Head Of Legal

Partly Limited

Job Overview

Location

Christchurch, New Zealand

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• The Head of Legal will own and scale Partly’s legal function to enable faster, lower-risk global expansion, reporting directly to the Co‑founder and serving as the single point of ownership for commercial contracting, dispute management, and external counsel coordination across NZ, UK, and US markets.
• This role is pivotal in transforming legal from a cost center into a strategic lever that accelerates product and commercial velocity while maintaining smart risk control in a $1.9T industry undergoing rapid digital transformation.
• Day to day, the Head of Legal will own end‑to‑end commercial contracting — reviewing, drafting, and negotiating customer, supplier, vendor, and partner agreements across jurisdictions to enable faster execution without compromising risk integrity.
• They will establish scalable legal systems by developing and maintaining contract templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and streamlined contracting processes designed to scale with the company’s rapid growth across Europe, Australasia, and North America.
• The role includes leading dispute resolution strategies, coordinating external counsel interventions where necessary, and ensuring lessons learned are fed back into internal playbooks to improve future outcomes.
• They will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Ops, and Finance teams to embed legally sound practices into workflows, enabling faster, compliant decision‑making and build processes without unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Acting as a trusted business advisor, the Head of Legal will provide pragmatic, commercially‑savvy counsel to leadership and cross‑functional teams, balancing speed, impact, and risk in high‑growth, tech‑driven environments.
• They will identify, engage, and manage external counsel across NZ, UK, and US markets, ensuring cost‑effective, consistent, and high‑quality legal outcomes aligned with company objectives.
• The Head of Legal will operate with a systems‑builder mindset, creating evolving legal infrastructure that supports — not hinders — Partly’s mission to connect the world’s parts and accelerate a sustainable future where anyone can fix anything.
• This role offers the unique opportunity to build the legal function from the ground up in a fast‑growing, investor‑backed scale‑up, shaping how legal enables innovation at a company backed by Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg, Octopus Ventures, Icehouse, Peter Beck (Rocket Lab), Akshay Kothari (Notion), and Dylan Field (Figma).

🎯 Requirements

• Broad in‑house legal experience, ideally as Head of Legal or senior counsel in a fast‑growth or tech‑driven environment
• Strong commercial judgment with proven ability to balance business speed and risk management through practical, actionable solutions
• Excellent contract drafting and negotiation skills across jurisdictions, with ability to structure clear, concise agreements and anticipate key issues
• Systems‑builder mindset: experience creating scalable contract templates, playbooks, and contracting processes that evolve with business growth
• Executive communication and influence: ability to translate complex legal positions into trusted business advice for senior leaders and cross‑functional teams
• Proven experience managing external counsel across multiple markets (NZ, UK, US preferred), including cost management, matter tracking, and quality assurance

🏖️ Benefits

• High trust, low process culture with no unnecessary bureaucracy — exemplified by the "red face test" expense policy and trust‑based flexible working hours
• Competitive base salary + generous equity options, ensuring all employees share in the company’s financial upside
• Focus Days: two meeting‑free days per week dedicated to deep work, plus quarterly "Season Openers" (paid travel and accommodation to nearest hub) and annual global offsite
• Exceptional office environments in Christchurch CBD and Auckland’s Karangahape Road, featuring standing desks, healthy snacks, quality coffee, and drinks on tap
• Generous parental leave: primary carers return at 100% pay on a 4‑day week for first 12 weeks; secondary carers receive 10 days full pay
• Payroll Giving program supporting donations to high‑impact charities of employee choice

Skills & Technologies

Onsite

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Partly Limited

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About Partly Limited

Partly Limited operates a global marketplace and data platform that catalogs millions of auto parts from salvage yards, dismantlers and recyclers. It provides APIs and software tools that enable insurers, repairers and parts suppliers to identify, price and source OEM, aftermarket and recycled components in real time. Founded in 2020 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the company aggregates inventory from yards across North America, Europe and Oceania, applying machine-learning models to cross-reference parts numbers, fitment data and pricing for the collision and mechanical repair ecosystem.

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