About the Role
The Legal, Risk, Compliance & Governance Manager will serve as Zeraki’s principal internal legal adviser, providing practical, commercially sound advice that supports business growth, protects the company’s interests and strengthens compliance and governance. The Manager will build and manage a lean legal function, handling day-to-day legal matters and engaging external counsel where specialist expertise, complexity or risk requires additional support.
Working closely with the CEO and teams across the business, the Manager will anticipate legal and regulatory issues, guide commercial negotiations and business decisions, and support product development, partnerships and expansion into new markets. The role will cover Zeraki’s education technology operations and evolving activities in payments, embedded finance and AI, alongside employment, intellectual property, data protection, corporate governance, disputes and investor readiness.
The Manager will establish systems for managing legal work, monitoring compliance and coordinating risk management, with clear accountability across departments and timely
Requirements
Key Responsibilities
1. Build Zeraki’s legal, risk and compliance architecture
Establish and maintain procedures for handling legal requests, reviewing contracts and obtaining approvals. Maintain a central repository of legal documents, a contract tracker covering key obligations, renewal dates and notice periods, and up-to-date policy and risk registers. Track statutory and regulatory deadlines through a compliance calendar, follow up with responsible departments on outstanding actions, and report material risks and matters requiring management’s attention.
2. Provide proactive, strategic legal advisory and business partnership
Provide timely, strategic and sound legal advice to leadership and business teams across a broad range of legal topics and risks. Work closely with business teams to understand Zeraki’s strategy, values and operations, assess the legal risks and commercial benefits of proposed decisions, and recommend practical solutions aligned with the company’s objectives and approved risk appetite. Identify potential legal issues and risks, and advise on available options and their implications, and recommend practical measures that protect Zeraki’s interests and support business growth.
3. Own commercial contracting and legal support for business execution
Review, draft, negotiate and coordinate contracts across the business, including school agreements, vendor contracts, partnership agreements, payment and financial services arrangements, data processing agreements, content licensing agreements, software and technology contracts, NDAs, employment-related agreements and strategic commercial arrangements.
For high-value or high-risk contracts, the Manager will lead internal issue-spotting, coordinate negotiation strategy with business owners, involve external legal counsel where necessary, and ensure Zeraki does not sign documents that expose the company to unmanaged risk.
The role must balance speed with judgment. Legal should help the business close deals, launch partnerships and serve customers faster while avoiding and mitigating liabilities.
4. Lead regulatory compliance across products, countries and business models
Own Zeraki’s compliance calendar and regulatory obligations across relevant jurisdictions. This includes corporate filings at various government business registries, data protection registrations and obligations, education-sector requirements, payment-related compliance, consumer protection obligations, employment law compliance, IP registrations, licensing requirements, statutory renewals and regulatory correspondence.
As Zeraki expands embedded finance, payments, lending partnerships, insurance partnerships, wallets, AI-enabled workflows and data-driven products, this role must help the business understand what is allowed, what requires regulatory engagement, what must be structured through partners, and what controls must be in place before launch.
5. Serve as legal and risk advisor to Product, Technology and AI-enabled transformation
Work closely with Product, Engineering, Data, and the AI teams to ensure that legal, privacy, data protection, consumer protection, child/student data, IP, platform liability and regulatory issues are considered early in product design. This is especially important as Zeraki becomes more AI-enabled. The Manager should help develop practical guardrails for responsible AI use, data handling, user consent, automated workflows, vendor tools, internal AI agents, product terms, and risk controls. The role is not to slow product teams down at the end of the process. It is to be embedded early enough that the right compliance choices are designed into the product from the beginning.
6. Strengthen governance, board readiness and institutional discipline
Support the CEO, Board and Company Secretary in implementing sound corporate governance practices. Coordinate the preparation of board and shareholder resolutions, ensure the necessary approvals are obtained, and track implementation of decisions. Maintain accurate and up-to-date corporate records, including statutory registers, subsidiary records, shareholding and employee share ownership scheme records, delegated authorities and governance policies. Coordinate statutory filings within applicable deadlines and keep corporate documentation organised and readily available for Board review, audits and investor due diligence.
