Legal & Compliance Manager (m/f/d)

Essentry GmbH; München; Vor Ort; EUR 90.000 - 150.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Essentry GmbH is seeking a proactive Legal & Compliance Manager to own our legal and compliance function across our German and US entities. This role focuses on strengthening governance, policies, and contract workflows while supporting ISO 27001 certification as we scale.

You will draft and negotiate German and US contracts, liaise with external law firms, and coordinate with the data protection and information security teams to ensure policy alignment across regions.

Qualifikationen

• Legal background with relevant experience in in-house, compliance, or law firm environments.
• Experience across multiple entities/jurisdictions is preferred.
• Ability to translate legal/compliance topics into clear guidance for non-experts.

Aufgaben

• Own commercial contract work across customer, partner, and supplier lifecycle.
• Draft, review, and negotiate contracts in German and English; coordinate with external law firms.
• Be 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.
• Own and develop information security program and drive ISO 27001 certification; lead audits.
• Coordinate with external ISO and DPO to ensure practical day‑to‑day implementation.

Kenntnisse

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Strong communication

Independent working

Ausbildung

Law degree (First State Examination)

LL.B. / Wirtschaftsrecht

Jobbeschreibung

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 elevate 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