Senior Legal & Compliance Counsel Nordic BA

ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions EMEIA is looking for a Senior Legal & Compliance Counsel for the Nordic Business Area (BA). This is a senior role offering exposure to a broad range of commercial, legal, regulatory and strategic matters across Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. You will lead the Legal & Compliance function for the Nordic BA and act as a trusted adviser to senior management and the wider business. The role combines strategic responsibility, people leadership and hands-on legal work. You will help the organisation manage risk, make sound commercial decisions and strengthen its ability to handle legal and compliance matters closer to the business.The position is based at our Stockholm office and reports to the CFO of the Nordic BA, with a dotted reporting line to the General Counsel EMEIA. Some travel within the Nordic region will be required.

What you will do

You will have overall responsibility for legal and compliance matters across the Nordic BA. You will lead a small Nordic legal team and continue developing the function’s priorities, ways of working and partnership with the business.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead, develop and set the direction for the Nordic BA Legal & Compliance function, including the remote leadership of team members based in Finland.
• Act as a trusted adviser to the Nordic BA leadership team, market organisations and functional leaders on legal risk, governance and commercial matters.
• Provide practical, commercially minded and risk-based legal advice that enables the business to move forward while protecting ASSA ABLOY’s interests, reputation, assets and people.
• Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements, including customer, supplier, technology, software and intellectual property-related agreements.
• Support the business in complex commercial negotiations and strengthen contracting and negotiation capabilities across the organisation.
• Implement and embed Group and EMEIA legal and compliance policies, procedures and controls across the Nordic organisation.
• Develop and deliver relevant training, guidance and tools so that managers and employees can take greater responsibility for legal and compliance matters in their daily work.
• Advise on matters including competition law, anti-corruption, trade compliance, data privacy, digital compliance, cyber security, product safety and product liability.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments and translate them into clear, practical actions for the business.
• Manage disputes, litigation, investigations, whistleblowing matters, claims and crisis-related legal issues.
• Instruct and manage external counsel effectively, ensuring high-quality advice, clear scope and disciplined use of legal spend.
• Support M&A transactions, due diligence and post-acquisition integration when required.
• Work closely with colleagues across Opening Solutions EMEIA Legal & Compliance, as well as HR, Finance, Security, Risk and other business functions.

What we are looking for

You are a qualified Swedish lawyer with substantial experience from an in-house legal role within an international or otherwise complex business environment. Experience from a reputable law firm is valuable, but you must understand what it means to work close to the business and balance legal considerations with commercial realities.'

To succeed in the role, you will bring:

• Broad experience of commercial law, including drafting and negotiating complex customer, supplier and technology-related agreements.
• Experience of advising senior business leaders and working across different functions and jurisdictions.
• Previous people leadership experience, preferably including remote leadership.
• A good understanding of compliance areas such as competition law, anti-corruption, trade compliance and data privacy.
• An interest in emerging regulatory areas, particularly digital compliance, technology, cyber security and resilience.
• Experience of managing disputes, investigations and external legal advisers.
• Fluency in Swedish and English, both written and spoken.
• The ability and willingness to work with matters and stakeholders across the Nordic region.
• Experience from an industrial, technology, engineering, retail or similarly complex international environment.

How you work

This is not a role for someone who only waits for legal matters to arrive. You are curious about the business, identify where Legal can add the greatest value and take responsibility for turning decisions, policies and requirements into practical action.You are comfortable working at different levels. At times, you will advise senior leaders on strategic and governance matters. At other times, you will personally negotiate an agreement or help a colleague resolve an immediate business issue.

You are:

• Commercially minded, pragmatic and solutions-oriented.
• Comfortable prioritising in a broad role where not everything can be handled at once.
• Proactive and able to drive implementation and improvement across the organisation.
• Interested in developing people, processes and ways of working.
• Able to communicate complex issues clearly and build trust at all levels.
• Confident enough to challenge when needed, while remaining collaborative and focused on finding a way forward.
• Open to taking on new legal and regulatory areas as the business and external environment evolve.
• Comfortable working autonomously while making effective use of specialist support within ASSA ABLOY and from external advisers.

What we offer

This is an opportunity to take a leading legal role in a significant Nordic business and to continue shaping a legal function that is still developing. You will work closely with senior business leaders and have access to an established legal and compliance community in Stockholm and across the EMEIA division.The breadth of the role provides exposure to commercial operations, technology, digital regulation, security, risk, governance and organisational development. It is an opportunity for an experienced legal counsel to step into a broader leadership role, or for an existing legal leader to take responsibility for a complex and changing Nordic business.

The position requires a personal security pre-employment check in addition to a security interview and evaluation in accordance with the Swedish Protective Security Act “Säkerhetsskyddslagen” (2018:585). The personal security assessment will be conducted once the recruitment selection process is completed (before employment can be offered).

We are the ASSA ABLOY Group
Our people have made us the global leader in access solutions. In return, we open doors for them wherever they go. With nearly 63,000 colleagues in more than 70 different countries, we help billions of people experience a more open world. Our innovations make all sorts of spaces – physical and virtual – safer, more secure, and easier to access. 

As an employer, we value results – not titles, or backgrounds. We empower our people to build their career around their aspirations and our ambitions – supporting them with regular feedback, training, and development opportunities. Our colleagues think broadly about where they can make the most impact, and we encourage them to grow their role locally, regionally, or even internationally.

As we welcome new people on board, it’s important to us to have diverse, inclusive teams, and we value different perspectives and experiences.