VP Legal (9 month FTC - Maternity Leave Cover)

Lyst is a global Fashion Tech company and premium shopping app, founded in London in 2010 and catering to over 200M shoppers per year. We offer our customers the largest assortment of premium & luxury fashion items & products in one place, via an assortment of 8.5M+ items from over 17,000 of the world’s leading brands. We are a scale-up business with a current team size of c. 160 people in London, combining an agile mentality with a proven business model and over a decade of experience. This provides a balance between foundations and structure, and autonomy and pace.

At Lyst we obsess over the customer, providing a search & discovery experience which offers inspiration, fulfilment, and personalisation. We believe that fashion is amazing but shopping for fashion often isn’t, and use our technology, data and creativity to bring more joy, greater choice and fewer fails. Our mission is to help fashion shoppers make better decisions and help fashion partners find better audiences as the category-leading destination for every fashion shopper. Lyst has raised over $160m from leading investors including Accel, Balderton, Molten Ventures, Fidelity International, and LVMH.

We are looking for an experienced leader to head up the legal team at Lyst.  In this role, you will help your team in working cross-functionally, partnering with and advising the wider business. Reporting to the CFO, you will provide strategic advice to the C-suite. You will be responsible for shaping legal strategy in line with business objectives, managing risk and compliance, streamlining existing legal processes, and guiding the business towards a clear vision and supporting ambitious plans.

What you’ll do:

• Manage a high-performing legal team in London
• Develop legal strategy and ensure progress and alignment with company objectives and values
• Manage legal budget and outside counsel
• Oversee a variety of legal areas including: corporate transactions, corporate governance, equity management, data protection, commercial, intellectual property and employment
• Be a trusted advisor to the senior management and board, providing timely, strategic and business focused advice
• Provide legal and strategic advice to other stakeholders across the business, offering solutions that support product success and help to minimise or mitigate risk
• Establish and maintain necessary internal governance policies and support with ongoing training and compliance (including privacy and security, artificial intelligence and more)
• Continually assess, improve and operationalise legal processes
• Remain up to date on legislative changes and regularly educate and update internal teams on relevant changes that impact their work.

Requirements

• At least 8-10+ years’ PQE
• Experience at a relevant technology company (e.g. consumer tech, e-commerce, marketplace)
• A great leader, with experience managing and developing an in-house legal team
• Significant experience in corporate activities (including fundraising, financing and exit planning)
• Broad legal knowledge (across corporate, employee incentives, commercial, data protection, IP, disputes)
• Highly strategic with excellent business judgement
• Strong relationship building and influencing skills
• Energetic, proactive and collaborative attitude
• Analytical mind, creative and business-oriented in managing and anticipating a variety of legal risks
• Ability to manage and prioritise a large number of competing demands.

Benefits

• Our Ways of Working: We come into the office between 2-4 days a week and we're always in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We strongly believe that in-person collaboration and time spent together as a team allows us to deliver high impact work, but the flexibility to also work remotely supports our diverse team.
• Time Off: In addition to the 8 statutory bank holidays, you will receive 29 holidays per year. Lyst’s holiday year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
• Competitive Family Leave Package: This includes Enhanced Family Leave for those eligible, paid Time off for Dependents and Support for Fertility Treatment & Loss.
• Clothing Benefit: We want you to enjoy using the Lyst app and site as much as our customers, so we provide you with a clothing allowance to use on Lyst every year. This starts at £250 when you join and increases up to £1,000 with your length of service
• Private Healthcare: Our healthcare provider is Vitality. Your health is important to us which is why we offer all employees a comprehensive healthcare scheme from the day you start..
• Training Allowance: We’re big on continuous learning and growth, so all employees are currently entitled to an annual training allowance of £1,000. This can be used to attend conferences, industry events, training courses and to purchase resources.
• Pension Scheme: Our pension provider is The People’s Pension. We offer a minimum employee contribution of 5% and 3% employer contribution.
• Eye Tests and Vouchers: Employees can make a saving on their eye test and glasses through our chosen provider. You’ll receive a free eye test every year and a discount towards glasses.
• Cycle-to-Work Scheme: Lyst will purchase a bicycle from your chosen retailer, you will then receive a voucher to pick up your bicycle from them.
• Transport Season Ticket Loan: Employees can apply for an interest free season ticket loan to support your travel to work.
• Social Events: Frequent company wide social events including Christmas & summer parties, sports days, themed drinks, quizzes, cook alongs, as well as smaller team socials. We also have plenty of interest based groups such as football, running club, book club, culinary and more

We want to build a world where fashion works for everyone, and we want teams that are just as inclusive. Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our culture at Lyst. We recognise and celebrate the value and impact diversity brings to our company and are committed to ensuring this is a consistent focus, for which we are held to account. We are committed to treating all applicants fairly and equally, and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this role. We are happy to talk about flexible working arrangements.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Lyst we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.