Head of Legal (Edgewing) in Camberley

Location: Reading area. The role could be contracted to any BAE Systems site (preferably Frimley) but on commencement will immediately be assigned to our Edgewing JV in the Reading area. A financial support package may be available to enable this assignment if required, dependent on certain criteria being met. Due to the nature of this assignment, we envisage there will be a need for mostly on site working, however, flexible working arrangements may be possible - please speak to your recruiter about the options for this role.

Salary: £110,000+ Dependent of skills and experience

What you’ll be doing

• Operate as a senior leader within the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer function, accountable for developing the company's legal support model, particularly for bids, contracting, and management of legal risk.
• Provide national and international support for bids and contracts, including drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and interpreting agreements.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate legal and contractual risks, ensuring compliance with bid mandates and protecting the Company's interests.
• Manage all necessary corporate documentation for bids and ancillary agreements, including NDAs, MOUs, Teaming, Technology Transfer, and Consortium Agreements.
• Identify, assess, and manage commercial, operational, transactional, and compliance-related legal risks.
• Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies, conduct risk assessments, and ensure robust risk management practices across the Company, including independent assurance where required.
• Support functions in drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and executing sales and ancillary contracts (e.g., NDA, MOU, Teaming, Technology Transfer, Consortium Agreements) with partners and customers, ensuring compliance with negotiation mandates and protecting the Company's interests.
• Support development and negotiation of procurement contracts and ancillary agreements with NatCos, LSSIs, and other suppliers, ensuring compliance and effective risk management.

Your skills and experiences

Essential

• Extensive experience of operating in an in-house international environment, and extensive experience of negotiating high value, highly detailed contracts in an international environment.
• Good stakeholder management skills with a track record of communicating with senior leadership across multiple functions internally, and externally.
• Law Degree / or equivalent Legal qualification (English).

Desirable

• Understanding of the defence industry or a highly regulated industry.
• Some knowledge of Italian and Japanese language.

Benefits

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts - you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Edgewing Legal team

You will be joining a highly motivated, experienced team within the BAE Systems Air sector, committed to the delivery and progression of a Future Combat Air System (FCAS) for the UK. You will play a central role in working across a diverse stakeholder group of functional and delivery teams including tri national industry and government colleagues from across our partner nations to support the delivery of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you'll be able to make a real difference. You'll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you'll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 17th February 2026. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.