Legal and Internal Controls Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary:

The Legal & Internal Controls Manager is responsible for leading the Company's commercial contracting, internal controls, compliance, corporate governance, and business risk management activities.

Working closely with the COO, Senior Management Team, Finance, HR, IT, Sales, Operations, external legal counsel, the parent company, and affiliated companies, the Manager will identify and assess legal, contractual, compliance, and internal-control risks and develop practical strategies to mitigate those risks while supporting the Company's business objectives.

The Manager will provide leadership and direction to the Legal and Internal Controls function, establish priorities and accountabilities, and ensure that contractual, compliance, governance, and internal-control activities are completed effectively and within required timelines.

The successful candidate must be capable of operating both strategically and practically, providing independent advice to senior management while ensuring appropriate processes, controls, documentation, and follow-up are maintained throughout the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Legal & Commercial Contract Management

• Lead the review, drafting, revision, and negotiation of domestic and international commercial contracts.
• Review contractual terms to ensure alignment with the Company's risk tolerance, commercial objectives, internal requirements, and applicable laws.
• Identify contractual risks and recommend appropriate mitigation strategies, alternative language, escalation, or risk acceptance.
• Advise internal stakeholders on contractual rights, obligations, liabilities, and commercial implications.
• Participate directly in negotiations with customers, suppliers, and other external parties when required.
• Provide guidance on complex contractual provisions, including indemnification, limitation of liability, warranties, insurance, confidentiality, intellectual property, payment terms, termination rights, dispute resolution, and other material commercial terms.
• Advise management on the resolution and enforcement of contractual issues and disputes.
• Establish appropriate processes for contract review, approval, execution, record retention, and ongoing obligation management.
• Ensure significant contractual risks are appropriately documented and escalated to senior management.
• Liaise with external legal counsel when specialized legal advice is required.
• Other duties as assigned.

Internal Controls & Audit

• Lead and coordinate the Company's internal-control program and related activities.
• Plan and implement annual internal-control requirements established by the parent company.
• Work collaboratively with Finance, HR, IT, Operations, Sales, and other departments to identify, document, assess, and strengthen internal controls.
• Evaluate existing business processes and controls to identify weaknesses, gaps, duplication, inappropriate access, segregation-of-duty concerns, or other risk exposures.
• Coordinate the documentation, testing, monitoring, and periodic review of key internal controls.
• Identify internal-control deficiencies and work with responsible departments to develop appropriate corrective-action and remediation plans.
• Monitor remediation activities and ensure identified deficiencies are appropriately addressed and closed.
• Support and coordinate internal and external audits relating to internal controls, compliance, governance, and business processes.
• Track audit and internal-control findings and provide appropriate reporting and escalation to senior management.
• Promote consistent application of policies, procedures, approval authorities, and control requirements throughout the organization.
• Other duties as assigned.

Compliance, Governance & Risk Management

• Monitor relevant legal, regulatory, compliance, political, and business developments that may affect the Company and advise senior management on potential impacts and recommended actions.
• Identify emerging legal, regulatory, contractual, compliance, and operational risks and recommend appropriate mitigation measures.
• Support the development, implementation, and periodic review of corporate policies, procedures, governance requirements, and approval authorities.
• Collaborate with the parent company and affiliated companies on compliance, governance, risk-management, and internal-control initiatives.
• Coordinate corporate governance activities, including preparation and maintenance of board and corporate records, resolutions, minutes, and related documentation.
• Support compliance with applicable corporate, commercial, trade, privacy, and other regulatory requirements relevant to the Company's operations.
• Assist management in assessing the potential legal, compliance, and control implications of significant business decisions.
• Escalate significant legal, contractual, compliance, governance, and internal-control matters to the appropriate level of management.
• Other duties as assigned.

