The Role
Lead Zinc's Core Legal function owning commercial contracts, UK GDPR/data privacy, contract management infrastructure, AI governance, and compliance partnerships. Manage and grow a team of 5+, partner with revenue, retention and technology, oversee budget and tooling, build self-serve legal resources, and shape legal strategy, processes, and tooling across the business.
Summary Generated by Built In
This Head of Legal hire at Zinc will have broad ownership of the Core Legal function. You will own commercial contracts end-to-end, lead on UK GDPR and data privacy, oversee our contract management infrastructure, and shape how AI is governed across the legal team.
You will lead an existing team of 5+ and act as the primary legal partner for our revenue, retention and technology functions. You will also work closely with Compliance and InfoSec on SOC 2 and our Trust Framework, manage the team's budget and tooling, and build the resources that let the wider business handle routine legal questions without needing direct legal input.
As this is a newly created role, much of the structure, process and tooling is still to be defined. You will report directly to our General Counsel, Hamraj Coakley-Gulamali and have significant influence over how the Legal department develops.
You will lead an existing team of 5+ and act as the primary legal partner for our revenue, retention and technology functions. You will also work closely with Compliance and InfoSec on SOC 2 and our Trust Framework, manage the team's budget and tooling, and build the resources that let the wider business handle routine legal questions without needing direct legal input.
As this is a newly created role, much of the structure, process and tooling is still to be defined. You will report directly to our General Counsel, Hamraj Coakley-Gulamali and have significant influence over how the Legal department develops.
Key Responsibilities 🗝️
- Commercial legal — owning Zinc’s commercial contracts function end-to-end; new business agreements, renewals, amendments, and the legal workload that keeps deals moving and revenue protected
- Data privacy and UK GDPR — owning Zinc’s privacy legal framework. Our product processes sensitive personal data at scale — criminal record checks, financial histories, and employment data — which means UK GDPR is not a background consideration; it shapes what we can build, how we deploy it, and how we explain it to customers. This requires genuine privacy expertise: data processing agreements, DPIAs, subject rights, and advising the product team on what is and isn’t permissible.
- Contract infrastructure — overseeing our contract management system; turning the contract book from a manual archive into a living, searchable, data-rich asset
- Legal strategist — our playbooks and infrastructure are constantly changing as we scale; you need to be comfortable building on your feet and happy dealing with ambiguity.
- Employment and HR — cover the usual suite of employment and HR issues as and when they arise in line with our People and HR team.
- Legal team leadership — managing a full legal team of 5+ legal specialists, maintaining quality, capacity, and morale under a lean headcount model
- AI governance and deployment — owning and evolving deployment of AI across our legal systems, leaning in to leverage AI where possible whilst enforcing the highest standards of output across the team and the business.
- Compliance partnership — working closely with our Regulatory Compliance and InfoSec teams on cross-function legal needs; Trust Framework, SOC 2, UK GDPR, and anything customer-facing that needs a legal view
- Stakeholder management — acting as the primary legal partner for revenue, retention and technology; building the function’s reputation as an enabler, not a blocker and managing our existing portfolio of processes.
- Self-serve and knowledge — building the resources that allow the business to answer common legal questions without always coming to the team; reducing noise, increasing quality
- Budget — managing the legal team’s budget and tooling investment, aligned to Zinc’s model of technology and AI before people.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise 🚀
- Experienced legal operator with 7+ years PQE (or equivalent), including meaningful time in-house or in a commercial legal function. You understand what it means for legal to serve a commercial organisation, not just advise one.
- Ready to lead — you’ve been a senior lawyer and you’re ready to own a function. That means hiring decisions, team health, process design, and the occasional difficult conversation with the GC.
- Commercial instinct — Zinc needs legal to move deals, not slow them. You understand that risk management and commercial velocity are not opposites.
- Legal tech and operations literate — you know CLM systems, AI-assisted drafting and redlining, and you’re actively curious about what AI can do for a lean legal team. This is not optional at Zinc.
- High EQ — you’ll inherit a team that is professional, talented, and ambitious. How you build trust with your direct reports and manage your relationship with your team matters more than your CV.
- Strong communicator — you’ll be translating legal risk for a non-legal leadership team, negotiating with customers, and working with external counsel. Clarity matters.
- Comfortable with ambiguity — the playbook is incomplete. You’ll write it.
Desirable
- Experience in a fast-growing SaaS or technology business
- Background in UK data protection and GDPR (relevant given Zinc’s product and regulatory environment)
- Familiarity with employment law or compliance-adjacent areas
- Knowledge of background screening, HR tech, or the broader compliance and RegTech space
What we offer 🍉
- 24 days holiday + Bank Holidays + your birthday off 🎉
- £1200 annual benefits allowance (ThanksBen, from month 2)
- Early finish Fridays (16:00)
- Yearly company retreat abroad ✈️
- 30 days to Work from anywhere 🌍
- Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption Leave (13 weeks full pay, 17 weeks half pay, then SMP for maternity, 1 month full pay for paternity/adoption) 🐣
- Statutory pension with NEST (3% employer, 5% employee)
- Zinc shares, issued through the EMI Scheme
- Unlimited access to Spill Therapy
- Company socials, quarterly team socials Free Monday lunches
- Nursery workplace benefit scheme (Yellownest)
- Option to lease an electric car through Electric Car Scheme
- Celebrated Zinc anniversaries 🥳
About
Who we are ⚡Zinc builds automated reference and background checking tools designed to improve candidate experience and set new industry standards. Founded in 2017 by a team with extensive HRTech experience, Zinc is an early-stage startup rapidly growing as it redefines efficiency, transparency, and fairness in background checks.📚Read more about our story here: https://zincwork.com/missionWe're a culture first company, by this we don't just mean an active calendar of both company and team organised events 🍔🍻🎯 (which we do have 🤩),Zinc's culture is defined by a respectful and autonomous approach to all employees, fostering support for new ideas, promoting a flexible work environment, and operating within a flat structure. While socials, lunches, and events enhance the experience, the core of Zinc's culture drives employees to embrace innovation, share successes, and feel motivated about the company's future.🪴We recently redefined our company values:🧩The pieces that make Zinc: Pragmatic, Integrity, Empathy, Collaborate, Empowered, Speed.
Skills Required
- 7+ years PQE (or equivalent)
- Meaningful in-house or commercial legal function experience
- Proven experience owning commercial contracts end-to-end (agreements, renewals, amendments)
- Genuine privacy expertise including UK GDPR, DPIAs, data processing agreements, and subject rights
- Experience with CLM systems and AI-assisted drafting/redlining (legal tech literacy)
- Experience leading and managing a legal team (hiring, performance, team health)
- Experience with AI governance and deploying AI safely across legal systems
- Experience partnering with Compliance and InfoSec on SOC 2 and trust frameworks
- Budget management and tooling investment responsibility
- High emotional intelligence and strong communication skills
- Comfortable with ambiguity and building processes/playbooks from scratch
- Experience in a fast-growing SaaS or technology business
- Familiarity with employment law or compliance-adjacent areas
- Knowledge of background screening, HR tech, or RegTech
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
Zinc builds automated reference and background checking tools designed to improve candidate experience and set new industry standards, offering automated pre-screening employment software for HR and recruiting teams to verify candidates' backgrounds and hire at scale.
