Senior Legal Counsel

Job summary
Permanent contract
Paris
No remote work
Salary: Not specified
Skills & expertise
Cybersecurity knowledge
Business acumen
Negotiation skills
Contract drafting and negotiation
Intercom

Riot
Riot

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Questions and answers about the job

The position

Job description

We're a product-first team on a mission to help grow the cybersecurity culture 🔐

We want to instill cybersecurity good practices to employees in a way that's actually effective, and entertaining enough so that employees don't feel like they're working. Think Duolingo but for cybersecurity.

We created a platform to easily rollout a cybersecurity awareness program: the platform sends chat-based 4-minutes long courses to teams. Following the courses, the other side of the platform simulates phishing attacks, to prepare employees to face hackers, but in a safe environment.

Created in 2020, Riot has raised $30m with leading investors (Y Combinator, Left Lane, Base10, Funders Club and Frst Capital) and is now protecting more than 1 million employees in over 1,500 companies (including Intercom, Deel, and Deezer) all over the world.

Cybersecurity is everywhere. It's impacting everyone, everyday, and it's becoming the number one risk to any organization, whether it's a small business or a big firm. Yet, the cybersecurity culture in most companies is a disaster. Hackers are leveraging this by targeting the weakest link: the employees. We're on a mission to fix that.

RIOT is expanding fast and looking for its first Legal Counsel ****to structure and manage all legal matters across our different entities (United States, France, expanding across Europe).

Your mission will be to ensure legal security and support the company’s growth: covering corporate, commercial, compliance, and international topics.

What you will do 🤝

You will be Riot’s first in-house Legal Counsel, reporting directly to the VP Finance.

You’ll partner directly with our leadership team to support our growth and international expansion, ensuring we scale safely and smartly. This is a rare opportunity to join a fast-growing Start-up at a pivotal stage — shaping our contracts, governance, compliance, and risk management from the ground up.

Your missions will cover three main areas:

1. Commercial & Contractual

Own and streamline the full contract lifecycle across multiple jurisdictions: draft, review, and negotiate SaaS subscription agreements, service agreements, NDAs, DPAs, and supplier and partnership contracts.

Support Sales and Customer Success teams during negotiations, ensuring deals are legally sound while enabling business growth.

Standardize and automate templates, playbooks, and processes to scale efficiently.

Anticipate contractual risks and propose clear, business-oriented solutions.

2. Legal Monitoring & Compliance

Ensure compliance with applicable laws , aligned with Riot’s risk tolerance.

Monitor evolving regulations — including those affecting customers’ industries — and translate them into practical contract and policy updates.

Maintain and improve Riot’s Terms & Conditions and standard agreements.

3. Corporate & Governance

Manage corporate legal matters (board documentation, share capital, BSPCE, subsidiaries).

Drive international expansion by establishing and maintaining subsidiaries, and support cross-border employment and immigration in partnership with the People team and external counsel.

Lead insurance strategy and renewals (cyber, D&O, general liability, etc.) alongside Finance.

Partner with Finance and leadership on strategic, fundraising, and investor-related initiatives.

4. Cross-functional enablement

Partner with the DPO on privacy and data protection matters, ensuring compliance and contributing to privacy-by-design initiatives.

Act as a trusted partner to all teams (Sales, Product, People, Finance) and translate legal risk clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyers.

Educate teams through internal trainings and documentation (contract negotiation best practices, compliance guidelines, etc.).

Partner with our external counsel (DPO, Employment law, …)

Who you are 🪪

  • 5–8 years of experience as a Legal Counsel, ideally in SaaS / B2B / tech environments.
  • Strong expertise in commercial contracts, corporate law and ideally data and privacy
  • Experience with international matters, at a minimum in US and/or French commercial and corporate law.
  • Ability to work fully autonomously and make sound legal judgments with minimal supervision, you will be the go-to person for all legal topics.
  • Experience building or structuring a legal function from scratch is a strong plus.
  • Comfortable working directly with business stakeholders and leadership teams, translating complex legal concepts into actionable advice.
  • Pragmatic, proactive, and business-minded, you know how to balance risk with growth.
  • You don't need to be an expert on cybersecurity, but you need to be motivated by the mission
  • You are fluent in English and in French
  • You're based in Paris or willing to relocate
  • It will be a cultural fit if 🫂

  • You're a doer: not afraid to get your hands dirty and get things done
  • You have high standards: expect performance to be nothing short of the best
  • You are an enthusiastic at heart: exhibit passion and excitement over work
  • Why join us at Riot 💜

  • Join a financially healthy company: we're financially strong and highly capital-efficient. Fundraising fuels our momentum, enabling us to scale faster and unlock new growth opportunities
  • Contribute to a fast-moving environment where growth is real, our revenue grew by an impressive 2.5x in 2024!
  • Experience the energy of a collaborative team in our modern and cosy office located in heart of Paris: République
  • Recruitment process 🎙️

  • First call with our HR team (30 min)
  • Manager Fit Interview with our VP Finance (1 h)
  • Case study (1h) with our VP Sales and our VP Finance
  • Culture Fit Interview (45 min)
  • Meet Ben our Founder (30 min)
  • At RIOT, we believe that diversity drives innovation and inclusion fosters belonging. We are committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We welcome candidates from all walks of life and are dedicated to creating an environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to thrive.

    Please note that this is an on-site position with up to 2 days per month of remote work.

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