Employment Lawyer

RRA - Recruitment and Retention Allowance (Per Annum)

£ 3,000

G2

Contract type Permanent, Fixed Term Appointment, Loan, Secondment

Length of employment 24 months

Please note that the Length of Employment does not include those hired on Permanent contracts.

Command Legal

Business Area Employment and Commercial

Type of role Legal Services

Working pattern Full time, Part time, Flexible Working

Number of roles available 1

Location(s)

Belfast, London, Warrington

About the Role

Information about the Command

The in‑house legal department sits at the heart of the NCA; providing specialist advisory and litigation support across the entire organisation. NCA Legal collaborates with operational officers as well as other Government departments, agencies and police forces on a daily basis to assist with live investigations around the world and defend against legal challenges aimed to disrupt those investigations. The advice provided by the department contributes directly to the disruption of serious and organised crime.

The teams include solicitors and barristers from a variety of backgrounds and with a wide range of experience alongside paralegals and a business management team.

Information about the Business Area

The Commercial and Employment Team advises the NCA on a broad range of contentious and non‑contentious work. This ranges from advising on public procurement and transformation projects to advising on employee matters and policies. We ensure that decisions about the NCA’s people and contracts are made lawfully and in a way which minimises the risk of legal challenge.

Role Summary

NCA Legal comprises of the following teams:

• Data and Operational Advisory Team
• Civil Litigation Team
• Financial Disruptions Litigation Team
• Disruptive Actions Litigation Team
• Commercial and Employment Law Team

This vacancy is for an employment lawyer in the Commercial and Employment Law Team, focused on advising on employment matters only. The employment work is varied and challenging, ranging from advising on complex disciplinary matters and grievances to managing employment tribunals, including advising on matters with a national security aspect.

Role Description

We are currently recruiting an exceptional Solicitor and/or Barrister specialising in employment law with significant post‑qualification experience. As an NCA officer in the Legal Team you will support the Agency's mission to lead the fight against serious and organised crime.

Duties and Responsibilities

As an employment lawyer you will provide legal advice on a range of contentious and non-contentious employment matters. This includes advising on the following areas:

• Policy and Trade Union Consultation – Advising HR colleagues on policy development and assisting with drafting policy wording to ensure the NCA's employment related policies are legally compliant. Advising in respect of engagement with the Trade Unions regarding the same.
• Workforce planning, including recruitment – Support HR with legal advice to enable the implementation of the Agency’s strategic vision for its workforce.
• Individual employment matters – Providing legal advice to HR specialists on complex issues relating to staff such as in relation to sickness management and ill health retirement.
• Grievances and employment tribunals – Advising decision-makers on grievances and leading for Legal on overseeing the defence of employment tribunal proceedings, which may involve complex and sensitive national security matters.
• Disciplinary and misconduct matters – Advising the Professional Standards Unit on the application of the NCA (Complaints and Misconduct Regulations) 2013 to enable conduct matters to be effectively and efficiently managed, and advising disciplinary panels.
• Pensions – Advising Finance in respect of any pension disputes as well as key changes in pension legislation to facilitate the management of NCA staff with police pensions in particular.

Person Specification

You will be expected to use your legal skills and judgement to contribute to the strategic direction of the NCA by providing specialist employment law advice across all areas of the Agency. You will need to be able to think creatively to help manage legal risk in cases that are often novel, complex and challenging.

Flexible Working

This role operates under a hybrid working model, offering flexibility between office-based and remote working.

However, permanent homeworking is not available. Successful candidates will be expected to attend the office as required and undertake court attendance where necessary as part of their duties, in line with the NCA's hybrid working policy.

You must meet the essential criteria and evidence this within your application to be considered for the role.

Entry Requirements

Significant and strong employment law knowledge and experience.

Please see qualifications required below which are essential criteria for this role.

Qualifications, Membership and Licences

To apply for this role you must be either (a) a Solicitor or Barrister qualified to practise in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, with significant relevant experience; or (b) Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales, with significant relevant experience. Upon appointment, Barristers and Solicitors qualified in Northern Ireland will be registered by the NCA with their respective professional bodies in England & Wales, to enable them to practise in both jurisdictions.

You must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx. Professional entry criteria for Chartered Legal Executives (i.e. Fellows): Chartered Legal Executives are eligible to apply where (i) a Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) is held; or (ii) the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) / Common Professional Examination (CPE) has been completed; or (iii) where exams have been passed (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved), at CILEx Level 6, in all of the following seven foundation subjects in law:

1. Criminal Law
2. Equity and Trusts
3. Law of the European Union
4. Obligations 1 (Contract)
5. Obligations 2 (Tort)
6. Property / Land Law
7. Public Law (Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Human Rights Law)

Additionally, Chartered Legal Executives may need a Practice Rights Certificate depending on the role.

Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered on to your CV.

Solicitors should also include their roll number.

Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress.

Virtual Open Evening Event

To find out more about the role and the application process we will be holding a virtual open evening via MS Teams on Tuesday 6th October 2026 at 1800 to 1900 hours.

This event is by invitation only.

Virtual Event - Employment Lawyer

You will be asked for your name and email address.

Registration will close at midday on 5th October 2026

You will not be able to register after this date and time.

