Senior Legal Counsel

OneAdvanced, is seeking an accomplished Senior Legal Counsel to join our dynamic Commercial Legal Team on a permanent basis. You will play a pivotal role in supporting the business deliver against its growth ambitions across the UK, Ireland, and APAC, encompassing all its commercial sectors. You will oversee a team of legal professionals and commercial managers, provide strategic legal advice, and manage complex commercial contracts. Your expertise will ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and drive the company's growth while maintaining our commitment to legal and ethical standards. 

As a Senior Legal Counsel, you will drive legal excellence, manage complex contractual landscapes, and align legal strategies with OneAdvanced’s broader business objectives. The position offers a unique opportunity to lead in an agile, fast-paced environment and collaborate across functions to deliver impactful legal solutions. 

Reporting to the Director of Legal, Assistant General Counsel, your responsibilities will include: 

• Global Leadership in Commercial Legal Matters: Spearhead complex commercial negotiations (public and private sector) and procurement activities, ensuring robust governance across diverse jurisdictions. 
• Deal Structuring and Closing: Collaborate with Go-to-Market Teams to secure strategic agreements with customers and partners, managing multiple high-value projects under tight deadlines. 
• Contractual Breadth: Draft, review, and negotiate a comprehensive suite of commercial contracts for a SaaS provider, including MSAs, bespoke terms, RFP terms, supplier agreements, partner agreements, licensing agreements, escrow agreements, call-off contracts, and DPAs.
• Privacy and Data Protection: a good grasp of privacy and data protection principles in order to adequately review and negotiate data processing agreements and support the legal commercial team with any privacy and data protection queries and escalating to the Data Protection Office and Senior Privacy Counsel as needed. 
• Contractual Risk Management: Offer strategic counsel on contractual risks and commercial parameters, maintaining an up-to-date legal risk register to proactively flag issues for executive action. 
• Legal Operations: Collaborate with the Legal Operations Director to enhance legal team efficiency, streamline processes, and implement cutting-edge legal technology solutions. 
• Team Leadership: Lead, mentor, and manage a team of legal professionals, fostering professional growth and collaboration. Oversee team workload and ensure the timely delivery of high-quality legal support. Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the legal team.
• Training and Development: Deliver tailored training to internal teams on contractual law development, negotiation and drafting skills, data privacy, and best practices, while driving the development of standardized legal templates and precedents. 
• Strategic Collaboration: Partner with cross-functional teams, including sales, product development, and finance, to identify and mitigate legal risks throughout the SaaS lifecycle. 
• Contentious Matters and Dispute Resolution: Support the Director of Legal, Assistant General Counsel in managing contentious matters, providing strategic oversight and resolution expertise. 
• Deputizing for Leadership: Represent the Director of Legal, Assistant General Counsel in their absence and contribute to strategic initiatives that drive OneAdvanced’s growth agenda. #LI-KI1 

We are looking for a legal professional with: 

• Extensive SaaS Expertise: Track record experience managing the full lifecycle of SaaS contracts. 
• Privacy and Data Protection Knowledge: In-depth understanding of GDPR and other global privacy regulations, with proven experience in negotiating data processing agreements and providing initial privacy and data protection advice.
• Qualified Legal Credentials: UK-qualified solicitor with a strong grasp of public procurement law, government framework contracts, and commercial contracts. 
• Negotiation Skills: Exceptional negotiation and drafting skills with the ability to manage high-stakes agreements.
• Team Management: Proven experience leading and managing legal teams.
• Legal Operations Experience: Demonstrated ability to partner with legal operations leaders to improve efficiency and adopt innovative legal technologies. 
• Tech-Savvy: Familiarity with legal tech tools and proficiency in leveraging them to streamline operations.
• Commercial Acumen: A proven ability to navigate complex contractual landscapes with a business-focused, value-driven approach. 
• Strategic Vision: Exceptional capacity to align legal strategies with broader organizational goals and manage multifaceted challenges effectively. 
• Exceptional Stakeholder Engagement: Strong interpersonal skills to manage and influence key stakeholders across varying levels of the business. 
• Agility and Resilience: A proactive, adaptable mindset to embrace continuous learning and change within a high-growth environment. 
• Customer-Centric Focus: A commitment to delivering excellence for internal and external clients, placing their needs at the core of decision-making processes. 
• Team Leadership and Collaboration: A self-starter with a collaborative ethos, capable of inspiring team members and driving cross-functional synergies in line with OneAdvanced’s “One Team” philosophy. 
• Innovative Problem-Solving: A creative, solution-oriented professional with a strong work ethic and a pragmatic approach to achieving results. 

This role presents a rare opportunity to be part of a go forward-thinking SaaS company operating on a global scale. If you are a seasoned legal professional ready to make a transformative impact, we encourage you to apply. 

Please note, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application.

Wellbeing that means something

• 26 days’ holiday + bank holidays (and the option to buy more) plus 1 paid volunteering day every year
• Exceptional family leave, 26 weeks fully paid maternity/adoption, 4 weeks fully paid paternity, 22 weeks fully paid shared parental leave, plus 5 days paid bereavement leave
• Robust sick pay of up to 13 weeks full pay + 13 weeks half pay
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme for confidential support
• Private medical insurance for everyone, no medical-history exclusions

Financial benefits that have your back

• Performance-based rewards tailored to your role, from company-wide bonuses to OTE and commission structures
• Income protection: up to 75% salary for 5 years if you ever need it

Grow your career with us

• SkillsHub learning platform with leadership pathways, future-manager training, and a huge online library
• Access to external training and apprenticeships

Making a Difference 

• MatchIt! Fundraise for a cause close to your heart and OneAdvanced will match part of the funding
• Pennies from Heaven donate the pennies from your pay check to help make a difference without lifting a finger

Plus plenty other flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle on our RewardHub, including:

• ULEV car scheme with 1,000+ models
• Dental insurance, Health Cash Plan, Critical Illness Cover, Partner Life Cover

At OneAdvanced, we are at the forefront of delivering sector-focused technology solutions that simplify complexity, drive meaningful progress, and help build a fairer, more inclusive society.

We’re much more than a software company. We deliver SaaS workflow applications and IT services that power organisations across Education, Government, Healthcare, Legal, Manufacturing, Housing, Retail, and more.

OneAdvanced is one of the UK’s largest business software and services companies. Based in Birmingham (The Mailbox), operating across the UK, Ireland, India, and Australia.

Our secure, scalable platform, including OneAdvanced AI, our private AI service for UK organisations, powers connectivity and innovation across critical sectors. Alongside our software are our IT services, including hosting, managed services, and application modernisation.

We strive to create an inclusive workplace that drives innovation and collaboration, championing diverse perspectives and ideas. Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy is embedded in everything we do, guiding us to create meaningful impact for our people, our customers and the planet.

Join us and become part of a team that’s powering the world of work and making a real difference.

Learn more at www.oneadvanced.com