Leadership & Department Management

• Provide leadership and direction to employees within the Legal and Internal Controls function.
• Establish clear responsibilities, priorities, performance expectations, and accountabilities.
• Assign and prioritize work based on business risk, urgency, complexity, and organizational requirements.
• Coach, develop, and support employees to strengthen technical knowledge, judgment, independence, and overall performance.
• Conduct regular performance discussions and address performance, quality, accountability, or behavioural concerns as required.
• Ensure appropriate delegation of work while maintaining effective oversight and quality standards.
• Develop and deliver training to employees and managers on contracts, compliance, internal controls, risk management, and related topics.
• Establish effective processes and service standards for supporting internal stakeholders.
• Build productive working relationships across departments while maintaining the independence and objectivity necessary for the function.
• Provide regular updates to the COO and Senior Management Team regarding significant risks, outstanding issues, internal-control findings, contractual matters, and departmental priorities.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education & Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Law, Business, Commerce, Finance, Accounting, Risk Management, or a related discipline required.
• Advanced degree or recognized professional designation related to law, accounting, audit, compliance, risk management, corporate governance, or contract management strongly preferred.
• Professional certification in internal audit, risk management, compliance, accounting, corporate governance, or commercial contract management is considered a strong asset.
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing professional development in legal, regulatory, compliance, governance, risk, or internal-control matters.

Experience

• Minimum 8 years of progressive professional experience across legal, commercial contracts, compliance, risk management, internal audit, internal controls, corporate governance, or related functions.
• Minimum 5 years of direct people leadership experience with a team of 3 - 5, including responsibility for work allocation, employee development, performance management, and accountability.
• Significant experience drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and managing complex commercial contracts.
• Commercial contracting experience within a manufacturing, industrial, engineering, or similarly complex business environment strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading or having significant ownership of an internal-control program, including control documentation, assessment, testing, deficiency identification, remediation, monitoring, and reporting.
• Demonstrated experience supporting or coordinating internal and/or external audits and ensuring appropriate follow-up on identified findings.
• Demonstrated experience working cross-functionally with Finance, HR, IT, Operations, Sales, and senior management.
• Experience identifying organizational risks and developing practical controls and mitigation strategies.
• Experience working within a multinational organization and interacting with parent companies, affiliated companies, and stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions is strongly preferred.
• Experience presenting complex legal, contractual, compliance, risk, or internal-control matters to senior leadership.

Knowledge, Skills & Competencies

• Strong knowledge of commercial contracting principles and the ability to identify and assess complex contractual risks.
• Strong understanding of internal-control principles, risk assessment, segregation of duties, approval authorities, control documentation, testing, and remediation.
• Ability to independently research legal, regulatory, contractual, and compliance issues and determine when external legal or professional advice is required.
• Strong business judgment with the ability to balance legal and risk considerations against legitimate commercial objectives.
• Ability and confidence to challenge decisions when legal, contractual, compliance, or internal-control risks exceed acceptable levels.
• Demonstrated ability to move beyond identifying problems and develop practical, commercially reasonable solutions.
• Strong leadership skills with demonstrated ability to delegate, establish accountability, develop employees, and manage performance.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities and make sound decisions regarding urgency, risk, delegation, and escalation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including strong drafting, editing, negotiation, and presentation capabilities.
• Ability to explain complex legal, contractual, compliance, and internal-control issues in clear business terms.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills with the ability to build credibility with senior management and stakeholders throughout the organization.
• High degree of professionalism, discretion, independence, objectivity, and integrity.
• Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Experience with contract management, compliance, audit, or risk-management systems is an asset.

Key Success Factors

Success in this position will be demonstrated by:

• Effective identification and mitigation of significant legal, contractual, compliance, and organizational risks.
• A well-documented and consistently applied internal-control environment.
• Timely remediation and closure of internal-control and audit findings.
• High-quality commercial contract review and negotiation that appropriately balances risk and business objectives.
• Effective leadership, development, and accountability within the Legal and Internal Controls team.
• Strong working relationships with senior management and internal stakeholders while maintaining appropriate independence and objectivity.
• Effective coordination and negotiation with internal and external parties to minimize the Company's risk exposure.
• Active listening and balanced judgment in reconciling the interests of the Legal function and other departments, and of the Company and its customers, suppliers, and third parties.
• Timely escalation of significant risks and clear recommendations to management.
• Continuous improvement of legal, compliance, governance, contract-management, and internal-control processes.

Working Conditions

• Primarily office-based position with regular interaction across multiple departments and locations.
• Occasional travel may be required to support company operations, audits, meetings, or parent-company initiatives.
• The position requires the ability to manage multiple priorities, sensitive and confidential matters, and time-sensitive legal, contractual, compliance, and internal-control issues.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Ability to communicate regularly with employees, management, external advisors, customers, suppliers, and affiliated companies.