Head of Commercial Legal

Summary/ Objective

To serve as the primary point of contact for staff and functional units based in United Arab Emirates, on all legal matters and at the outset, to oversee company legal affairs for companies and partnerships based in India, MENA, CIS Region and Bahrain etc. The allocation of countries (across PayTabs Group) where such supervision and work scope are required is subject to change and can be modified by the Group Legal Function anytime.

Essential Functions

• Provide legal advice to all the internal stakeholders and ensure that the companies' interest and position are protected when dealing with the external entities.
• Draft/review and support the negotiation of contracts, documents, and forms for transactions, with clear contracts of risk management.
• Liaising with External Stakeholders such as external legal counsels, regulatory bodies and commercial partners 4. Participate in commercial contract negotiations and daily work management planning.
• Work with other members of the Group legal teams or external counsel to resolve contractual or regulatory issues in countries or companies of concern.
• Monitor dispute trends and recommend improvements in contracts or policies governing commercial relationships.
• Collaborate with senior management to align contract management strategies with commercial goals.
• Advise on mergers, acquisitions, or restructurings on concerned companies or acquiring targets.
• Create and maintain a contract management/tracking tool and ensure that the document library is maintained up to date at all times for all companies assigned.
• Assist in entity incorporations and maintain corporate records and registers, as needed.
• Monitoring regulatory changes across all assigned jurisdictions, ensuring compliance frameworks are implemented & preparing for audits or regulatory inspections
• Governance Framework & Board/Shareholder Support
• Legal Risk Management Framework & conducting regular legal risk assessments
• Data Protection & Privacy Compliance (GDPR / PDPL), preparing data processing agreements, privacy compliance frameworks & incident and breach response support
• Budgeting & Cost Control for Legal, preparing and managing legal budgets & cost-efficiency metrics
• Product legal review, ensuring new features/services are compliant & working with Product & Tech teams on regulatory risks
• Intellectual Property Management & trademark registration/renewal
• Crisis Management / Incident Response
• Investigate, manage, and support internal and external disputes and litigation, as needed.
• Develop outside counsel relationships including issuance and reviews of RFPs, liaise with the external lawyers, formalize engagements, and serve as a point of contact.
• Draft and maintain clear policies and procedures for the legal department and prepare such updates, reports and submissions as may be required by the Head of the Department.
• Draft, collate, develop and maintain exhaustive legal documents template library and list of applicable laws to register for countries or areas of responsibility concerned.
• Review marketing and press release content, company's website, updating legal terms, privacy policies and FAQs, etc.
• Maintain document management system complete with the retention, tracking and back up measures for managing the legal documentation.
• Serve as a backup resource, and provide legal support on any matter, special project or country, assigned by the Head of the Department.
• Carry out such other duties and obligations ancillary to the responsibilities noted above or as assigned by the Head of the Department.
• Constantly rationalize, optimize workflow, automate and embark upon efficiency and scale to legal operations

Educational Qualifications & Experience

• A JD, LLM, or LLB from a recognized university.
• Admission to a state bar in the US; roll of solicitors in the UK, Australia, or New Zealand; or an equivalent accreditation/qualification from another country is preferred.
• At least 10-12 years' post-qualification experience, with at least half in a regulated financial institution, fintech or payments environment in the MENA region
• Certification in compliance, data protection, or governance (e.g., CIPP/E, CAMS, ICSA) is an added advantage.
• Experience working within a multinational or multi-jurisdictional legal environment is preferred.
• Experience at multiple levels of transactions (negotiation, implementation, rollout, and/or operations)
• Experience managing a diverse set of corporate and legal issues in an international environment.
• Experience organizing and running a function of this nature independently, with minimum supervision.
• Arabic fluency (reading and writing) is must, while excellent command on English (written and spoken) is required. Other languages are a plus.
• Good command and skillset in MS Word, PPT, SharePoint, etc required. Additional