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.

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 quick 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 degr

📌 General Counsel (Sydney)
🏢 black.ai
📍 Sydney