Job Title: Senior Legal Officer
Location: Hybrid
Function: Legal, Regulatory & Compliance
Full-Time | Contract: 12 months (possible extensions or path to permanent)
About the Role:
Our client operates a regulated digital safety, safeguarding and wellbeing platform serving schools, institutions and their communities, including children and young people. This role is the organisation's senior legal authority: it covers the full general company law and commercial legal needs of the business, and it provides specialist advisory and compliance oversight across the child protection, education, data protection, mental health and cyber-regulatory frameworks that govern a service of this kind. You keep the organisation lawful, well governed and credible to regulators, clients and partners, and you translate a dense and evolving regulatory landscape into practical, defensible operating practice.
Environment and remit:
- The business sits at the intersection of education, child welfare, mental health and technology, so the legal remit spans several regulatory regimes at once rather than a single domain.
- The service processes sensitive personal data, including data relating to minors, which raises heightened obligations around consent, protection, reporting and governance.
- You advise both at the strategic level (how the business is structured, positioned and contracted) and at the operational level (how front-line teams must act to stay compliant), and you are the point of contact for regulators, auditors and external counsel.
- The organisation is on a certification and maturity journey, so you build the legal and compliance foundations to scale rather than only firefighting.
Key responsibilities:
General corporate and commercial law.
- Advise on company law and corporate governance matters - incorporation and structuring, statutory and secretarial compliance under the Companies Act, board governance, resolutions, filings and related party and intercompany arrangements (working with the company secretary and finance).
- Draft, review and negotiate the full range of commercial agreements - client and school contracts, partner and vendor agreements, licensing and white-label arrangements, NDAs, data processing agreements and employment documentation.
- Manage disputes, notices, demands and litigation, instructing and supervising external counsel where required, and protect the organisation's contractual and IP position.
- Advise on intellectual property, brand protection and licensing obligations.
Regulatory advisory and compliance oversight. Provide advisory and compliance oversight across the applicable frameworks, including:
- POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act): mandatory reporting obligations, child protection duties and the legal pathways for handling disclosures and offences involving minors.
- DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection Act): lawful processing, verifiable parental consent for minors, data principal rights, breach notification, retention and the obligations that follow if the organisation is designated a Significant Data Fiduciary.
- Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act: child welfare obligations, reporting duties and interface with Child Welfare Committees and related authorities.
- NCPCR: child rights guidelines and school safety expectations, and engagement with the commission's directions and frameworks.
- CBSE: affiliation byelaws, school safety and child protection circulars, and the education-sector compliance expectations relevant to school clients.
- Information Technology Act and allied rules: intermediary obligations, content and data rules, and the SPDI/security practice requirements.
- CERT-In directions: cyber incident reporting timelines, log retention requirements and the legal aspects of incident handling (working with the security and infrastructure functions).
- Mental Healthcare Act 2017: rights and confidentiality obligations relevant to the counselling and clinical service, and the legal framing of clinical practice through the platform.
- NEP 2020: the education policy context that shapes how the service positions and operates within the schooling system.
- Other applicable laws including contract, consumer-protection, labour and employment, and workplace harassment (POSH) obligations.
Governance, policy and assurance.
- Maintain the legal and regulatory compliance register and the obligations map; track regulatory change and advise the business ahead of it.
- Own the legal review of organisational policies (safeguarding, data protection, security, HR, consent) and ensure they remain legally current and consistent.
- Support audit, certification and regulatory readiness activity, and prepare the business for regulator engagement and inspections.
- Deliver legal and compliance training and clear guidance to operational teams so obligations are understood and met on the ground.
- Draft, review and negotiate the full range of commercial agreements - client and school contracts, partner and vendor agreements, licensing and white label arrangements, NDAs, data processing agreements and employment documentation.
- Manage disputes, notices, demands and litigation, instructing and supervising external counsel where required, and protect the organisation's contractual and IP position.
- Advise on intellectual property, brand protection and licensing obligations.
Who you'll work with: Leadership and the board; the company secretary and finance function; the Data Protection Officer and the GRC/compliance function; the Clinical / Safeguarding Lead on child protection and mental health matters; the security and infrastructure teams on cyber and incident obligations; client, partner and HR functions on contracting; and external counsel, auditors and regulators.
Required skills and experience:
- A law degree (LLB or equivalent) and enrolment as an advocate with the Bar Council of India; a master's in law or a company secretary qualification is an advantage.
- Around 8+ years' post-qualification experience spanning corporate/commercial law and regulatory compliance, ideally in technology, education, healthcare or a child/data sensitive sector.
- Demonstrable, current command of Indian data-protection law (DPDP), child-protection law (POCSO, JJ Act) and the IT/cyber regime, with working knowledge of the education and mental health frameworks listed.
- Strong commercial drafting and negotiation, and sound judgement balancing legal risk against business need.
- Ability to translate complex, multi-framework regulation into clear, practical guidance for non-lawyers.
- High integrity and the standing to advise and, where necessary, challenge leadership; excellent written and spoken English.
Desirable. Experience advising an edtech, digital-health, safeguarding or child-focused organisation; exposure to data-protection certification (and DPO practice); familiarity with multi entity, licensing or white label structures; experience preparing for ISO/IEC 27001 or SOC 2 control environments from a legal standpoint; prior regulator facing or inspection experience.
Compliance. Operates within, and is a primary in-house authority on, the frameworks above, the organisation's information security and safeguarding policies, and professional conduct obligations as an enrolled advocate.
Success measures. A business that is lawfully structured, well governed and contractually sound; a current, well maintained obligations map with regulatory change anticipated rather than reacted to; child protection, data protection and cyber obligations met and evidenced; clean regulator, audit and certification engagements; operational teams that understand their legal duties; and legal risk identified early and managed pragmatically.
How to Apply:
Please send your CV (mandatory), brief cover letter (mandatory), and portfolio of similar projects to: [email protected].
Subject: Application – Senior Legal Officer
Job Types: Full-time, Contractual / Temporary
Pay: From ₹50,000.00 per month
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Kochi, Kerala: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)
Application Question(s):
- Do you have at lease 5 years of experience in healthcare or education sector in India?
Experience:
- Legal drafting: 8 years (Required)
Language:
- English (Required)
- and write excellent English (Required)
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Kochi, Kerala
