The Role
Lead and build the legal function, advise CEO and Board on legal and governance matters, manage commercial contracting, corporate governance, compliance (GDPR, transport, sanctions, competition), oversee M&A and cross-border transactions, manage external counsel, and drive legal operations and templates across Europe.
Summary Generated by Built In
sennder is Europe's Leading Digital Freight Forwarder. In a traditional industry, we're moving fast and focusing on the digitalization and automation of road logistics. By leveraging our proprietary technology, we're building an ecosystem that is leading the industry into the 21st century.
We are looking for a Head of Legal to lead our legal function in Berlin. Reporting directly to the CEO, you will serve as the most senior legal leader across the group, setting the strategic direction for all legal, and governance matters. This is a defining leadership role at the heart of a fast-moving logistics marketplace, significant influence on company strategy, and the opportunity to recalibrate the legal function towards a stronger commercial focus, aligning the team with the business’s profitability priorities.
WHAT YOU WILL DO …
- Act as the primary legal advisor to the CEO, leadership team, and Board of Directors, flagging legal risk early and offering pragmatic, business-oriented solutions at the highest level.
- Lead, mentor a multi-disciplinary legal team across commercial, corporate, regulatory, IT & data law, and compliance. Fostering a culture of proactive, business-embedded legal partnership, and AI adoption.
- Oversee the full spectrum of commercial contracting, including shipper and carrier agreements, SaaS and technology contracts, NDAs, and partnership arrangements, ensuring quality and consistency at scale.
- Advise the executive team on strategic risk, liability exposure, and commercial terms across the shipper, carrier, and platform product lines.
- Supervise and support sennder’s corporate governance framework, including board administration, entity management, and shareholder matters across multiple European jurisdictions.
- Own and evolve standard contract templates, playbooks, and legal operations processes, driving efficiency and scalability across the function.
- Lead the structuring of complex cooperation and transport framework agreements and oversee the resolution of contractual disputes and litigation matters.
- Support corporate transactions including acquisitions (M&A), cross-border joint venture projects, investment rounds, due diligence processes, and post-acquisition integration work.
- Manage the company's compliance framework, including transport regulations, anti-bribery, competition law, sanctions, data protection (GDPR), and ESG-related legal requirements, partnering closely with the DPO.
- Manage relationships with external counsel across Europe, optimizing cost, quality, and strategic alignment.
WHAT YOU WILL BRING ...
- Qualified lawyer with a German law degree (Volljurist / Assessor) or equivalent qualification from an EU jurisdiction; additional common law qualification is a plus.
- 12+ years of post-qualification experience, combining senior in-house leadership with a reputable law firm background.
- Proven track record of leading and developing legal teams in a multi-jurisdictional European environment.
- Deep expertise in commercial contracting, and regulatory compliance, preferably with experience in logistics, marketplace, tech, or platform businesses. Extensive experience in handling cross-jurisdictional matters is essential to succeed in this role.
- Strong understanding of EU regulatory frameworks relevant to logistics, digital platforms, data protection, and emerging technology regulation.
- Commercially minded with the ability to translate legal complexity into clear, actionable guidance for non-legal stakeholders and board-level audiences.
- Strong drafting skills in both German and English. Fluency in both languages is required.
- Excellent negotiation and stakeholder management skills with a pragmatic, solution-oriented approach to risk.
- Comfortable setting direction in a fast-paced, evolving environment, managing competing strategic priorities, and making decisions with imperfect information.
- A natural leader: collaborative, proactive, and eager to build a function, not just advise a business.
WHY CHOOSE sennder…
We believe in empowering our people to grow beyond their limits, embrace challenges, and create solutions that drive our collective success. Our culture thrives on entrepreneurial spirit, resilience, and collaboration.
Dynamic Scale-Up sennder is at a pivotal stage – transitioning from a scale-up to a sustainably growing company. This means we move fast and constantly push ourselves to improve. Joining us means being part of an ambitious, international team of talented individuals who value teamwork as much as bold thinking. Face-to-face connections across our offices remain central – it's not uncommon to travel to our offices across Europe to collaborate as we tackle challenges and celebrate wins, together.
Put Your Stamp on the Industry We operate in a complex and ever-changing industry where your ideas and efforts have tangible, transformative impact. This is your chance to be hands-on in creating sustainable, meaningful solutions that help businesses thrive.
Employee Well-Being We make mental wellbeing and engagement a priority through initiatives like our sennCare program, a partnership with nilo (global wellbeing platform), and regular satisfaction surveys via Culture Amp. And most importantly, work alongside people who truly care about you as a person. There is something special about the people at sennder that goes beyond just ‘work’.
Your Growth, Rewarded We believe in rewarding our team for their commitment and contributions to our long-term success. Our compensation package may include performance bonuses, referral rewards, or equity that align with our goal of building a thriving company together. We're excited to grow with you!
Vibrant Workspaces Our offices are equipped with healthy snacks, focus zones, and social areas to keep you energized and connected. When you walk into a sennder office, you immediately feel the sennder spirit: our shared culture paired with each location’s own unique character. Highlights include a slide in our Wroclaw office and a sunny rooftop terrace in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Milan! We also enjoy coming together regularly, from monthly aperitivos to spontaneous team moments.
We celebrate diversity and value your character just as much as your skills. If you don’t meet every requirement, don’t worry, we still encourage you to take a chance and apply. Bring your authentic self and help us shape the future of logistics in Europe.
Skills Required
- Qualified lawyer with a German law degree (Volljurist / Assessor) or equivalent from an EU jurisdiction.
- Additional common law qualification.
- 12+ years post-qualification experience combining senior in-house leadership and reputable law firm background.
- Proven track record leading and developing legal teams in a multi-jurisdictional European environment.
- Deep expertise in commercial contracting and regulatory compliance.
- Experience in logistics, marketplace, tech, or platform businesses.
- Extensive experience handling cross-jurisdictional matters.
- Strong understanding of EU regulatory frameworks relevant to logistics, digital platforms, data protection (GDPR), and emerging technology regulation.
- Commercially minded with ability to translate legal complexity for non-legal stakeholders and board-level audiences.
- Strong drafting skills in both German and English; fluency in both languages.
- Excellent negotiation and stakeholder management skills with a pragmatic, solution-oriented approach to risk.
- Comfortable setting direction in a fast-paced, evolving environment and making decisions with imperfect information.
- Leadership capabilities: collaborative, proactive, eager to build a legal function.
Am I A Good Fit?
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.
Success! Refresh the page to see how your skills align with this role.
The Company
What We Do
sennder – Europe’s #1 digital freight-forwarder platform for Full Truck Loads. sennder is a leading digital road freight forwarder in continental Europe, linking large commercial shippers with small freight carriers. With its in-house-developed platform, sennder provides a new level of automation, transparency and efficiency to the European €300 billion road freight market, which until now has been dependent on paper, phone and fax and characterized by multi-layer subcontracting. sennder’s digital connection to over 40,000 trucks allows for almost unlimited capacities, no matter what time of the day. sennder digitalizes the truckload-shipping ecosystem by providing mobile apps to drivers, fleet management tools to carrier managers and logistics management solutions to shippers. Real-time booking, a designated contact person always on hand, as well as precise live tracking, bring full transparency to any logistics supply chain. By integrating directly with the shippers’ Transport Management and Freight Management Systems via APIs and by cutting the multiple middle men, sennder increases efficiency and reduces cost for all stakeholders
.png)
.jpg)
