Head of Legal and Procurement Maternity Cover

Are you a strategic legal and commercial leader looking to make a meaningful impact? We are seeking a Head of Legal and Procurement to join our Strategic, Development & Effectiveness Directorate. In this pivotal senior leadership role, you will be the organisation's foremost source of legal expertise, providing business focused counsel to our Executive team and Trustee Board while ensuring we maintain our status as a trusted charity partner.

You will lead a dedicated team to manage business critical legal and commercial risks, ensure regulatory compliance, and maximize value for money across our formal partnerships, funders, and suppliers. Your strategic guidance will shape critical initiatives from sustainable funding models and internal policy development to the legal oversight of our closed defined benefit pension scheme and the intersection of advice provision and litigation.

We are looking for an inclusive and proactive leader who can build strong working partnerships across national Citizens Advice and our wider network. Working closely with colleagues, including the Head of Employment Law, you will champion efficiency, govern commercial spend appropriately, and ensure our vital advice services are delivered effectively and within the law.

Please provide details in your cover letter to evidence the following essential criteria. Please make sure your cover letter provides evidence for the essential criteria succinctly.

• A qualified lawyer with significant (4 years or more) post-qualification experience, ideally within the charity sector, though candidates with commercial or law firm backgrounds will also be considered.

• Proven leadership in complex legal and/or commercial environments with experience managing and developing high-performing teams and fostering a diverse and inclusive environment

• People management skills, with experience of developing diverse teams, creating opportunities for skills development, closing disparities and promoting pathways for career progression

• Ability to foster continuous improvement of legal and procurement service delivery, and to contribute deep legal and commercial expertise to the wider organisational change initiatives of the charity

• Excellent communication skills, with an ability to build and maintain good working relationships at all levels, and to handle sometimes difficult conversations and exchanges professionally and constructively

• Ability to work in partnership with - and advise - senior stakeholders including the Executive Team and Trustees.

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives – from debt to evictions to trouble at work – and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

We have been awarded the top charity in Third sectors' employer index, where it's recognised that Citizens Advice is an organization that not only prioritizes the people we serve but also values the wellbeing of its employees.

Citizens Advice seeks to redeploy internal staff who are at risk or under notice of redundancy and will prioritise them in the recruitment process where necessary. If you have been confirmed as at risk or under notice of redundancy please ensure you indicate this in the at-risk box in your application.

Please note, in the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.

This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.

For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits

Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants