Commercial Senior Legal Counsel in Reading

We are seeking an accomplished Senior Commercial Lawyer. This is a senior, influential role for a lawyer who combines deep technical expertise in commercial contracting with strong leadership skills and the ability to operate as a trusted adviser to the business. This will be on a 12 month fixed term contract. You will be required to provide pragmatic, commercially focused legal advice on high‐value, complex and business‐critical contracts. Working closely with senior stakeholders across the organisation, you will help enable AWE’s mission through sound commercial judgement, effective risk management and high‐quality legal delivery.

In this role you will be involved in:

• Providing clear, pragmatic and business‐oriented legal advice on commercial relationships, transactions and supply‐chain arrangements.
• Advise on the most effective commercial structures, contracting models and risk allocation to support organisational objectives.
• Represent the Company in its dealings with third parties, whether directly or indirectly, in one or more of commercial discussions and disputes management.
• Manage the provision by others (including other staff and external advisers) of such advice and the line management of the procurement legal team and the intellectual property team.

Some of the Key Responsibilities

• Lead members of the legal team in providing technical commercial and procurement legal advice to colleagues in the wider organisation.
• Manage the provision of drafting and negotiation of standard and bespoke contract documents and assisting in contract management (including for example variations, novation and termination).
• Influence and facilitate best practice in AWE’s commercial and procurement function including assisting the organisation in implementation of the Procurement Act 2023.
• Provide legal support to AWE’s external property programme and managing commercial aspects of real estate acquisition and management.
• Apply legal oversight on internal and external public sector governance processes associated with contract placement, including through contributing as a legal advisor to submissions to the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office and other oversight bodies.
• Managing the resolution of disputes and preparing reports on those disputes to the Ministry of Defence.
• Advising on risk associated with procurement and commercial practice in support of managing the supply chain for a large public sector defence organisation.
• Advising on specialist Procurement legislation and regulations that impact on the defence sector and the public sector, including the Single Source Contract Regulations 2014, the Defence Reform Act 2014 and the Subsidy Control Act 2022.
• Analysing legislative and case law developments.
• Assessing and implementing improvements in legal and compliance processes.
• Managing the provision of external legal advice.
• Assisting with training of colleagues on legal matters.
• Managing other team members in the Commercial section of the AWE Legal team and assisting in appropriate strategic resource planning.
• Act as an advocate for high personal standards in environment, safety, health, security and quality.

Whilst not to be considered a tick list, we’d like you to have experience in some of the following:

• Currently admitted as a solicitor or barrister to practise in at least one jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.
• Wide knowledge of English law especially in relation to contract law.
• Management of staff in own line of management, other staff and external providers in the provision of legal advice.
• Applying legal oversight at appropriate levels to complex situations.
• Strong relationship building skills and ability to influence at senior level.
• Experience of advising on one or more areas of law relevant to the Company (construction, government contracting, defence-sector).

Some reasons we think you’ll love it here:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

All candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the correct security clearance for this role.

We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes. You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.

We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants.