Legal Counsel (In-House)

Job Overview

As our in‑house Legal Counsel, you will be reporting directly to our CFO and act as the sole internal legal advisor and primary strategic bridge between all internal and external stakeholders. You will partner with our executive, R&D and operations teams, whilst simultaneously managing company secretarial duties, intellectual property, commercial contracts, inter‑company financial agreements (loans, transfer pricing, etc.), export controls, investor agreements and research funding arrangements. You will also be responsible for the following:

Key Responsibilities

• Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of commercial contracts, including NDAs, collaboration agreements, research and development agreements, consultancy agreements and services contracts.
• Prepare, negotiate and manage licence agreements (in‑licensing and out‑licensing) covering patents, software and know‑how, including royalties, sublicensing, performance and termination provisions.
• Advise on corporate and commercial law issues, including shareholder agreements, investment documentation, corporate governance matters and company secretarial support.
• Draft and maintain terms and conditions (T&Cs) for the company’s products, services and pilot projects, ensuring alignment with the company’s risk appetite and regulatory framework.
• Act as the company secretarial point of contact and advisor to the executives.
• Support applications for and management of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and other public grant funding, including review and negotiation of grant terms, collaboration agreements and IP/commercialisation obligations.
• Provide clear, pragmatic legal advice to internal stakeholders on data protection, competition law, export controls and compliance relevant to quantum technologies.
• Lead on intellectual property administration, including invention capture processes, IP ownership provisions in contracts, liaison with patent attorneys.
• Instruct and manage external counsel cost‑effectively where specialist advice is required.

Qualifications and Experience

• Qualified solicitor in England & Wales (or equivalent common‑law jurisdiction) with a strong academic background.
• Post‑qualification experience in commercial/IP law, gained in a reputable law firm and/or in‑house in a technology, deep‑tech or R&D‑intensive environment.
• Demonstrable experience in drafting and negotiating commercial and corporate contracts.
• Experience in licence agreements and technology transfer arrangements.
• Experience preparing and updating T&Cs for products and services.
• Strong contract drafting and negotiation skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to balance legal risk with commercial objectives and provide practical, business‑focused advice.
• Clear communicator capable of explaining complex legal concepts to non‑lawyers.
• Comfortable working autonomously in a small but fast‑growing company and managing a varied workload.
• Collaborative mindset and willingness to work closely with R&D, product, finance and leadership teams.
• High standards of professional ethics, discretion and integrity.
• Experience in intellectual property law (patents, know‑how, confidentiality, assignment and licensing).
• Experience in the semiconductor, hardware, quantum or wider deep‑tech sector.
• Experience working with overseas law firms.
• Experience working with UKRI or similar public research grant funders and familiarity with grant terms relating to IP ownership, open access and commercialisation obligations.

About the Company

Quantum Motion is a fast‑growing quantum computing scale‑up based in London, founded by internationally renowned researchers from UCL and Oxford University with over 40 years’ experience in developing qubits and quantum computing architectures. We bring together state‑of‑the‑art cryogenic facilities and an outstanding interdisciplinary team, developing quantum processors based on industrial‑grade silicon chips, with the potential to radically transform computing power in materials modelling, medicine, artificial intelligence and more. Since 2021, our team has been listed every year in the “Top 100 Startups worth watching” in the EE Times and our technology breakthroughs have been featured in The Telegraph, BBC and the New Statesman. Our founders are internationally renowned researchers from UCL and Oxford University, and our chairman is the co‑founder of Cadence and Synopsys. We are backed by a team of top‑tier investors and recently closed our SeriesC funding of $160 million.

We have a collaborative and interdisciplinary culture and offer vast opportunities for professional growth and impact within the company. Our team of 100+ is based across London (Islington), Oxford, SanSebastián and Sydney, with a central London hub.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and share options scheme
• Contributory pension scheme
• Group private medical insurance scheme
• Life assurance
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme
• Central London location