Paralegal (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds & London) London

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world‑first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future. Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

We are seeking a proactive Paralegal to keep the Legal Team running smoothly, taking the lead on administrative and operational tasks while serving as the first point of contact through the shared Legal inbox, managing, triaging, and escalating queries efficiently. This role will work closely with Commercial Procurement and the Information Governance team to support collaborative legal and compliance matters. You will assist with reviewing standard contracts, maintaining legal systems and registers, and coordinating legal documents and logs, while ensuring contract management information is accurate across the commercial lifecycle. Additionally, you will prepare execution ready documents and manage the deployment of electronic signature tools such as DocuSign. This is an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to a wide range of Genomics England projects and programmes while actively promoting legal best practices across the organisation.

Everyday responsibilities include:

• Coordinate key meetings by scheduling sessions, preparing agendas, and producing accurate minutes.
• Maintain legal data, information and reporting across the commercial lifecycle.
• Manage legal documentation by coordinating registers, inboxes, and logs (e.g., Contract Register, Legal Inbox, HighQ – the team’s new Thomson Reuters tool).
• Support contract work by reviewing standard contracts (such as NDAs, Services Agreements and other types of commercial and/or research contract) and assisting with self‑service legal tools.
• Provide support to internal clients on the management of contracts post execution.
• Oversee contract execution by preparing execution ready documents and managing electronic signatures (e.g. DocuSign).
• Collaborate across the organisation by working with Commercial Procurement, Information Governance, and the Ethics and Data Protection Group relevant matters while promoting legal best practice.
• Provide legal updates and insights by monitoring legal literature, conducting bespoke research, and building strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Skills and experience for success:

• Experience as a Paralegal or similar legal support role, with hands‑on involvement in contract review and management, legal documentation, research, and supporting the operations of a legal team.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy in all aspects of legal work.
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills.
• Confidence using contract management systems and preparing documents for signature.
• Good understanding of basic contract law.
• Familiarity with legal AI tools.
• Comfortable adapting to change and working in a flexible environment.
• Awareness of public procurement processes.
• Awareness of basic data protection principles.
• Experience managing company‑wide legal projects or workflows.
• Skilled in reviewing and updating legal precedents.
• Interest in the healthcare or life sciences sectors.

Qualifications:

• Previous paralegal experience, ideally supporting an in‑house legal team, commercial legal function or law firm.
• Law degree or equivalent legal qualification, training or experienced demonstrating a sound understanding of core legal principles.

Additional Information:

• Salary from: £40,000
• Closing date for applications - Tuesday 21st July
• A cover letter is mandatory for this role; applications that do not include a cover letter will unfortunately not be reviewed.

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family‑Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double‑matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace:

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. Genomics England’s policies of non‑discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part‑time or employed under a permanent or a fixed‑term contract or any other relevant factor. Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.

Culture:

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other.

Blended working model:

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum.

Onboarding background checks:

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.