Legal Counsel - Employment Law Leaning (Mat Cover)

About Pleo

Messy spend management is tricky business. And tedious processes are a lose-lose situation for all involved, not just finance. At Pleo, we're changing that. We build spend solutions that make managing money seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike - with a vision to help all businesses ‘go beyond’.

The word ‘Pleo’ actually means ‘more than you’d expect’, and living by that mantra has been the secret to our success over the last 10 years.

Now, we’re at a pivotal moment in our journey; every move we make has a direct impact on our 40,000+ customers, our business, and our collective success. We need people who take pride in uncovering customer needs, who turn complex problems into simple solutions, challenge the way things are done (respectfully), and always aim high. With great ambitions driving us forward, we can’t say we’ve got this whole thing figured out. And frankly, that’s half the fun! What we can say is that we’re a driven, progressive, and, importantly, a kind bunch of 850+ people from over 100 nationalities, all committed to delivering the future of business spending, together.

About the role

We're looking for an interim In-house Legal Counsel to join our Legal team at Pleo in Copenhagen, Denmark. In this role, you'll serve as a trusted legal advisor across the business, protecting our interests and enabling growth as we scale our fintech platform. If you're excited about working at the intersection of legal strategy and operational excellence, and are passionate about building a compliant, well-governed fintech company, then this is the opportunity for you!

Please note that the role is a parental leave cover and therefore fixed-term until 30 September 2027.

Who you’ll be working with and reporting to

You'll report to one of our Associate Director, Legal and work closely with teams in People, Fraud, Finance, Product, Compliance and Operations. Our legal team is highly collaborative and dedicated to managing legal risk while enabling business velocity.

What you’ll be doing

As an In-house Legal Counsel, you will:

• Serve as the primary point of contact for business queries across all departments, providing timely, practical legal guidance on day-to-day operational matters.
• Support our People team on employment law, workplace policies, and labor compliance, including contract reviews, policy drafting, and regulatory adherence across multiple jurisdictions.
• Corporate administration by drafting, reviewing, and amending internal policies, procedures, and standardised legal templates that the business can use efficiently.
• Assist managing fraud and compliance escalations by conducting liability assessments, performing compliance checks, and providing risk mitigation advice to protect the business.
• Assist with customer disputes and regulatory engagement with the UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), supporting escalations, preparing responses, and helping to ensure we meet all regulatory deadlines and requirements.

What you bring

You'll thrive in this role if you have:

• A Cand.Jur or equivalent legal qualification recognised in Denmark.
• 2-5 years of legal experience – ideally in fintech, financial services, or a fast-growing scale-up environment where you've handled a broad range of matters.
• Knowledge about employment law and HR compliance – you understand the nuances of employment contracts, workplace policies, and labor law across multiple jurisdictions.
• Strong vendor and contract management skills – you can review, negotiate, and draft commercial agreements efficiently.
• Excellent communication skills – you can translate complex legal concepts into practical business advice for non-legal stakeholders.
• A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset – you see problems as opportunities and can manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

• Experience with compliance and risk management in a regulated industry is a plus as well as managing regulatory escalations and disputes, particularly with financial regulators or ombudsman services.

Why is this role a good fit for you

This role is a good fit for you if

• You want a real look at how the law works in practice, where you implement it and explain it rather than argue it in theory
• You want genuine input into decisions, balancing the technically correct answer against what actually works commercially
• You like building things that outlast you: templates, policies and process that the business will use long after your contract ends

This role is not a good fit for you if

• You want a clean roadmap. The team is under-resourced and the workload is heavy, so expect more firefighting than planned work
• You're looking for a permanent role. This is a 12-month fixed-term contract covering parental leave

• You want to specialise deeply or lead. This is a broad, hands-on individual contributor role where you'll be supported, not managing

How you’ll develop in this role

In your first three months at Pleo, you'll:

• Take over the routine employment workload so it runs independently of your manager
• Get to know the business well enough that your advice fits how Pleo actually operates, not just what the regulation says
• Start shaping the policies and templates the move from startup to corporate needs

Across the 12 months you'll build in-house practice and a working knowledge of fintech regulation that's hard to get anywhere else, with direct support from an experienced lead. Plenty of people use a contract like this as the step that takes them from theory into commercial legal work for good.

