Legal & Compliance Manager (m/f/d)

Essentry GmbH; Berlin; On-site; EUR 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

essentry GmbH is seeking a proactive Legal & Compliance Manager to own our legal and compliance function across Germany and the US. You will strengthen our contract stack, drive ISO 27001, and align governance with rapid growth.

You will draft and negotiate German and English contracts, manage audits, coordinate with external counsel, DPO, and ISO, and translate regulatory demands into clear internal controls and policies.

Qualifications

• You have a legal background with a law degree or combined law/business degree.
• Experience in an in-house legal, compliance or law firm setting, across multiple entities/jurisdictions.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to manage diverse stakeholders, including customers and vendors.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate legal topics for non-experts.
• Fluency in written and spoken German and English across German and US operations.

Responsibilities

• Own commercial contract work across customer, partner, and supplier lifecycle, incl. NDAs, DPAs, SaaS and MSAs, distribution and reseller agreements, and supplier contracts.
• Draft, review, and negotiate contracts in German and English across German/US law contexts.
• Serve as internal point of contact for legal and contractual questions across sales, partnerships, and operations.
• Develop lightweight legal/compliance processes, templates, and playbooks that scale with the company.
• Lead ISO 27001 information security program development and audits, coordinating with the external ISO and internal DPO.

Skills

Legal background

Contract negotiations

Stakeholder management

Bilingual German/English

Education

Law degree (First State Examination)

LL.B./Wirtschaftsrecht

Job description

Job Description

We are looking for a proactive and detail-oriented Legal & Compliance Manager to own our legal and compliance function across our German and US entities. This is a broad, high-ownership role in a fast-growing company: you will strengthen and advance our compliance posture while also taking care of the contracts that run our business across EMEA and the US. essentry is certified according to ISO 27001 based on BSI IT-Grundschutz by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), and you will be the internal owner who develops that foundation further as we scale.

Your mission

Legal

• You own commercial contract work across the customer, partner, and supplier lifecycle, including NDAs, data processing agreements, SaaS and master service agreements, distribution and reseller agreements, and supplier contracts
• You draft, review, and negotiate contracts in German and English and across German and US law contexts, in close coordination with our external law firms, and you know when to escape complex or high-value matters to outside counsel
• You are the internal point of contact for legal and contractual questions across sales, partnerships, and operations, spanning both our German and US operations
• You help build lightweight legal and compliance processes, templates, and playbooks that scale with the company

Compliance

• You own and continuously develop our information security management system and drive our ISO 27001 certification forward, including preparing for and leading audits
• You act as the internal owner who steers our external information security officer (ISO) and coordinates closely with our independent data protection officer (DPO), making sure their expertise translates into effective day-to-day practice
• You are our trusted interface in customer and partner due diligence, owning the security and compliance assessments that are often a prerequisite for closing enterprise and critical infrastructure deals
• You track regulatory and customer requirements across our markets, from GDPR to the sector-specific expectations of our critical infrastructure clients, and translate them into clear internal controls, policies, and audit-ready evidence

Your profile

• You have a legal background, for example a law degree (First State Examination) or a combined law and business degree such as Unternehmensjurist/in (LL.B.) or Wirtschaftsrecht (LL.B.)
• You have relevant experience in an in-house legal, compliance, or law firm environment, ideally in a SaaS, technology, or regulated setting, and you are comfortable working across multiple entities and jurisdictions
• You are confident negotiating and managing a wide range of stakeholders, from contract negotiations with customers, partners, and suppliers, to working alongside our customers' cyber security experts, global physical security teams, procurement, and data protection functions
• You like to own topics fully, work independently and in a structured way, and you are comfortable coordinating and steering external experts
• You have strong communication skills and can translate legal and compliance topics into clear guidance for non-experts
• You are fluent in written and spoken German and English, as our contracts and stakeholders span both the German entity and our US operations

Why us?

• You take ownership of an established legal and compliance foundation, from our ISO 27001 certification to our contract stack, and develop it into a mature, scalable function
• You work directly with global enterprises and critical infrastructure operators, on the multi-year, high-value contracts and compliance topics that move the company forward
• You work at the forefront of a fast-moving regulatory shift: essentry helps critical infrastructure operators meet their physical access security and compliance obligations, and new regulation such as the KRITIS-Dachgesetz in Germany and the underlying CER Directive at EU level is turning physical resilience into a legal requirement
• Flat hierarchies and a dynamic work environment with the chance to build a category leader

About us

essentry specializes in the digitalization of access processes. The core product is the verification of personal identities at border-control level and the automation of the access process. Using biometric technology and artificial intelligence, we are able to achieve the highest level of security for facilities, employees and guests. Our approach is holistic, combining both hardware and software components for maximum user-centricity. Today, essentry is represented in ten countries on three continents and supports multinational corporations, critical infrastructures, global consulting and auditing firms, public sector customers.