Legal Director – Real Estate Development – Majid Al Futtaim

Majid Al Futtaim is one of the region’s largest diversified developers, with a portfolio spanning shopping malls, mixed-use communities, hotels and residential districts across the Middle East and North Africa. This Legal Director role sits at the top of the legal function for the group’s real estate development arm in Egypt, one of MAF’s most active growth markets for master-planned communities and retail-led destinations. The person in this seat is the senior legal voice in the room whenever land, capital and long-term development risk are on the table.

Day to day, the role is a mix of hands-on legal work and team leadership. Expect to negotiate and review land acquisition agreements, joint venture and shareholder arrangements, construction and EPC contracts, and leasing and sale agreements for residential, retail and mixed-use assets. Egyptian real estate and construction law, zoning and permitting requirements, and cross-border structuring between Egypt and the wider MAF group will all come into play regularly. The Director also runs the in-house legal team supporting the development business, briefs the local executive committee on legal exposure, manages outside counsel on litigation or specialist matters, and keeps corporate governance and regulatory filings on track.

Because the mandate is accountable for the legal function end to end, this is as much about judgment and prioritization as it is about drafting. The Director decides which risks the business can live with, which need to be walked back to the negotiating table, and which need escalation before a deal or project milestone can proceed. That means constant coordination with development, finance, commercial and project teams, translating legal risk into business language executives can act on quickly.

This role suits a qualified lawyer with substantial real estate, construction or corporate law experience in the MENA region, who has already led a legal team rather than simply been part of one. Comfort operating inside a large, multi-entity group structure, fluency in navigating both civil law frameworks and international commercial practice, and the composure to be the final legal check on high-value transactions are all essential to doing the job well.

A development business the size of Majid Al Futtaim's Egypt operations moves large sums of capital into land, construction and long-term partnerships, and every one of those commitments carries legal risk that can take years to unwind if it goes wrong. This role is the checkpoint that keeps that risk in proportion to the reward. Getting land titles, joint venture terms, construction contracts and leasing arrangements right the first time protects project timelines and margins that would otherwise be eroded by disputes, penalty clauses or regulatory setbacks. The Legal Director also shapes how quickly the business can move: a legal function that reviews deals thoroughly but efficiently lets development, finance and commercial teams close transactions and start construction or leasing on schedule, rather than losing months to unresolved legal questions. On the governance side, the role protects the wider Majid Al Futtaim group's reputation and regulatory standing in a market where enforcement and compliance expectations continue to tighten. In effect, this position sits between the ambition of a large development pipeline and the discipline needed to execute it safely, making it one of the more consequential seats in the local organization even though its work rarely appears on a marketing brochure.

Leading the legal function for a major developer's operations in one of the region's most active real estate markets is a career-defining vantage point. It puts the Director inside every major transaction the business runs, from the first land negotiation through construction contracting to eventual leasing or sale, giving a breadth of deal exposure that few in-house roles at smaller companies can match. Working within Majid Al Futtaim's group structure also means regular exposure to how a large, multi-country organization coordinates legal strategy across jurisdictions, which builds fluency in corporate structuring and governance that transfers directly to general counsel or regional legal leadership roles. Managing an in-house team sharpens people-management and delegation skills alongside the legal craft itself, since the Director is accountable not just for their own judgment but for the quality and consistency of a whole function's output. The role also builds a rare specialism: deep, practical knowledge of Egyptian real estate and construction law combined with the commercial fluency to apply it inside a fast-moving development business, a combination that is difficult to acquire outside a platform of this scale. For a lawyer aiming toward general counsel, regional legal director or even a move into development leadership itself, this position offers the mix of technical depth, commercial exposure and team leadership that hiring committees for those next-step roles specifically look for, along with a strong professional network across real estate, banking and construction in the region.

• Qualified lawyer (LLB/JD or equivalent, plus relevant bar admission) with substantial post-qualification experience in real estate, construction or corporate law
• Prior experience leading or managing an in-house legal team, not just contributing as an individual lawyer
• Strong working knowledge of Egyptian real estate, land and construction regulation, or demonstrated ability to build that expertise quickly
• Track record negotiating land acquisition, joint venture, EPC/construction and leasing agreements for large-scale developments
• Experience advising senior executives or board-level stakeholders on legal risk and deal structuring
• Familiarity with corporate governance requirements across a multi-entity group structure
• Arabic and English proficiency strongly preferred given the Egypt market focus
• Sound judgment under commercial pressure, with the ability to balance legal caution against development timelines