Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

The Chief Legal and Compliance Officer will work from our Bucharest / Cluj office while collaborating with the Global MassMutual teams and provide support in the legal and compliance function.

As a Chief Legal Officer, you will ensure that the Company always operates within the law, will offer counsel on legal issues, create an effective guardian of the organization, and facilitate business strategies development. In addition to being the Chief Legal Officer of MassMutual Romania, the successful candidate will be responsible for oversight and ongoing enhancement of our compliance programs. The role is responsible for providing legal advice in (and for ensuring the legal sufficiency of) all matters that are relevant to the functioning of this dynamic organization.  And beyond handling pure legal and compliance matters, the intent is for a successful candidate to be part of MassMutual Romania’s senior leadership team and to add value to the local organization in all aspects of its operations.

As a Chief Compliance Officer, you will provide direction and oversight of the compliance program. You are responsible for assessing areas of compliance risks; communicating the importance of the compliance program to senior leadership; setting forth ethics principles and policies that are the basis of the compliance program; developing and implementing education programs addressing ethics and compliance issues; implementing a retaliation-free internal reporting process; and collaborating with senior leadership to effectively incorporate the compliance program within MassMutual Romania.

Responsibilities

• Provides expert and strategic legal advice to management. Sets internal governance policies and manages the impact of external factors. Reviews and advises on legal implications of internal policies and procedures. Provides guidance on any new policies to be prepared in the interest of the organization, as and when required or recommended from time to time.
• Drafts/reviews necessary documentation in order to comply with legal requirements, including, but not limited to, policies, procedures, templates, and registers and will ensure that they are kept up to date.
• Works independently while collaborating frequently with Legal and Compliance colleagues in the US.
• Anticipates legal/regulatory issues and estimates legal/regulatory risks strategically. Identifies proactive solutions that will eliminate or mitigate such risks. Limits litigation risk exposure in all key areas, working closely with executives across Romania and US.
• Deals with external parties (regulators, external counsel, clients).
• Drafts, reviews, negotiates, and settles all necessary legal and transactional agreements and contracts, including technology and general procurement contracts.
• Liaises with various internal stakeholders to ensure timely finalization of agreements and advises them on contractual mandates and compliance issues.
• Represents the Company and/or senior executives in legal proceedings and/or supervises such representation.
• Works closely with US leaders to identify and manage services that may be provided from Romania.
• Builds and manages team in Romania to provide legal services including contract management, document review services, etc.
• Manages legal budget and external law firms. Liaises with and manages external attorneys.
• Keeps abreast of legislative trends and advises business of potential impact.
• Supports in all governmental and/or similar audits and investigations.
• Advises on a wide array of Legal and Compliance matters. Handles relations with all legal authorities and external legal partners.
• Supports / leads internal investigations.
• Validates internal projects (e.g. technology, HR, business operational, etc.), in terms of compliance with laws, internal policies and procedures and business needs.
• Creates and implements an effective compliance program.
• Ensures that the compliance program effectively prevents and/or detects violation of law, regulations, organization policies, or the code of conduct.
• Provides regular reporting to US legal and compliance leaders regarding legal, regulatory and compliance issues and developments.

Requirements

• Qualified lawyer with strong legal acumen and 10+ years of work experience, previous experience in the IT or FinTech industries or with a multi-national company would be a plus but not essential.
• University degree in Law.
• Overall broad legal knowledge (corporate law, litigation, compliance, labor/employment law, commercial law, CSRD, etc).
• Ability to deal with confidential and/or sensitive issues and information.
• Ability to work on own initiative with minimal supervision.
• Proven general counseling experience in business environment.
• In-depth understanding of how legal issues affect organizations.
• Ability to develop legal strategy and objectives.
• High degree of professional ethics, integrity, and gravitas.
• Excellent judgement and analytical skills.
• First class interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to anticipate legal issues or risks and to “see around the corner”.
• Bases the decision-making process on ethics and integrity.
• Creates associations of trust and respect with key stakeholders.
• Good interpersonal skills to effectively communicate and coordinate complex issues with diverse levels of management and employees.
• Proven experience working with multiple teams and departments.
• Experience planning and leading strategic initiatives.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic growth-mode environment.

#LI-AA1