General Counsel

£100-120k 📋 Legal

Location: Hybrid (2 / 3 days in the office)

native has been building for 10 years, but we're still very much a startup: fast-moving, ambitious, and building with intent. We're creating the infrastructure that connects students, Students’ Unions, universities, and advertisers through a managed marketplace.

Our goal is to deliver for students by increasing student engagement while enabling Students’ Unions to secure sustainable funding. For advertisers, we offer meaningful, measurable routes to student audiences. The more aligned these incentives are, the more defensible and scalable our business becomes.

The Opportunity

As we scale across the UK and beyond, we’re looking for a commercially minded, pragmatic General Counsel to help us navigate the legal landscape and protect what we’re building.

As General Counsel, you’ll be native’s first inhouse legal hire. You’ll be the go-to for all things legal balancing risk, enabling growth, and helping teams make sound decisions. From commercial contracts and data protection to employment law and investor matters, you’ll play a key role in shaping how we scale.

What you’ll be working on

Legal & Commercial

• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts (client, supplier, partnership, IP, licensing)
• Acting as a thought partner to the commercial team on contract structures, risk, and compliance
• Supporting ad hoc legal queries across all functions

Corporate & Governance

• Advising the CEO and exec team on corporate structuring, governance, and fundraising
• Overseeing cap table, share schemes, and investor reporting from a legal perspective
• Managing relationships with external counsel

Risk & Compliance

• Managing data protection and privacy obligations (GDPR, ICO)
• Ensuring contracts and business processes align with regulatory and legal requirements
• Helping build lightweight, scalable policies to support a growing business

What we’re looking for.

• Qualified solicitor (UK or common law jurisdiction) with 5+ years’ PQE
• Background in top-tier private practice and/or fast-growth in-house legal role
• Commercial, pragmatic mindset you enable, not block
• Experience across contracts, corporate law, employment, and data protection
• Comfortable working autonomously and prioritising in a fast-paced environment
• Strong communicator who builds trust across levels and functions

Required skills & experience

We are committed to lifting everyone up. We seek to enable people’s best work by optimising for freedom with accountability.

You’ll get the most out of this role if you can bring:

• Experience in tech, media, events, or platform businesses
• Understanding of startup equity, funding rounds, and international expansion
• Experience working with or within VC-backed companies

Whats in it for you

💰 Base Salary: £100k-£120k depending on experience

🏡 Hybrid approach with 2-3 days in our London office (Old Street)

🏫 Pension contributions of 5%

🏖️ 25 days off (excluding bank holidays)

🎂 Day off on your birthday

📈 Share Options for all

👨🏽 💻 Work from home set-up budget

🚂 Season Ticket Loan Scheme

👶 Paid maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are actively creating an equitable environment for everyone at native to thrive.

Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we are making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at native. At native, we embrace diversity in all of its forms and foster an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us.