7. Prepare Zeraki for fundraising, due diligence, audits and major transactions
Own legal readiness for fundraising, investor due diligence, audits, strategic partnerships, financing transactions and potential M&A activity. This includes maintaining legal data rooms, identifying legal red flags early, coordinating external counsel, reviewing transaction documents, tracking closing conditions, ensuring required approvals are obtained, and helping management understand the legal and governance implications of proposed transactions. Success means investors, auditors and partners find a company whose legal house is in order.
8. Build and maintain the enterprise risk management system
Develop and maintain a practical risk register covering legal, regulatory, operational, data protection, product, employment, governance, partnership, cross-border and reputational risks. The Manager should not only list risks. They should help the business prioritize them, assign owners, define mitigation plans, track closure, and escalate material issues to management and the Board as appropriate. The role should help Zeraki develop a habit of seeing risk early, discussing it clearly and resolving it deliberately.
9. Dispute Management and Litigation Support
Review and respond promptly to demand letters and threatened claims, seeking extensions or agreement to hold further action where appropriate pending appointment of external counsel.
Appoint and instruct external counsel within approved authority, provide clear briefs and coordinate the prosecution or defence of matters involving Zeraki.
Collate relevant internal documents, preserve evidence and review draft pleadings with the relevant teams and external counsel for factual accuracy and completeness.
Identify and prepare witnesses with external counsel, and represent Zeraki as a company witness where appropriately authorised and conversant with the facts.
Engage in out-of-court settlement discussions and negotiate with opposing counsel and auctioneers where necessary, subject to approved mandates and settlement limits.
Obtain regular status reports from external counsel, maintain an up-to-date litigation register and hold quarterly review meetings to assess progress, exposure, costs and next steps.
Advise the CEO promptly on matters exposing Zeraki to financial loss, adverse orders, enforcement action or reputational harm, and recommend appropriate action.
Coordinate timely compliance with court directions, orders and settlement terms, and keep management and relevant departments informed of developments.
Prepare litigation reports for audit purposes in consultation with Finance and external counsel, and coordinate responses to auditors’ requests for legal confirmations.
10. Manage external counsel for quality, cost and usefulness
Coordinate the selection, appointment and performance review of firms on Zeraki’s external legal panel. Allocate instructions according to expertise, capacity and potential conflicts of interest, subject to internal approvals. Agree clear scopes of work, fees, deliverables and timelines; monitor service quality and costs; and verify invoices against agreed terms and work undertaken. Ensure advice addresses Zeraki’s needs, clarify recommendations where necessary, and follow up with the relevant departments on implementation.
11. Build policies, templates, playbooks and training
Develop and maintain practical legal and compliance tools for the company, including contract templates, clause playbooks, approval matrices, compliance checklists, data protection policies, AI use guidelines, regulatory launch checklists, employment templates, procurement/legal review processes, whistleblowing procedures, anti-bribery controls and internal training materials.
12.Employment Advisory and Internal Dispute Resolution
Work closely with HR and management to identify and address employment-related risks, including breaches of employment contracts, staff grievances and matters likely to result in litigation. Key responsibilities include:
Review employment contracts, HR policies and procedures to ensure alignment with applicable employment laws and the company’s obligations.
Advise on internal grievances, investigations, disciplinary proceedings and appeals, and participate in disciplinary panels where appropriate, maintaining impartiality and avoiding conflicting roles.
Prepare internal legal memoranda assessing whether proposed terminations, dismissals and redundancies meet the applicable substantive and procedural requirements, identifying gaps and recommending corrective action before decisions are made.
Negotiate and document mutual separation agreements and employment settlements within approved mandates.
Guide HR on notices, correspondence, evidence and record-keeping necessary to support fair employment decisions and defend potential claims.
Train managers on employment law compliance, performance management, disciplinary procedures and early identification of employment risks.
Monitor recurring employment issues and recommend changes to policies and management practices to reduce disputes and legal exposure.