A pay flexibility case seeking to modernise NCA pay frameworks was approved by the Government in July 2026. The NCA recognises and engages in collective bargaining with three trade unions: The National Crime Officers Association (NCOA), Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and FDA. Therefore, our terms and conditions are currently undergoing a formal review, in consultation with these recognised trade unions. The outcome is expected to be known by early 2027.

Allowances are reviewed annually and may be increased, decreased or removed.

All salary offers will be made in line with Remuneration Policy.

• Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting (Per Annum) of £4,379
• This position attracts a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) of £ 3,000 (Per Annum) available as an addition to the advertised salary.

All NCA employees are members of the UK Civil Service and eligible for the Civil Service pension scheme, alongside your salary the NCA contributes £20,331. Further information on the benefits of the scheme is available on the Civil Service Pension Website.

New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Other benefits include:

• Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements)
• Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum
• Learning and Development opportunities
• Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits
• Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway | Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes.
• Staff support groups/networks
• Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC)

This vacancy is using the Success Profiles framework and will assess using the following criteria: Behaviours, Experience, Technical Skills

How we will assess you

Your application will be assessed against the following:

Please include your full career history, training, qualifications, key responsibilities, and achievements. Explain any employment gaps in the last two years. Ensure all accreditation dates are accurate.

Details of what is expected within your CV are as follows: Please ensure that each entry of your career history has a few sentences outlining a description and the key elements of the role. Please ensure you include all relevant experience to cover the technical requirements for this role detailing all employment law experience.

Statement of Suitability

Please provide a 750 word personal statement demonstrating how you meet the criteria below:

• Significant and strong employment law knowledge and experience.
• The ability to think strategically and creatively, seeing legal issues in their wider context.
• Legal Professional Skills with a sound understanding of public law, reliable judgement and appreciation of legal risk.

A panel will assess how well your application demonstrates the requirements outlined above.

You will receive an acknowledgement once your application is submitted.

We aim to have sift completed and scores released within 10 working days of the closing date of the advert. For high volume campaigns this timeframe may be extended.

Scores will be provided but further feedback will not be available at this stage.

The format of this assessment will be a Role Play Exercise and Interview which will be tested on via the details listed below.

The role play exercise will assess the following:

Communicating and Influencing

Significant and strong employment law knowledge and experience.

Role Play Exercise - an hour before your interview you will be sent a scenario and you will need to review this and prepare advice in relation to the scenario (the details will be explained as part of the scenario). You will then join the interview panel and give your advice orally where follow-up questions may be asked (around 15 mins).

This will be followed by the interview questions.

• Significant and strong employment law knowledge and experience.
• The ability to think strategically and creatively, seeing legal issues in their wider context.
• Legal Professional Skills with a sound understanding of public law, reliable judgement and appreciation of legal risk.

Assessment Outcome

Outcomes will be communicated via the NCA recruitment portal.

If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months.

Reserve lists can be used to fill similar role types across the Agency where the assessment criteria is considered a match by the recruitment team and the business area.

In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order:

• Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience)
• If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised)
• If still tied, application sift scores will be used

Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.

You will be subject to vetting and pre‑employment checks before appointment.

Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records.

Eligibility, Pre-Employment Check and Vetting

If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted.

Nationality Requirements

This role is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals or dual nationals, where one component is British
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre‑settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

You will be required to participate in digital right to work and address checks as part of the recruitment process.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC Enhanced. All security clearances will be managed by the NCA.

Prior to commencing the role, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance.

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

For further information on National Security Vetting checks please visit the following page Demystifying Vetting

Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre‑employment checks.

Occupational Health

Successful candidates will be expected to undertake an occupational health assessment. Depending on the role an in‑person medical may be required in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.

Things you need to know

Multi Location

Where multiple locations are advertised, appointments will be made in merit order for each location.

Please indicate up to three location preferencesclearly. Only your first three preferences will be considered.You may be allocated to any of the locations you select. If you decline an offer for a location you have selected as a preference, a further offer may not be made.

If you choose to reject an offer and no alternative preferred location can be offered, you will not be able to return to the process or be placed on a reserve list .

Only the advertised locations are available; any additional notes added to the application will not be taken into account.

Near Miss

If you meet the criteria for a lower grade, you may be offered that role if not appointable at the advertised grade.

Conversely, if found appointable at the higher grade but no posts are available, you may be offered a lower‑grade role.

All offers are made based on merit.

Hybrid Working

The NCA supports hybrid working. The extent of remote working will depend on the role and can be discussed at the offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustments

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and an inclusive, equal opportunities employer.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone can be their authentic self. If you’re neurodiverse, have a disability, or live with a long-term health condition, we encourage you to let us know about any reasonable adjustments you may need during the recruitment process.

If you experience accessibility issues with the advert or require reasonable adjustments, please contact our Recruitment Team at central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk before the advert closing date.

Please ensure you complete the ‘Equal opportunities’ and 'Reasonable Adjustments' sections in the application form to inform us on what support you may need in the recruitment process.

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency's Diversity & Inclusion strategy, we require certain personal details about you on submission of your application for statistical and monitoring purposes only. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

If you believe your application has not been treated fairly, email: central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

#J-18808-Ljbffr