Legal Counsel (f/m/d)

Job description

We see the potential inside everything and everyone. Starting with you. Orbem uses AI to industrialize MRI, delivering non-invasive insight into everything from fruits to eggs to the human body. We are transforming what is becoming the world's largest biological dataset into actionable intelligence to reduce waste, increase quality, and accelerate the shift toward a more sustainable and healthier future. Headquartered and founded in Munich, Germany, with an office now in Houston, Texas, our world-class team is scaling inside-out technology to transform how humanity sees and understands biological matter. Help us see what's possible. Join us. YOUR ROLE You will build Orbem's legal and compliance function largely from the ground up, at a pivotal moment. As we scale across Europe, into the US, and toward new geographies and verticals, legal and compliance touch nearly every part of the business — commercial contracts, corporate matters, employment, data protection, and product & AI regulation. Much of this exists today only in pieces. You will inherit that reality and the mandate to shape it into a coherent function. This is a role for a hands-on legal counsel who wants to build a function, not just run one — someone comfortable with ambiguity, who makes pragmatic, risk-balanced calls with incomplete information, and does the substantive legal work themselves while orchestrating a lean stack of external counsel. A central part of the role is building Orbem's compliance function: a cross-functional, integrated approach to knowing and managing our risks — across intellectual property, product compliance, information security, data protection, and regulatory readiness. We treat compliance as an enabler of speed, not a brake on it — applying the right level of rigour for our stage and moment, so Orbem stays compliant and moves fast. YOUR DAY-TO-DAY Legal & Commercial (≈ 40%) - Draft and negotiate our commercial contracts — the integrated hardware sale/lease, software/AI licensing, and service/maintenance agreements at the core of our B2B business, plus supplier and partner agreements. - Build and own our contract toolkit — templates, playbooks, and a clean review-to-signing workflow that lets the business move quickly without losing rigour. - Own corporate and governance matters, including corporate housekeeping, board and shareholder support, and our employee equity program. - Advise on employment matters and manage disputes and litigation in partnership with external counsel. Building the Compliance Function (≈ 40%) - Stand up Orbem's cross-functional compliance function — an integrated approach to identifying, aligning on, and managing risk across the business, rather than in silos. - Partner across IP, InfoSec, Product Compliance, and Data Protection to translate obligations into practical, proportionate standards people can actually work with. - Drive regulatory readiness for the frameworks that matter to us — EU AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act, export control, data protection — sequencing what we do to our stage. - Own the foundational building blocks — Code of Conduct and core policies as enablers of trust and speed. Orchestrating External Counsel & Lateral Leadership (≈ 20%) - Manage a lean stack of external firms (e.g. corporate, US, employment counsel), optimizing for cost, consistency, and a coherent global strategy. - Be the central hub for legal and compliance across Orbem — looped in early on decisions, not as a final gatekeeper. - Embed legal as a proactive enabler in fast-moving business workflows, and leverage AI and legal tooling aggressively to keep the function lean and scalable. HOW YOU FIT IN This is an individual contributor role at Principal level, reporting to the COO. Your influence is lateral, not hierarchical — you work across the whole company rather than through a team of your own. You partner closely with Information Security, Intellectual Property, and Product Compliance on the integrated compliance approach, and work day to day with Finance, People & Culture, Supply Chain, Business Development, Field Operations, and our Product teams. You advise the full executive team on legal- and compliance-relevant decisions. YOUR EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS - Qualified German lawyer — Volljurist or Wirtschaftsjurist (or equivalent) — with strong in-house experience in a fast-paced environment. - Solid foundation in German corporate and commercial contract law, with a focus on B2B operations. - Hands-on builder. You have personally set up legal and/or compliance processes, templates, and frameworks — not only specified or overseen them. You are comfortable drafting, running workshops, and sitting in working meetings to ship the work. - Comfort without a large team. You are motivated by being the person in the room, not the person who built the room. - Business-minded and pragmatic. You make risk-balanced decisions, understand the need for speed in a scale-up, and offer solutions rather than just flagging problems. - Cross-border comfort. You are comfortable coordinating multi-jurisdictional matters, especially across the EU and US, in partnership with external counsel. - Communication. You translate complex legal issues into practical, commercially sound advice for non-legal stakeholders. Fluent in German and English. WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT - In-house experience at a hardware-focused technology company or a deep-tech scale-up. - Track record building compliance frameworks from scratch — ideally an integrated, company-wide approach rather than a single domain — across areas such as data protection, product and trade compliance, anti-corruption, or AI governance. - Experience with product liability and product safety in a commercial context. - Comfort with AI-first working — using AI to compress the work and owning the output, not just the prompt. FIT TO OUR VALUES - We Own Every Challenge: we enjoy complexity and thrive under uncertainty. - We Strive for Better: we seize any opportunity for growth and challenge the status quo. We are constantly learning and improving. - We Imagine New Frontiers: we think beyond “doable” and “reasonable”. We design a sustainable and healthy future together. WHAT WE OFFER INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: - Join a team with 40+ nationalities across 5 continents, all driven by a shared purpose: shedding light on the world’s toughest challenges. COMPREHENSIVE BENEFITS: - Stock Options: Share in Orbem’s success. - Relocation Support: Seamless support for your move to Germany. - Learning & Development: €1,750 annual budget for personal growth. - Fitness Membership: Access to Urban Sports Club or Wellpass. - Childcare Reimbursement: Support for Kita/Kindergarten fees. - Deutschland Ticket: Full coverage of public transportation. WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION: - Flexible Hours & Home Office: Work when and where it suits you. - WFH Perks: Get €185 to upgrade your home office + an external monitor on us! - 30 Days Paid Leave: Plenty of time to recharge. - Personal Leave: Flexibility for life’s important moments. - Work From Anywhere: Experience new cultures and environments for up to 60 days per year. Make a Difference: Join an ambitious, fast-growing team working on breakthrough technology. In our scale-up environment, you'll have the freedom to lead your projects and make an impact. We provide a platform for you to explore, innovate, and define your vision for the future. At Orbem, we're committed to helping you discover your strengths, and while we aim to teach you, we also want to learn from you. Your Team: You'll become part of our diverse and international team. Learn more about the team members, their work, and challenges here: https://orbem.ai/company/ At Orbem, we're committed to building a smart, diverse team, and we recognize that self-doubt can prevent talented individuals from applying. If you feel you don't meet every requirement, we'd love to hear from you anyway!