Group General Counsel & Governance Director

About Watsmen

Watsmen is building an engineering-led industrial group. We connect technical capability, disciplined execution and practical commercial judgement to deliver valuable industrial solutions.

Role Purpose

Establish the legal and governance framework through which Watsmen can operate as an engineering-led industrial group. Make decision rights, entity responsibilities and legal risks explicit, with reliable records and practical advice. Protect the distinction between Group oversight, separately governed operating vehicles and the powers of the relevant local legal person.

Key Accountabilities

• Deliver an entity and governance register recording ownership, governing bodies, reserved matters, appointments and applicable filing obligations; retain source documents and expose gaps requiring competent corporate action rather than assuming authority from job titles.
• Prepare a coherent delegation and decision framework identifying approval thresholds, signatory evidence, conflicts and escalation routes; support adoption by the competent authority and maintain a controlled record of subsequent changes.
• Provide documented legal advice on material commercial, employment, intellectual-property and platform matters; identify assumptions, available options and residual risks, using appropriately qualified local counsel where jurisdiction or subject matter requires it.
• Establish contract-governance standards with the commercial function, including review triggers, approved templates, deviation records and obligations ownership; ensure legal review complements technical acceptance and financial approval without replacing either discipline.
• Maintain defensible corporate proceedings through meeting requirements, resolutions, statutory records and implementation evidence; coordinate executive workflow with the COO while retaining clear ownership of legal sufficiency and governance integrity.
• Deliver an effective legal-risk response covering disputes, investigations, regulatory inquiries and records preservation; agree proportionate external-counsel instructions, protect confidentiality appropriately and report material issues through approved independent escalation routes.
• Establish approved offer and contract routes with named legal reviewers, response expectations and escalation triggers; resolve material exposures while maintaining independent legal judgement.

First 90 Days

• By day 30: Review entity documents, current mandates, material contracts and immediate obligations; produce a prioritised legal-governance gap register and identify any actions that require local advice or formal corporate approval.
• By day 60: Submit proposed delegation, reserved-matters and contract-review frameworks; establish a governance calendar, matter register and documented working arrangements with finance, technical authority and local counsel.
• By day 90: Demonstrate controlled approval and contract-review cycles; present the status of high-priority legal risks, overdue obligations and adopted governance actions, supported by verifiable records and named owners. Demonstrate an approved offer-to-contract review route, with response-time evidence, escalated issues and resolved material exposures.

Essential Requirements

• Professional legal competence and a qualification appropriate to the legal work assigned; any jurisdiction-specific admission requirement must be verified before appointment
• Evidence of advising on corporate governance and complex commercial arrangements with clear, usable risk analysis
• Ability to distinguish entity, contractual, employment and technical authority across a group structure
• Experience supervising local counsel and managing legal matters without overstating cross-jurisdictional expertise
• Independent judgement, discretion and skill in building practical controls with operational colleagues

Desirable Experience

• Experience in engineering, industrial projects or resource-related commercial activity
• Experience designing governance during international organisational growth

Authority And Decision Boundaries

• Recommend legal and governance standards and escalation; representation, filings, signatures and binding commitments require the applicable professional competence and separately evidenced entity authority.
• Require legal risks and unresolved authority gaps to be put before the designated decision-maker; this role does not grant technical acceptance or unrestricted commercial approval.

Key Interfaces

CEO and competent corporate authorities; COO and Risk, Ethics & Compliance Manager; CFO and Contracts & Commercial Manager; Anchor and platform leaders, with qualified local counsel.

COO, Commercial and Marketing on approved offers, contracts and publication routes.

How Success Is Evidenced

• Timeliness and completeness of governance records and assigned obligations
• Quality of legal advice, documented decisions and contract-deviation controls
• Resolution of material authority gaps and legal-risk remediation actions
• Timely legal decisions and material exposures resolved, with independent judgement preserved.

Activation And Delivery Readiness

Assigned work requires confirmed resources, competent delivery capacity and the applicable approvals. The role operates within its documented delegation; appointment alone does not confer contracting, spending, technical-approval or system-access authority.

Location And Travel

Istanbul, Türkiye. Travel may support entity governance, material negotiations and legal matters. Specific travel requirements and frequency will be discussed before appointment.

Employment And Working Arrangements

Full-time employment, with annual performance reviews. Twelve-month renewable contracts where legally appropriate, with probation and renewal terms determined under local law.

Roles are on-site by default. Hybrid or remote working requires prior approval. No relocation assistance or visa support is provided.

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