Legal Manager (Commercial & Research)

LEGAL MANAGER (COMMERCIAL & RESEARCH)

Legal & Intellectual Property Rights Team

Grade: UKRI Pay Band F

Salary: £56,745 per annum (pro rata for part-time)

A great benefits package is offered!, including an outstanding pension scheme (with an extremely generous employer contribution – on average 27% of your pay), 30 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus bank holidays

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: Full-time – 37 hours a week is preferred (Part-time will be considered for a minimum of 30 hours p/w and a small amount of remote working is possible, but this role does require regular onsite attendance)

Location: BGS headquarters in Keyworth in Nottingham

Closing date: Sunday 30 March 2025

About the role

BGS is an innovative and world-renowned geoscientific research centre engaged in many exciting and forward-thinking research collaborations both nationally and internationally. As part of that, the key responsibilities/duties of this exciting new role are:

• To support an anticipated increase in our commercial research activity by working alongside colleagues from both science and operations to support, negotiate and lead on legal aspects of BGS commissioned and collaborative research work.
• To facilitate major national and international geoscientific research and collaboration projects.
• To make a real difference to the way in which BGS manages the legal, contractual, and operational frameworks supporting its research activities.

This is a challenging and varied legal role, newly created and providing the opportunity to develop it, tailored to your experience and skills.

Included in the role’s scope will be to review our internal legal, contractual, and operational frameworks associated with bid, tender, contractual and certain procurement processes; with the confidence, gravitas, and leadership skills to successfully implement any opportunities for improvement or greater efficiency.

About you

Are you a highly skilled and experienced legal and contracts negotiator, expert in providing pragmatic legal advice and legal drafting solutions? You will advise in relation to and then facilitate the undertaking of commercial and collaborative work, contributing to navigating complex bid/tender opportunities and then securing and maintaining contracts/agreements on optimal and legally secure terms.

To succeed in this exciting new role, you will need to be:

• An expert trusted legal and contracts resource for BGS.
• Comfortable with and experienced in leading and managing the provision of legal support, negotiation, and problem-solving skills to large scale national and international research projects.
• Comfortable with managing your own responsibilities and workload, within an often high-pressured, time-critical legal environment – but at the same time becoming an integral and respected part of the Legal & IPR Team, able to manage, guide and mentor other members of the team as appropriate.
• Adaptable, flexible and pragmatic, with the ability to think outside of the box when required, to getting complex, sensitive, or non-standard situations ‘over the line.’ Must be able to demonstrate robust commercial awareness within the context of BGS’s primary status as a research institute.
• A superb communicator. Able to form relationships both with legal counterparts at the organisations BGS works for/with, as well as with our colleagues in other teams across both operational (e.g. Business Development) and scientific functions. There is a vital need to understand the context of research being undertaken and what a ‘good’ outcome looks like from that perspective.

Travel within the UK, or occasionally overseas, will be required in this role.

The following specific essential and desirable skills criteria for this post will be assessed at shortlist (S) stage, interview (I) stage, or both (S&I).

Essential

• Law degree or other degree with relevant legal/commercial contracts experience and qualifications (S)
• Substantial amount of experience (with demonstrable evidence of successful outcomes) of leading the management of complex legal and contractual processes associated with commercial tender, contract, and research agreement work; to include leading and managing negotiations with customers and/or partners regarding terms and conditions under which contracted or collaborative work is to be undertaken (S&I)
• Expert knowledge of contract law and practise/management, including all relevant legislation/regulations (S&I)
• Working unsupervised, but also as a key, senior, member of a wider Legal Team and in compliance with local and corporate policies, processes and frameworks: meticulous attention to detail regarding drafting legal and contractual documentation, working within a high-pressure, routinely time-critical legal/contractual environment, to include effectively communicating to non-legal colleagues (S&I)
• Approachable, coupled with the experience, authority and determination required to handle difficult conversations and decisions with (senior) colleagues and external parties and then implement flexible, adaptable, and proactive approaches to problem-solving with demonstrable evidence of success (I)
• Understands and has experience of the needs of a commercial business (unit) as well as the aims and objectives of a public sector/research organisation such as BGS and ability to relate this to your role within the organisation (S&I)
• You will be committed to a diverse and inclusive approach to work in the geosciences (S&I)

Desirable

• Further relevant legal degree or other qualifications, e.g. commercial law, contract law, intellectual property rights law and Project Management qualifications (S)
• Experience of working within a UK research institute and/or public sector body (or demonstrable experience of routinely working with/for such organisations), including experience of handling commercialisation activities and ‘routes to market’ (S&I)
• In-depth understanding of specific legislation/regulations of relevance to scientific research community and public sector, e.g. Freedom of Information Act/Environmental Information Regulations; Data Protection legislation; Intellectual Property Rights (S&I)

About us

The British Geological Survey (BGS) is an applied geoscience research centre that belongs to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and is affiliated to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It is a world leading geological survey whose core mission is to advise government of science related to the subsurface and to undertake applied research to solve earth and environmental issues, both in the UK and globally. It is funded directly by UKRI, as well as through research grants and private sector contracts.

We strive to promote equality and diversity across our organisation in order to continuously improve our scientific and organisational efficiency! As such, we aim to have a workforce with employees from all backgrounds with people who are passionate about earth science and who share our dedication to work for the good of the environment and the benefit of society. BGS became a signatory of the Technician Commitment in July 2022.

How to apply

Applicants are required to include a CV and covering letter outlining their suitability for the role. We would stress the importance of this paperwork in our selection process.

A well thought through application providing evidence and examples of how you meet the advertised essential and desirable criteria for the post will be considered far more favourably than a generic covering letter and CV.

If you experience any issues applying for this role, please contact Recruitment@ukri.org.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 30 March 2025. Interviews are expected to be held in mid-April in Nottingham.