POSTED: 11th June 2026
STARTING DATE: As soon as possible
FULL TIME, ROTTERDAM
MISSION TO METRICS
The Ocean Cleanup is a global nonprofit that develops and scales solutions to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, driving systemic change, and creating a lasting positive impact for people, wildlife, and the planet. In the next few years, we aim to have 300+ Interceptor solutions deployed across 30+ cities. Every deployment depends on legal infrastructure that works, contracts negotiated, permits secured, regulatory frameworks navigated, and institutional relationships built.
THE ASSIGNMENT
As Legal Counsel & Government Affairs, you provide comprehensive legal support across The Ocean Cleanup’s international programme. Your work spans multiple areas of law, including contracts and commercial agreements, government and institutional relations, regulatory compliance, and operational legal advice, across a portfolio of countries that evolves as the organization scales.
Your initial focus will be on our Southeast Asian operations. As the organization scales, your portfolio will grow with it, with local counsel joining in new markets and your role evolving accordingly.
You will be the legal backbone of our international operations, the person who makes complex things happen across jurisdictions, governments, and cultures where there is often no precedent to follow.
At 8+ years, we expect full ownership from day one. You manage your portfolio, anticipate problems, and escalate when genuinely needed, not the other way around .
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE AT 12 MONTHS
- Uninterrupted legal continuity across all active jurisdictions in your portfolio
- Key institutional and government relationships are owned, active, and not dependent on any individual's memory
- All external counsel is properly instructed, briefed, and cost-managed
- Country transition plans for incoming markets are documented and delivered on time
- The operations and deployment teams see Legal as a trusted partner in getting things done
RESPONSIBILITIES
This role covers a broad range of legal work across the following areas:
Contracts & Commercial
- Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of agreements, deployment contracts, partnership frameworks, MoUs, supplier and service agreements, funding and grant agreements
- Develop and maintain contract templates for frequently used agreement types
- Support the organization’s contract management and CLM governance
Regulatory & Compliance
- Map applicable laws and regulations across jurisdictions and support business compliance
- Advise on regulatory requirements for operations and deployments in new and existing markets
- Track regulatory changes across priority jurisdictions and provide early warning to leadership
Government & Institutional Relations
- Build and maintain relationships with governments, regulatory authorities, and international organizations in the deployment regions
- Support engagement with public sector counterparts, from permit processes to high-level partnership negotiations
- Work with local counsel and country teams on government-facing legal processes
Operational Legal Support
- Provide legal advice across all phases of a project, from feasibility and permitting through to implementation and handover, working closely with deployment, operations, and business development teams
- Navigate complex multi-stakeholder environments, including national and local governments, international organizations, NGO partners, and private sector counterparts
- Challenge business decisions from a legal perspective where necessary
- Manage and instruct external counsel across jurisdictions, quality, alignment, and cost discipline
International Scaling
- Contribute to the Global Deployment Framework, the legal governance structure for country-level operations
- Build the country transition architecture for incoming markets, including local counsel onboarding and knowledge transfer
- Support the organization’s international entity structure and cross-border legal strategy
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
“Even if you don’t meet every professional qualification listed, we strongly encourage you to apply if you believe you have the right skills, experience, and motivation to contribute to our mission. We recognize that talent and potential come in many forms, and we value diverse perspectives and unconventional career paths. If you’re passionate about the work we do and confident in your ability to make an impact, don’t hesitate to submit your application—we’d love to hear from you”
- Minimum 8 years of experience as a qualified lawyer, with significant in-house, international organization, or NGO experience
- Experience supporting complex international projects across multiple phases, permitting, contracting, stakeholder engagement, implementation, ideally in infrastructure, environmental, or development contexts
- Extensive experience drafting and negotiating complex international contracts across multiple agreement types
- Proven track record engaging with governments, public sector bodies, and international organizations
- Demonstrated ability to manage external counsel across multiple jurisdictions, quality, cost, and strategic alignment
- Strong knowledge of international regulatory environments, Southeast Asia, Latin America, or equivalent experience
- Common law qualification preferred; civil law candidates with substantial international experience considered
- Excellent English language skills (written and verbal); additional languages relevant to deployment regions a strong plus
- Willingness to travel to deployment countries
PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS
- Broad and pragmatic, comfortable across multiple legal disciplines, and you find solutions that move the mission forward
- Comfortable with ambiguity and complexity, you have navigated jurisdictions and situations without precedent before
- High cultural intelligence, you build trust with governments, institutions, and partners across diverse contexts
- Independent and proactive, at this level, you manage your portfolio without being managed
- Understand that being a great colleague and a trustworthy human being are requirements, not nice-to-haves, for any member of the Legal Team at The Ocean Cleanup
- Genuinely motivated by the mission, you want to help rid the world's oceans of plastic, and that is evident in how you work
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
- Starting date – As soon as possible
- Location – Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Conducting a pre-employment check may be part of this recruitment process.
- At The Ocean Cleanup, we believe we are stronger together, while harnessing the uniqueness each individual brings. That is why we take a fair, equal opportunity, and transparent approach to hiring and welcome special needs requests.
