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Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford
Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford

Senior Legal Counsel

Oxford On-site 5-10 yrs exp Research Services 377 employees
Sponsorship verifiedLegal AdviceContract NegotiationComplianceRisk ManagementLegal Strategy
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Requirements

Candidates must be fully qualified lawyers with a minimum of 7 years PQE and experience in commercial or general in-house legal matters. A background in biological sciences or a related field is preferred, along with the ability to translate complex legal concepts into actionable advice.

Job Description

Join us at EIT:

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

  • Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
  • Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
  • Climate Change & Managing CO₂
  • Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Your Role:

As Senior Legal Counsel, you will work closely with the Director of Legal to support all aspects of EIT's legal affairs. You will provide commercially focused, pragmatic legal advice across a broad range of matters, helping the organisation navigate risk while enabling growth and innovation.

Partnering with colleagues across the business, you will play a key role in supporting innovative programmes and platforms, influencing legal strategy, and ensuring advice is timely, practical, and aligned with EIT's objectives. You will also champion the use of technology and new ways of working to deliver efficient, modern legal services.

Your Responsibilities:

  • Excellence in providing legal advice to all areas in the organisation, influencing strategic decision-making
  • Draft, review, and negotiate major and critical contracts, including customer agreements, vendor contracts, partnership agreements, procurement and materials and data acquisitions
  • Ensure the organisation's compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and standards in the areas in which it operates
  • Design, build and improve legal processes and service delivery models
  • Recruitment and development of junior members of the Legal Department
  • Management of outside counsel

Requirements

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

  • Fully qualified lawyer with a minimum of 7 years PQE
  • Commercial or general in-house experience
  • Demonstrated ability to manage a broad range of legal matters
  • Ability to translate complex legal concepts into actionable advice
  • Background in biological sciences, life sciences, or a related scientific discipline
  • Understanding of scientific research environments and terminology

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

  • UK qualified

Benefits

Our Benefits:

  • Competitive salary + travel allowance + bonus
  • Enhanced holiday pay. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July
  • Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
  • Life Assurance
  • Income Protection
  • Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
  • Employee discounts
  • Electric car scheme
  • Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
  • Cycle to Work Scheme
  • Family Planning
  • Neurodiversity support including advise and assessments
  • Coaching & Therapy services

Working Together - What It Involves:

  • You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis
  • You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate)

Skills

Legal AdviceContract NegotiationComplianceRisk ManagementLegal StrategyTeam ManagementProcess ImprovementScientific ResearchCommercial LawBiological SciencesLife SciencesIn-house ExperienceCommunicationCollaborationProblem SolvingTechnology Utilization

About Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford

Led by a world-class faculty of scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators, the Ellison Institute of Technology aims to deliver scaled solutions to humanity's important problems. By breaking down the silos between science, research, industry and policy, we are reimagining the path from scientific discovery to applied solutions for the benefit of society. Set for completion in 2027, the EIT Campus in Littlemore will include more than 300,000 sq ft of research laboratories, educational and gathering spaces. Fuelled by growing ambition and the strength of Oxford’s science ecosystem, EIT is now expanding its footprint to a 2 million sq ft Campus across the western part of The Oxford Science Park. Designed by Foster + Partners led by Lord Norman Foster, this will become a transformative workplace for up to 7,000 people, with autonomous laboratories, purpose-built laboratories including a plant sciences building and dynamic spaces to spark interdisciplinary collaboration.

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