General Counsel

We're hiring a General Counsel to lead legal, regulatory, compliance and governance across our funds, investments and operations, and to be a senior strategic partner to our CEO and leadership team.

‍About the role

‍This is a senior leadership role with ultimate ownership of Blackbird's legal, regulatory, compliance and governance strategy. Reporting directly to the CEO (Rick Baker), you'll be Blackbird's most senior legal voice: setting legal and regulatory strategy as we scale our funds and geographic footprint, leading our Legal & Compliance team, and keeping Blackbird a transparent, well-governed and fully compliant financial services organisation.

‍What success looks like in your first 6–12 months

‍Success in your first year means becoming Blackbird's most trusted legal and commercial voice, and honing a Legal & Compliance function that scales as fast as our funds do.

‍Team leadership. You've taken ownership of the Legal & Compliance team, set clear accountabilities across investments, funds and compliance work, and guide a high performing team that the leadership team, investors and founders trust to move fast without cutting corners. You've spotted the gaps and made real progress closing them, through hiring or developing people already here.

‍Commercial judgment. You're known across the leadership team for finding the practical path through legal risk, not defaulting to "no." You understand Blackbird's fund economics and deal dynamics well enough to protect the firm's position without slowing founders or the business down. Your reputation is for landing on solutions, not just flagging problems.

‍Investment and exit transactions. You have overall accountability for the legal aspects of investments and disposals, as the Legal Team runs all of our transactions day to day.  Under your leadership and together with the Head of Investment, Legal and external counsel, term sheets, SPAs, shareholder agreements and convertible instruments move from negotiation to close faster and more consistently than before, across Australia, New Zealand, the US and other markets. You oversee the standard for the diligence frameworks and financing templates behind that work, tight enough to protect the firm's interests, light enough that founders don't notice the friction, and hold the team accountable for their ongoing improvement.

‍Fund formation, structuring and governance. You've led at least one fund structuring or formation process end to end, working closely with the Legal & Compliance team, external legal and tax counsel and institutional investors. You have a firm grip on ongoing fund governance, including side letter obligations, investor transfers, document amendments, advisory committee approvals, and company secretarial obligations for our group and fund entities. You are comfortable speaking with institutional LPs on the legal, tax and structuring aspects of Blackbird’s business and have earned the trust of these LPs.

‍Corporate structure. You've advised on or have a solid understanding of the legal and tax aspects of Blackbird's corporate group structure, including the management company, licensing arrangements, intra-group agreements and carried interest structures.

‍Governance, risk and compliance (GRC). You have overall accountability for GRC at Blackbird. Together with our Legal & Compliance team, you've developed a solid understanding of and continue to uplift the full spectrum of  Blackbird's legal and regulatory framework, including AFS licensing, ESVCLP, AML/CTF, FATCA/CRS, CFIUS/FIRB and Privacy Act obligations. Together with other contributors across the team, you’ve led the Governance Committee and Board agenda and content and contributed meaningfully to the discussions, overseen all regulatory filings with no surprises, and kept the firm ahead of regulatory change. You act as Company Secretary across the Blackbird group, and own company secretarial duties for our fund and co-investment vehicle entities.

‍AI and tech adoption. You've found where AI and automation genuinely change how legal and compliance work gets done at Blackbird, whether that's contract review, drafting, obligations mapping or repetitive legal and compliance processes, and shipped visible, measurable progress on at least one of them. Not just an endorsement of the idea.

‍Position requirements

‍We know candidates, especially women and people from underrepresented backgrounds, often hold back unless they tick every box. If this role excites you and you meet most of the requirements, apply anyway. We value wide experience, potential and back people to grow into this role.

• Law degree and 10+ years' legal practice in corporate, funds management or financial services law, with real carriage of complex matters, not just supporting someone else's. In-house or private practice, Australia or overseas.
• Background in a regulated financial services setting - you know what it feels like to operate under a license, not just advise on one.
• Fund experience: while not strictly necessary, it would be helpful if you've worked on fund formation, structuring or governance, and understand regimes like AFS licensing, AML/CTF, ESVCLP, FIRB or FATCA/CRS well enough to lead them, even if you haven't run every one personally.
• Exposure to tax issues in investment transactions, fund structuring or carried interest is helpful; what matters more is knowing when to bring in specialist tax advice and how to transform this into commercial outcomes.
• Multi-jurisdiction exposure, ideally NZ, US, UK or Europe, is a genuine advantage, not a requirement.
• A proven people leader. You've built or run a legal team before, not just managed your own caseload.
• Excellent communicator. You translate complex legal positions into plain language, and you bring the same directness to founders, investors and the team internally.‍

You'll thrive here if :

• You find the path to "yes." You don't use the law as a shield, you use it to navigate and clear a path for investors, founders and the team to move fast.
• You're excited by the hard things. Hard problems, hard challenges, hard calls. You'd rather untangle a complex fund structure or an ambiguous regulatory question than sidestep it.
• You've actually used AI in legal work, contract review, drafting or research, and have a real point of view on where it helps and where it doesn't.
• You're just as comfortable with LPs, co-investors and a Board as you are with founders. You can operate at both altitudes.
• You stay calm under pressure and make sound, risk based decisions without every variable locked down.
• You're hands-on where it matters and move fluidly between big-picture judgment calls and granular redline and execution. This is not a purely oversight role - you will be directly involved in the substance of the work, not just managing those who do it. No task is too big or small for you to get into the details of it.

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member —  we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.We are also very proud to have won the 2023 AFR Best Place to Work award in three categories including Overall winner. In 2022, we became certified as one of Australia’s Great Places to Work. Additionally, we’re proud to have won the AIC 2026 Venture Capital Firm of the Year.

‍About Blackbird

‍Blackbird is a venture capital firm with offices across Australia and New Zealand. We invest in technology companies founded by Australians and New Zealanders, wherever they are in the world. Founded in 2012, we've backed more than 190 companies worth over $10B combined, including Canva, Airwallex, PsiQuantum, Halter, Eucalyptus, Heidi and Baseten. We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies. We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.