General Counsel

Background

The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a multilateral investment organisation that enables innovators to achieve sustainable impact at scale and measurably improve the lives of underserved and vulnerable people. GIF is focused on climate adaptation and resilience and inclusive economic opportunities as key levers to ensure social impact is equitable and durable. Headquartered in London with offices in Nairobi and Singapore, GIF invests across Africa and Asia to de-risk breakthrough ideas and enable their large-scale adoption.

GIF was launched in 2014 by the UK and US bilateral aid agencies and has been supported by financial and technical partnerships by the governments of Sweden, Australia, Canada, Korea, and South Africa, as well as private sector entities.

Since its inception, GIF has backed over 85 innovations worldwide. As of the end of 2025, our portfolio has cumulatively benefitted 138 million people and has mobilised more than $1.45B USD of capital, a ratio of over $8 mobilised for every $1 invested. We have helped scale nearly one in two of our investments.

GIF’s unique hybrid model, as both a UK registered charity and an investor, reflects its dual mission: to enable innovations to achieve impact at scale, while shaping the broader ecosystem through insight and learning. GIF’s 2025-2030 strategy calls for a decisive approach as a thesis-led scale-enabler that prioritises climate resilience and inclusive economic opportunities. Our role is to position innovations for sustainable growth by identifying repeatable pathways to scale and providing institutional post-investment support. This evolution includes building greater coherence across our financial instruments — specifically integrating our grants and risk capital teams to catalyse private sector investment and mobilise capital more effectively. We are shifting towards a demand-driven model and forging new partnership frameworks to reach our $150M fundraising target by 2030.

GIF Growth is also part of the GIF group and was recently launched with external investment from bilaterals and private investors as a blended finance open-ended vehicle that uses catalytic capital to bridge the “missing middle” for high-impact innovations.

Purpose of role

GIF is seeking to appoint its principal legal adviser, company secretary and a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). This is a broad and varied role sitting at the heart of the organisation, spanning investment transactions, fundraising, board governance, legal compliance and organisational risk. In addition to leading the legal function, the HR and ESG functions report into this role on an oversight basis, with both teams operating with autonomy under experienced leads.

GIF is a dynamic and entrepreneurial organisation, and the postholder must be commercially minded, comfortable with ambiguity, and willing to engage across teams, with the SLT, and with external counsel.

Primary responsibilities

• Legal leadership: Serve as GIF’s principal legal adviser, providing pragmatic, risk-based advice to the CEO, CIO, SLT, and Board for all matters relevant to GIF and its group (including GIF Growth).
• Downstream transactions: Structure, review and negotiate grants, loans, equity and other risk-capital investments.
• Fundraising transactions: Structure, review, and negotiate funding agreements with external funders.
• Governance and Board: Manage Board and committee cycles, papers, resolutions, minutes, delegated authorities and matters related to group company articles of associations and bylaws; advise the Board and committee chairs on governance matters and process.
• Policy management: Be responsible for ensuring the group has in place all relevant policies and procedures required to function and operate in its markets, and that such policies and procedures are enforced and adhered to across staff and downstream partners (where relevant).
• Compliance and risk: Oversee compliance, including charity law, corporate law, sanctions, AML, data protection, procurement, funder requirements.
• Risk: Chair the organisation risk panel and generally manage corporate risk alongside other SLT members.
• Litigation: Be responsible (alongside other relevant SLT members) for responding to all relevant contentious matters involving the organisation.
• External counsel: Select, instruct and manage external counsel in all relevant jurisdictions.
• Contracts and policies: Review contracts, maintain and improve internal policies
• Regulators and entities: Lead legal engagement with relevant regulators and support formation, maintenance or restructuring of GIF entities, subsidiaries and affiliates as required.
• Manage the legal team and budget which comprises this role and Junior Legal Counsel as a direct report.
• HR and ESG oversight: Provide line management, strategic support and Board-reporting oversight to the HR Director and ESG Managing Director, acting as a senior sounding board and escalation point for HR and ESG matters. The role will help ensure that HR and ESG risks, priorities and recommendations are appropriately integrated into GIF’s governance, risk and organisational decision-making, including Board and committee reporting. The HR Director and ESG Managing Director will retain day-to-day leadership, technical ownership, delegated decision-making authority and delivery responsibility for their respective functions.

Profile

The successful candidate will bring senior legal judgement and the ability to operate effectively in a lean, mission-driven organisation. They will be comfortable balancing transactional legal work with board management, organisational risk and senior stakeholder engagement, be a collaborative team player, willing to roll their sleeves up as part of a small legal function and alongside all other internal teams.

Skills and Experience

• 12+ years’ relevant legal experience, ideally including venture capital, private equity, impact investing, development finance, charities, non-profits, social enterprises or international development.
• Qualified solicitor in England and Wales, or equivalent senior legal qualification in a relevant jurisdiction; UK charity, company, investment and governance experience strongly preferred.
• Strong transaction experience across grants, loans, equity, blended finance or risk-capital instruments, including cross-border matters and external counsel management, as well as experience with external funders.
• Demonstrable governance, Board management and company secretarial experience, including committees, subsidiaries, resolutions, minutes and delegated authorities, and an understanding of good governance and process.
• Experience with legal and regulatory compliance, including charity law, corporate law, sanctions, AML, data protection, employment, procurement and funder requirements.
• Experience managing small teams and external advisers, comfortable being hands-on in a lean, mission-driven organisation.
• Experience working in a small (less than 50 headcount) organisation where multitasking is the norm.
• Experience working across multiple jurisdictions and with foreign legal regimes and requirements, and as part of a global organisation.
• Excellent judgement, discretion and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex legal and governance issues for non-lawyers, senior leaders and trustees/directors.
• Commitment to GIF’s mission, international development and impact investing.

To apply for the post

To apply for this role, please submit a copy of your CV/resume and a cover letter outlining your interest in the role and how you fulfil the requirements set out in the job announcement. Please ensure you send your CV and Cover letter in the following format: full_name_CV_org_name_role and full_name_role_CL.

• The deadline for applications is Monday 31st August, 9:00 am CET·

We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis

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Upsall International actively promotes equality, diversity, and inclusion. In recruiting candidates, we seek candidates with the proven skills required, irrespective of race, gender, religion or belief, age, disability, or sexual orientation.