Senior Legal Executive

Senior Legal Executive- Legal and Compliance, Cote d’Ivoire About Workpay Workpay Africa is a Y Combinator-backed HR, payroll, and Employer of Record (EOR) fintech operating across 30 African jurisdictions. We enable global and regional companies to hire, pay, and manage talent across Africa compliantly, efficiently and at scale. Our SaaS platform and managed services power the workforce operations of some of the world's most ambitious organisations entering and expanding across the continent. This role is instrumental in anchoring Workpay's legal and compliance presence in Cote d’Ivoire and across Francophone Africa, operating under the strategic oversight of the Head of Legal & Compliance. Job Summary Your role will be to serve as Workpay’s primary legal advisor for Francophone Africa. Your responsibilities will range from end-to-end legal advisory, employment law compliance, data protection compliance, tax compliance and regulatory affairs management Responsibilities Employment Law and Advisor Own the full lifecycle of employment contracts under Ivorian law from initial drafting through amendment, renewal and termination. Serve as the primary legal adviser on employment matters covering issues from disciplinary procedures and restructurings to statutory entitlements and collective agreement compliance. Proactively monitor legislative developments across Francophone Africa and translating these developments into timely guidance for the business before they become compliance exposures. Entity Management & Corporate Governance Lead entity establishment across Francophone African jurisdictions and coordinating with notaries to ensure compliant and timely incorporation. Own post-incorporation compliance for Workpay's Francophone entities including statutory filings, annual returns and statutory register maintenance. Build and manage a network of trusted external counsel and local partners across Francophone Africa, exercising judgement on firm selection, scope of engagement, and cost management, and synthesizing their advice into clear, actionable recommendations for the business. Monitor corporate governance obligations across jurisdictions on a continuous basis including changes to capital requirements, director obligations, and reporting thresholds ensuring no entity falls out of good standing. Contracts & Commercial Agreements Draft, negotiate, and advise on the full range of Workpay's commercial agreements including EOR agreements, SLAs, NDAs, data processing agreements and financial services contracts in both French and English. Design and govern Workpay's contract management framework for the Cote d’Ivoire and Francophone African portfolio, ensuring robust version control, expiry tracking, and escalation protocols, and conducting periodic reviews of standard templates to reflect regulatory and commercial changes. Data Protection & Regulatory Compliance Own Workpay's data protection compliance programme in Francophone Africa, including CNDP notifications and registrations, data processing agreement drafting, data subject rights handling, cross-border transfer mechanisms, and breach response protocols. Lead Workpay's ISO/IEC 27001 compliance obligations for the Cote d’Ivoire entity, including information security policy maintenance, internal audit coordination, and management review support; candidates holding or pursuing Lead Implementer or Lead Auditor certification will be at a strong advantage. Engage proactively with Ivorian and regional regulators on licensing applications, product approval processes, and ongoing regulatory correspondence, escalating material risks in a timely manner. Collaborate with Workpay's Product and Engineering teams to embed privacy-by-design principles into new product features, ensuring data protection obligations are addressed at the design stage rather than retrospectively. Immigration & Mobility Design and manage end-to-end work permit and residence permit workflows for expatriate employees in Cote d’Ivoire, coordinating across regional authorities, and maintaining a live tracking system for permit status, renewal timelines, and expiry risk. Provide pre-deployment immigration advisory to EOR clients considering the placement of foreign nationals into Cote d’Ivoire and other Francophone jurisdictions, assessing eligibility, timelines, cost, and regulatory restrictions before hiring decisions are made, and managing the full permit lifecycle through to completion. Strategic & Leadership Responsibilities Representing the legal function in executive, board, and client-facing forums as required, and exercising independent judgement on time-sensitive matters in the absence of senior oversight. Own the legal workstream of fundraising, M&A, and strategic partnership due diligence processes including data room preparation, legal risk disclosure and coordination with transaction counsel working directly with the executive team on material transactions. Build and maintain Workpay's legal knowledge infrastructure for the Cote d’Ivoire and Francophone African portfolio, including employment law playbooks, client-facing compliance FAQs, and jurisdiction matrices, enabling the sales and operations teams to engage clients with accuracy and confidence. Contribute to Workpay's external thought leadership programme by producing legally authoritative content articles, regulatory updates, client briefings that reinforces Workpay's reputation as the compliance authority for pan-African workforce solutions. Qualifications Law degree with admission to the Ivorian Bar or the bar of another Francophone African jurisdiction. Minimum 5 years' post-qualification experience with meaningful exposure to multi-jurisdictional African legal practice, whether in a law firm or in-house legal team. Demonstrated ability to draft, negotiate, and advise on commercial agreements including EOR agreements, SLAs, and data processing agreements to a professional standard in both French and English. Native or near-native fluency in French and professional fluency in English, with a demonstrated ability to produce legally precise written work in both languages; candidates will be assessed on bilingual drafting competence during the selection process.