Global Head of Ethics and Compliance

Global Governance & Engagement Officer

Location: Barcelona, Spain (Global HQ)

The Opportunity

A leading global healthcare company is seeking a Global Governance & Engagement Officer to shape and drive the future of its corporate compliance and ethics framework. This is a senior role, positioned at the heart of the organisation’s compliance strategy, with direct impact on governance, culture, and ethical decision-making worldwide.

This newly created role will report to the Chief Compliance Officer and partner with senior leadership across regions. The mandate is clear: strengthen governance, embed ethics into everyday business, and ensure alignment between culture, accountability, and performance across all functions and geographies.

Key Responsibilities

- Leadership Messaging: Reinforce ethical tone at all levels of the business through leadership behaviours, communications, and governance practices.
- Culture & Ethics: Assess organisational culture, psychological safety, and trust, and translate insights into action plans with global and regional leaders.
- Governance & Oversight: Maintain and refine governance structures, escalation pathways, and global policies and procedures.
- Board Engagement: Deliver clear, data-driven reporting to the Executive Team and Board Committees on ethics, culture, and compliance performance.
- Risk & Metrics: Conduct enterprise risk assessments, define KPIs, and oversee digital tools to monitor governance effectiveness.
- Training & Recognition: Develop global campaigns, training content, and recognition initiatives to strengthen compliance awareness and reward ethical leadership.
- Certification & Accountability: Lead the annual compliance certification process across all business units, ensuring robust oversight and accountability.

Profile Sought

- University degree in Law, Business, Compliance, or related field.
- 10+ years’ experience in governance, ethics, or compliance, with a global scope.
- Strong background in board/C-suite reporting, governance models, and organisational culture initiatives.
- Familiarity with digital compliance tools, culture metrics, and enterprise risk assessment.
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder-management skills, able to engage across functions and geographies.
- Fluent English required; additional languages (Spanish, French, etc.) a plus.

Capabilities & Style

- Strategic yet pragmatic, linking governance principles to practical business actions.
- High integrity, sound judgement, and cultural sensitivity.
- Experienced in managing change, leading cross-functional projects, and navigating complex organisations.
- Strong analytical mindset to translate data and culture assessments into meaningful governance improvements.

Additional Information

- Based in Barcelona, with up to 30% international travel.
- Full executive exposure, with a direct reporting line to the CCO.
- Opportunity to influence global compliance culture during a critical growth phase for the company.

The Leonid Group Corporate Governance is a talent acquisition consultancy that specialises in the placement of Legal, Compliance, Trade Compliance & Ethics professionals on an international scale across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Legal and compliance are both global, with teams worldwide, and our network reflects this. We work with multinational corporations to help structure their departments with the best people, from the Global Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel to the Compliance Analyst and Trade Compliance Specialist.