The location

This role will is a hybrid role with an expectation of spending on average 3 days a week in our Copenhagen office.

Show me the benefits!

💳 Your own Pleo card (no more out-of-pocket spending!)

🍜 Lunch is on us for your work days - enjoy catered meals or receive a lunch allowance based on your local office

🏥 Comprehensive private healthcare - depending on your location, coverage options include Vitality, Alan or Médis

🌴 We offer 25 days of holiday + your public holidays

🏠 For our Team, we offer both hybrid and fully remote working options

🏖️ Option to purchase 5 additional days of holiday through a salary sacrifice

❤️‍🩹 We use MyndUp to give our employees access to free mental health and well-being support with great success so far

👶 Paid parental leave - we want to make sure that we're supportive of families and help you feel that you don't have to compromise your family due to work

The interview process

We want to ensure you're set up for success and understand what will be expected of you. If your application is successful, our interview process is as follows:

1. Intro call (30 minutes) – A chat with our Talent Partner to discuss the role, your background, and what's important to you in your next move.
2. Interview with our Associate Director, Legal (45 minutes) – Meet to discuss how you see your role supporting the business, your approach to compliance culture, and your vision for the legal function.
3. Final round with our Associate Director and General Counsel (60 minutes) – We'll dive deeper into your legal experience, explore specific scenarios you've handled, and discuss how you approach problem-solving in an in-house environment.

Transparency is important to us so we also wanted to share some insights about what we’re looking for in applications to ensure you can set yourself up for success!

Last time we hired a Legal Counsel, we received a large number of applications but only a finite number could be selected for an intro call. Some of the key reasons why previous candidates didn’t make it past the application screening stage include:

• CV writing and content: we receive a lot of CVs, and many of them are AI-generated. We love seeing people leverage AI (it’s a big focus for us internally too)but without human intervention, these CVs can sometimes become generic and fail to show a candidate in the best light. What we're really looking for is the specific details of real impact that only you know from your previous experience. A top tip from us is to use the “Achieved X, as measured by Y, by doing Z” formula (credit: Laszlo Bock, ~2014) to give a really clear picture of what you’ve worked on. A final note: including links to your previous companies' websites is a huge help and allows us to truly understand your background!
• Application care: every single application we receive is reviewed by a human (yes, hundreds of them) because we believe that candidates' efforts should be matched by an equal level of human care. This means that we expect a similar level of attention put into your application. Read and answer the application questions carefully, they make a huge difference in our decision-making process.
• Profile to role fit: highlight most important aspects of the role, points that might get misunderstood, any specific industry requirements etc.

About your application

• English first. Since it's our company language, please submit your application in English. You’ll be using it a lot if you join us.
• A fair look for everyone. Our talent team reads every single application to ensure the process is fair. To keep things running smoothly, we only accept applications through our system—our support team can’t pass on calls or emails.
• Diversity drives us. We can only reach our goals if our team reflects the world around us. That starts with you hitting apply, even if you don't tick every single box. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to join us.
• Interview at your best. We want you to feel comfortable throughout the process. If you have any accessibility requirements or need a specific format, email belonging@pleo.io. We’ll design a process that works for you.
• Your data is safe. When you apply, we process your personal data as a data processor. For more information on how Pleo processes personal data, read our Privacy Policy here.
• Applying for multiple roles? Nothing is stopping you, and we assess every role independently. However, we do look for alignment, so make sure you can explain why your interest and experience are right for each specific role.
• Reapplying. If you’re applying for the same role again, please wait six months from your last decision before hitting submit.