stand-up, a partner negotiation and a Board meeting.
• An exceptional writer who makes complex legal issues clear without oversimplifying them.
• Evidence-disciplined — you can state what the law and the facts support, and what they do not.
• Calm in a crisis — disputes, incidents and regulator inquiries meet a steady, structured response.
• AI-fluent — you use AI for real leverage and understand its risks: hallucination, confidentiality and privacy.
• Of unquestionable integrity — independence, confidentiality and our values show up in every decision.

Where you might be coming from

You may be a Head of Legal, Senior Legal Counsel, Company Secretary or Legal & Compliance Lead in fintech, technology, financial services or another regulated, scaling business — or a senior law-firm lawyer who has advised such companies closely and now wants to build. Your title matters less than whether you can connect legal judgment, governance, risk and commercial outcomes. Exceptional candidates from less conventional routes are welcome.

EXPERIENCE THAT WILL HELP

Fintech, payments or embedded finance · EdTech or education · Data protection implementation · AI governance · Venture-backed companies · SAFEs and convertible instruments · ESOPs and cap tables · Investor due diligence · Board governance · Regulatory engagement · Cross-border corporate structures · Multi-country African markets · External counsel management · Building legal operations from scratch

What we offer

● A chance to contribute to a mission-driven company that's making a real difference in education across Africa.

● A collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic work environment where your input is valued.