Senior Legal & Privacy Manager in London

Location: Hybrid or Remote in UK with Occasional Travel to our Central London Office

Position: Permanent

Reports to: General Counsel

About PetlabCo

PetLab Co. is the world’s fastest-growing pet supplement business. Launching in 2018, we successfully achieved a 9-figure revenue last year. We have a loyal community of loving pet parents and over 1.5 million happy dogs whose lives have been positively impacted by our innovative products. Our team is vibrant, fast-moving, and customer-driven where high-performers are valued and rewarded. And it is the ideal place for an ambitious, hardworking, animal lover who wants to progress their career rapidly.

The Role

A senior role in PetLab Co.'s Legal function, working in partnership with the General Counsel. You'll run the day-to-day of our privacy programme and legal operations, and independently progress commercial, consumer, IP and governance matters within agreed parameters. You'll be the coordination point across Legal: triaging new matters, setting priorities, forming practical recommendations, managing stakeholders, and seeing decisions through to completion, resolving what you can and escalating what needs the General Counsel.

This isn't a traditional Legal Counsel role, and qualifying as a lawyer isn't required. We're looking for strong legal fluency, real privacy expertise, and the judgement and operational discipline to help a small team support a fast-moving international business.

What we're looking for

An experienced legal, privacy or compliance professional who pairs substantive knowledge with operational judgement. You interpret contracts and regulatory requirements, turn them into action, and keep multiple matters moving without losing sight of risk or commercial priority. You have significant hands-on data privacy experience: assessing new processing activities, negotiating data processing terms, handling privacy incidents and data subject requests, and working with technical and commercial teams to understand what actually happens to personal data.

You create leverage for the General Counsel. You gather the facts, find the real issue, form a recommendation, and own matters through to closure rather than treating advice as the finish line. You're pragmatic and commercially minded, more interested in finding a compliant route than flagging risk and stopping there.

Your day-to-day

You won't have done all of this before, and you don't need to have. The essentials are deep hands-on privacy experience and the ability to work across a broad legal remit.

• Privacy and data protection
• Oversee and coordinate the privacy programme across the UK, EU, US and Canada, with the General Counsel, Cybersecurity and business teams.
• Advise early and practically on new or changed uses of personal data (marketing tech, CRM, analytics, AI, vendor initiatives).
• Lead DPIAs, legitimate interests and other privacy risk assessments, recording decisions, mitigations and ownership.
• Review and negotiate DPAs and privacy terms, assess vendors handling personal data, and find workable safeguards.
• Coordinate incident response (fact-gathering, documentation, escalation) and manage data subject requests to resolution.
• Maintain the record of processing, retention framework, privacy and cookie notices and consent standards, and keep teams updated as the law changes.
• Support any appointed Data Protection Officer, should one be required.

• Legal operations and matter management
• Own Legal's intake and matter management: triage, prioritise, progress and close, and keep visibility over deadlines, dependencies and open actions.
• Act as the coordination point between the General Counsel, business stakeholders, external counsel and other advisers.
• Progress routine and moderately complex matters independently; escalate significant or precedent-setting issues accordingly.
• Improve workflows, playbooks, templates and knowledge management, using appropriate AI tools in line with our confidentiality, privacy and security requirements.

• Commercial contracts
• Manage the contract lifecycle from intake to post-signature, working with the General Counsel on higher-risk or strategic agreements.
• Draft, review and help negotiate NDAs, DPAs and commercial agreements across marketing, technology, supply chain, professional services etc within agreed positions.
• Coordinate vendor onboarding and risk review with Finance, Procurement, Cybersecurity etc, tracking renewals, notice periods etc.

• Intellectual property and brand protection
• Coordinate the international trademark portfolio and register with the General Counsel and external counsel on filings, strategy and disputes.
• Handle day-to-day brand protection and enforcement (counterfeits, impersonation, content theft, unauthorised brand use) etc.

• Consumer law and customer-facing documentation
• Maintain terms of sale, return policies, disclaimers and other customer-facing legal documentation across the UK, US and Canadian sites.
• Support the General Counsel in advising Marketing, Growth, and CX on customer journeys, subscriptions, checkout and post-purchase comms etc.
• Coordinate readiness for new consumer-law requirements (e.g. UK subscription-contract regime) and maintain disclosure standards for Compliance and Marketing.

• Policies, governance and training
• Coordinate the review of corporate policies and published statements, including the modern slavery statement and code of ethics.
• Develop and deliver practical training on privacy, legal processes, IP, disclosures and endorsements.

• Team and stakeholders
• Manage, mentor and develop our Legal Assistant.
• Support the General Counsel on disputes, regulatory correspondence, employment matters and other priorities.
• Build trusted relationships across the business, and communicate legal and privacy requirements clearly to non-legal audiences.

Essential

• Substantial in-house legal, privacy or compliance experience, with strong legal literacy and the ability to apply legal and regulatory requirements in a commercial setting.
• Significant hands-on privacy and data protection experience across many of the following: vendor assessments and DPAs, DPIAs, data subject rights, privacy notices, cookies and consent, incident response, records of processing and data retention.
• Experience running legal or compliance workflows and a varied caseload from intake through to closure.
• Strong commercial judgement and the confidence to progress matters independently, while recognising when to escalate.
• Strong written and verbal communication, translating complex requirements for non-legal audiences.
• Strong stakeholder management and the credibility to influence senior commercial and technical colleagues.
• A high degree of professional ethics, discretion and integrity.
• Willingness to give and receive direct feedback, and to challenge and be challenged.

Desirable

• A law degree, qualification as a lawyer, or another relevant legal or privacy qualification (advantageous, not required).
• A recognised privacy certification such as CIPP/E, CIPM or equivalent.
• Experience in e-commerce, D2C, consumer health or another regulated consumer category.
• Exposure to US or Canadian privacy, consumer protection or advertising requirements.
• Experience reviewing commercial contracts or managing contract lifecycle processes.
• Experience with trademark portfolio administration, brand protection or online enforcement.

Benefits

• Private Health Care through Vitality
• Generous Annual Leave - 28 days + public and bank holidays
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Royal London Pension Scheme - We offer a workplace pension scheme with one of the UK’s leading providers of group pensions. With an employer contribution of 5%!
• Enhanced Maternity / Paternity / Adoption Leave - because time with new family members is important!
• Nursery Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Generous Learning and development budget - We always want you to keep learning.
• Puppy Therapy - working in partnership with Paws in Work to provide a boost of oxytocin once a year.
• Free breakfast, fruits and snacks - refuel and revitalise with free munchies in the office.
• Working Environment - dogs are welcome!
• Life Assurance - In the event of your death, while employed by us, your chosen beneficiaries will be provided with a tax-free lump sum equivalent of four times your basic salary.
• Discount Vouchers & Gym Memberships - get discounts at a whole range of retailers and gym memberships through our provider, WellHub.
• Electric Vehicle Scheme - Employees sacrifice salary in return for a new electric car, typically saving 30-40% of costs through income and tax and national insurance.
• Give Back Day - An extra day off in the year to volunteer plus a £50 contribution to your chosen charity.

Diversity & Inclusion Statement

PetLabCo. is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage all applications irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, nationality, marital status, and disability. We believe that diversity is at the heart of innovation, and we welcome passionate candidates from all backgrounds. Come join the family and see for yourself!