Group General Counsel, Compliance

Schelstraete Delacourt is searching for a Group General Counsel, Compliance & Risk on behalf of its client, a Belgian industrial technology company.

The company is a global pioneer in turnkey coating solutions, with sites in Belgium, China and the US. With €100 million revenue today, the company is aiming to triply by 2031, through organic growth and acquisitions. That means complex international contracts, licensing, IP and capital-intensive projects, and a Group General Counsel who shapes how it all gets done.

The role

You report to the Group CFO and lead Legal, Risk & Compliance at group level. This is a standalone position with a mandate to build:

• Managing Legal end-to-end: Take autonomous responsibility for commercial and corporate law, supported by external counsel where needed.
• Building Legal Operations: Set up the processes, templates, tools and workflows, including smart use of AI, that make legal support faster, more scalable and increasingly self-service.
• Setting up Enterprise Risk Management: Establish a group-wide risk management framework.
• Strengthening legal awareness: Translate regulation, such as the Cyber Resilience Act, into practical guidelines for the business.
• Enabling growth: Support international expansion, IP protection and M&A, and acting as a trusted advisor to the CFO, CEO and the leadership team.

The ideal profile:

• 10–15+ years of legal experience, with deep expertise in commercial and corporate law;
• Experience running legal autonomously; either as head of legal in a business unit or region ready for a group mandate, or in a mid-sized international organisation; a law firm background is a strong plus;
• A track record in an industrial or technology environment;
• Affinity with risk & compliance, legal operations, technology and AI;
• A builder's mindset: you create frameworks from scratch and turn ideas into delivery and have the managerial drive to get things done;
• Assertive but diplomatic, pragmatic and solution-oriented, with the credibility to challenge and influence senior stakeholders;
• Comfortable in an international, multicultural environment;
• Excellent Dutch and English.