Group Head of Legal

What you will own

• Group legal leadership. The legal function across Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, and the Nigeria and South Africa expansions in-country counsel, external firm panels and legal budget.
• Debt and equity raising. Leading the legal workstream on every capital raise: term sheets, facility agreements, security and intercreditor documentation, subscription and shareholders' agreements, conditions precedent, disclosure schedules and warranty packages with development finance institutions, private equity funds and commercial lenders. You will run legal due diligence end to end and manage counsel on both sides to close.
• Telecom regulatory and licensing. Operator licences, spectrum, interconnect, numbering, universal service obligations and regulator engagement in every market.
• Fintech and payments regulation. The licensing and compliance framework for the Group's mobile money and lending business, including national payment systems law, e-money rules and consumer credit regulation.
• Infrastructure contracting. Wholesale and open-access agreements, IRU and capacity purchase, tower and build-to-suit tenancy, EPC and civil works, OEM and vendor framework agreements, colocation and data centre arrangements.
• Land, wayleaves and permits. Right of way, wayleave negotiation with authorities, landowner arrangements and permitting for fibre and tower rollout.
• Corporate and M&A. Group structuring across jurisdictions, joint ventures, acquisitions and shareholder arrangements.
• Data protection and privacy. Compliance frameworks across markets for a business holding subscriber, location and financial data.
• Disputes and enforcement. Litigation, arbitration and regulatory proceedings, and the strategy for avoiding them.
• Governance. Board support, company secretarial oversight and subsidiary compliance across the Group.

What we are looking for

• 20+ years post-qualification experience, the majority of it in telecom or TMT.
• Qualified lawyer with an LLB (LLM preferred), admitted in India or another common-law jurisdiction.
• Mandatory: hands-on documentation experience on debt and equity raises with development finance institutions IFC, DFC, FMO, Proparco, BII, AfDB, EIB or similar and with private equity and infrastructure funds. Facility and security documentation, subscription and shareholders' agreements, term sheets, conditions precedent, covenant packages, and management of legal due diligence.
• A track record advising a licensed telecom operator on regulatory, licensing and spectrum matters — in-house leadership or a senior TMT practice role at a leading firm.
• Deep infrastructure contracting experience at scale: network build, wholesale capacity, towers, EPC and vendor frameworks.
• Multi-jurisdiction practice; experience in African markets strongly preferred.
• The judgement to advise a board and the appetite to draft, negotiate and close the documents yourself.
• Willing and able to relocate to Johannesburg or Nairobi.

Also valued

• Payments, e-money or lending regulatory experience alongside telecom.
• Experience with the documentation standards and environmental, social and governance conditionality that DFI lending brings.
• Company secretarial or governance leadership across a multi-country group.
• Having built a legal function rather than inherited one.