VP & General Counsel EMEIA in Woking

ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions EMEIA leads the development of door openings and access solutions for homes, businesses, and institutions across Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa. We are currently seeking a VP & General Counsel to join our team—a senior leadership role within a world‑leading, purpose‑driven industrial group. The position offers exposure to complex, high‑impact legal, regulatory, and strategic matters, with the opportunity to shape how Legal partners with the business to enable growth while managing risk. You will join a collaborative, high‑performance culture with strong Group support. The role is based in Woking, Surrey, and reports to the SVP & CFO EMEIA. We operate a hybrid working model with 2–3 days per week in the office. Domestic and international travel will be required.

Role Purpose: As Vice President & General Counsel EMEIA, you will lead the Legal & Compliance function across the EMEIA Division of ASSA ABLOY. You will act as chief legal adviser to the Divisional leadership team, providing commercial and risk‑based legal counsel that enables sustainable growth while protecting the Group’s reputation, assets and people. Together with your team, you will be identifying and managing legal risks and providing legal and compliance support to our Business Areas. This role combines leadership, hands‑on legal expertise, and strong people leadership, ensuring effective governance, compliance with Group policies, and efficient legal service delivery across diverse jurisdictions. You will work in close partnership with Group Legal & Compliance, Business Areas and external counsel, while supporting both organic growth and M&A activity across EMEIA.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the EMEIA Legal & Compliance function, including team leadership, talent development and operating model design.
• Serve as a trusted adviser to the EMEIA Divisional Board and Business Areas on legal risk, and governance matters.
• Drive a prevention‑focused approach, reducing repeat issues through improved contracting, controls and training.
• Responsibility for designing and implementing procedures and processes designed to deploy Group legal and compliance policies across the division.
• Supporting Business Areas, product and functional teams in a variety of legal matters, including data privacy, cyber security, export control and sanctions regimes, product safety and product liability, intellectual property and labor laws.
• Supporting the drafting, negotiating, and interpretation of a wide range of contracts, including sale and purchase of goods and services, technology, software and IP‑related agreements and licenses.
• Support on litigation, arbitration, investigations and claims management, including strategy, risk assessment and cost control.
• Instruct, manage and challenge external counsel effectively, ensuring high quality outcomes and disciplined use of spend.
• Ensure legal exposure in the Division is reported to Group.
• Work with the M&A Team supporting the legal workstream for transactions across, due diligence, transaction structuring and post‑acquisition integration.
• Support crisis management, conduct compliance investigations in conjunction with Internal Audit and HR, regularly reporting on such matters to the Group’s Code of Conduct Committee.
• Monitor and interpret legal and regulatory developments impacting EMEIA markets and translate them into practical guidance for the business.
• …and any other duties required to assist in supporting the achievement of Group objectives.

Skills & Experience:

• A Law degree from a reputable university.
• Qualified as a lawyer in a common law jurisdiction.
• Significant post‑qualified experience in international business law, including in‑house experience within a multinational organisation and experience from a leading law firm.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience, ideally leading regional or global legal teams.
• Proven ability to operate collaboratively in complex, multi‑cultural and multi‑jurisdictional environments, building trust across functions and geographies.
• Commercially minded, pragmatic and solutions‑oriented with hands‑on delivery.
• Knowledge and experience in trade compliance, antitrust, product liability/safety, IPR, data privacy, commercial contract law and M&A.
• Proactive and has the ability to think logically outside the box in order to provide practical win‑win solutions to the business which effectively protects ASSA ABLOY’s legal interests.
• Strong organisational skills, maintaining attention to detail on multiple projects simultaneously and adjusting to changing priorities and deadlines.
• Fluency in written and spoken English; other language skills are desirable.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and build trust at all levels of the business.
• Proficient in MS Office 365, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and AI Tools.
• Experience working in the Manufacturing or Engineering industry in an international environment would be a distinct advantage.
• Must be legally eligible to work in the country where you are hired.