Senior Legal Counsel - Fixed Term Contract

Role: Senior Legal Counsel - Fixed Term Contract 

Location: Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex / Hybrid

Role ID: 2026-3368

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo, member of WSP, is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

Role Summary

The role will support Ricardo’s engineering business.

The role will provide high‑quality legal advice and strategic support to the business across a broad range of commercial, operational and corporate matters.

To be a trusted advisor to senior leadership (in Ricardo’s engineering business), offering commercially focused legal advice, supporting commercial decision‑making and managing legal risk effectively.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial & Contractual Advisory

• Draft, review and negotiate a wide variety of commercial agreements, including customer and supplier agreements, consultancy agreements, framework agreements, SLAs and NDAs. In doing so, ensure alignment with Ricardo’s internal policies and risk appetite.
• Provide accurate, timely and commercially focused legal support to project teams, including tender and bid review, contract negotiation and dispute management.
• Provide practical and solution‑oriented legal guidance to support Ricardo’s commercial objectives.
• Promote / monitor compliance with Ricardo’s internal contracting processes.

Strategic input

• Provide expert and strategic legal advice to the engineering management team across a broad range of legal topics, including complex projects, novel technologies and regulated sector matters (including UK defence).
• Coordinate legal support for projects ensuring effective interface between regional / commercial business team and executive stakeholders.
• Build strong relationships with the engineering management team and across sectors / business units to support operational execution.
• To work closely with senior stakeholders in Ricardo’s engineering business to influence strategic decision‑making.

On request, support the General Counsel on Ricardo initiatives impacting the engineering business.

Corporate & Governance

• Promote strong corporate governance practices aligned with UK and international standards.
• Support corporate governance requirements for UK entities, including Board support, filings and statutory compliance. Where required, support oversee company secretarial matters.
• Maintain internal legal policies, frameworks and governance standards.
• Potential to assist with corporate restructuring, acquisitions, integrations and strategic initiatives.

Regulatory Compliance & Risk Management

• Monitor changes in UK legislation impacting the core engineering business and translate developments into clear business guidance.
• Support compliance programmes, policy updates, training and audit activity.
• Advise on regulatory matters, including data protection and industry‑specific regulations.

Dispute Resolution & Claims

• Manage disputes, claims and pre‑litigation issues, ensuring appropriate documentation and escalation.
• As required, to engage and coordinate with external counsel to achieve commercially satisfactory outcomes. 

Team Support & Leadership

• Working closely with the General Counsel to ensure robust legal support for Ricardo’s engineering business.
• Willingness to support Ricardo’s manufacturing and other businesses as required.
• Potential to mentor junior legal team members and support development of the legal function.

Skills & Experience Required

Essential

• Qualified solicitor in England & Wales with substantial post‑qualification experience.
• Strong background in commercial law with proven experience drafting and negotiating complex agreements.
• Experience advising UK‑based organisations (preferably in‑house position(s).
• Ability to balance legal risk with commercial pragmatism.
• Excellent analytical, communication and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities.

Desirable

• Experience working in an engineering or advisory/consultancy business.
• Experience of UK (or/and US) defence projects, including export control.
• Experience managing external counsel and overseeing legal spend.

Personal Attributes

• Confident and credible, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Calm under pressure and comfortable leading on matters and acting with autonomy.
• Commercially minded with a solutions‑focused approach.
• Proactive, adaptable and committed.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on.  Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. 

Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle. 

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via [email protected] if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

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