Who We Are Looking For
The right person will be comfortable in ambiguity. They will not wait for a fully built legal department, perfect systems or unlimited external counsel budgets. They will build the system while doing the work. They must be able to move between the detail of a contract clause, the structure of a regulatory issue, the discipline of a board resolution, the sensitivity of a dispute, the urgency of a product launch and the judgment required in executive decision-making. They should be a strong writer, a structured thinker, a calm operator, a credible advisor, and a person of unquestionable integrity.
They should be a true business partner: someone who understands business versus legal tradeoffs, knows which risks are acceptable and which are not, and can advise leaders with both courage and commercial judgment.
Required Experience and Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have:
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree with at least Second Class Honours (Upper Division) from a recognised university.
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with a valid practising certificate.
Certified Secretary (CS) qualification and demonstrated experience in company secretarial practice and corporate governance.
At least five (5) years’ post-admission legal experience, including substantial exposure to commercial contracts, corporate law, employment law, regulatory compliance and risk management.
At least one (1) year’s experience practising in a law firm. Currently employed as in-house legal counsel within a company, with demonstrated experience advising management and supporting day-to-day business operations.
Experience in technology, fintech, financial services or a business operating across multiple jurisdictions will be an added advantage.
Demonstrated knowledge of data protection and technology contracts, with experience advising on payments, financial services, education-sector regulation or digital platform businesses.
Practical experience supporting Board and shareholder meetings, preparing resolutions, maintaining statutory and corporate records, and coordinating legal due diligence.
Proven ability to manage an external legal panel, control legal costs, monitor delivery and ensure implementation of advice.
Strong legal drafting, negotiation and communication skills, with the ability to explain legal risks clearly to non-lawyers and provide practical recommendations that support business decisions.
Helpful but Not Required
Experience with fundraising, venture-backed companies, SAFE/convertible instruments, ESOPs, shareholder matters or cross-border corporate structures.
Experience with embedded finance, lending, insurance partnerships, payments, wallets, AI governance, data protection implementation or regulatory engagement.
Experience building legal operations systems, contract repositories, compliance trackers, policy frameworks or risk registers from scratch.
What we offer
● A chance to contribute to a mission-driven company that's making a real difference in education across Africa.
● A collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic work environment where your input is valued.
Our culture
At Zeraki, our culture defines how we work, how we make decisions, and how we succeed together. We are united by eight core values: Integrity, Love of Learning, Highest Standards, Deliver Results, Hire & Develop the Best, Manage Through Trust, Empathy, and Have Backbone; Disagree & Commit.
We act with integrity, doing what is right and taking ownership of our actions. We have a love of learning, staying curious and continuously seeking to improve. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, continually raising the bar in the quality of our work, and we deliver results by taking ownership, acting with urgency, and following through on our commitments.
We hire and develop the best, surrounding ourselves with exceptional people and creating opportunities for them to grow and excel. We manage through trust, giving people the context, freedom, responsibility, and accountability to do their best work.
We lead with empathy, creating an environment where people are respected, supported, and able to thrive. And we have backbone, disagree and commit - we speak up when we disagree, challenge ideas respectfully, and once a decision is made, commit fully to making it successful.
Together, these values create a culture of freedom and responsibility, high performance, continuous learning, and meaningful impact, empowering every Zerakian to Be Extraordinary. Copy
About the Company
Zeraki is a pioneering EdTech startup on a mission to redefine education across Africa. Our innovative technology tools are designed to make learning more accessible, effective, and engaging for parents, teachers, and students alike. At the heart of Zeraki is a deep-rooted passion for harnessing the power of education to unlock the potential of the continent's youth and drive transformative change. Zeraki proudly serves over 2.7 million users in 10 countries, establishing itself as one of Africa's leading EdTech companies.
Our commitment to excellence and innovation has not gone unnoticed. Zeraki was the proud recipient of the African Union Commission Innovating Education in Africa Award in 2022. Zeraki is one of three EdTech companies participating in the 2024 cohort of the EY AI SDG Accelerator and is also part of the 2024 cohort of the Microsoft Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact Program. Through these accolades and partnerships, Zeraki continues to shape the future of learning in Africa, demonstrating the transformative role of technology in education.