Senior Legal Counsel - Technology & Innovation

Nottingham Trent House (95002), United Kingdom, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Our Mission: We’re on a mission to be a force for good in lending.

About the role: Capital One is seeking an experienced in-house commercial contracts solicitor to join our dynamic UK Legal Team. As a financial institution, ensuring robust supplier contracts is essential, and our Contracts team plays a vital role in managing risk across third-party engagements. Reporting to the Head of UK Contracts, you will provide expert legal advice to business teams on a range of supplier contracts—including outsourcing, SaaS, and technology agreements—as well as broader commercial matters.

If you are a collaborative team player with strong commercial acumen, excellent communication skills, and robust contract drafting experience, this role offers an exciting next step in your career.

• Prepare, review, and negotiate complex agreements, including SaaS, technology, outsourcing, software licences, NDAs, and variations.
• Partner with key internal stakeholders and supplier managers to seamlessly integrate legal requirements and ensure timely project delivery.
• Advise on legal and regulatory risk: Evaluate strategic and regulatory risks—such as data protection and outsourcing requirements—collaborating with legal specialists where necessary.
• Supervise and mentor junior team members on contract negotiation, legal research, and workload management.
• Maintain relationships and compliance: Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, monitor legislative changes, manage outside counsel, and strictly uphold contract policies.

Qualifications:

• Qualified solicitor with substantial post-qualification experience (PQE) in commercial law.
• Commercial contracting background: Proven expertise in drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts, with in-house or financial services experience strongly preferred.
• Regulatory and legal domain knowledge: Strong practical understanding of data protection law, alongside the ability to navigate emerging risk areas such as AI terms, IP, and TUPE.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple workstreams and delivering high-quality results within a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to apply strategic thinking to help the business navigate complex challenges and commercial risks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt your style to suit technical, legal, or executive audiences.
• Digital mindset: A forward-thinking approach to leveraging digital tools and technological solutions to optimise legal advice and contract drafting.

Where and how you'll work: This is a permanent position based in our Nottingham office. We embrace a hybrid approach to work. You'll spend three days a week in the office (Tuesday-Thursday), with Monday and Friday being dedicated work-from-home days. At our Nottingham head office, you'll find an on-site gym, restaurant and dedicated Learning Loft. Our London office boasts a rooftop running track and coffee bar.

In addition to career development, our comprehensive benefits package is designed to grow with you, ensuring your wellbeing is prioritised at every stage of your career:

• Wealth & Future: Competitive pension and performance-based bonus schemes.
• Holidays: Start with 25 days of annual leave, increasing with tenure.
• Health: Access premium care through our private medical insurance. We champion your milestones with enhanced parental leave.

Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We value diversity, inclusion and belonging at our core. Our associate-led Business Resource Groups were created to help support our diverse population and include over 10 groups across our offices. Because each Business Resource Group is as unique as the population it serves, they offer a range of activities, networking opportunities, special events and learning programmes to associates.

Capital One is committed to diversity in the workplace. Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities.

Who We Are: At Capital One, we're building a leading information-based technology company. Still founder-led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking. We measure our efforts by the success our customers enjoy and the advocacy they exhibit. We believe that innovation is powered by perspective and that teamwork and respect for each other lead to superior results. Our associates serve with humility and a deep respect for their responsibility in helping our customers achieve their goals and realize their dreams. Together, we are on a quest to change banking for good.