As our new Senior Legal Advisor for Techology, you will provide a high quality legal service to OUP’s Group Technology division as part of the global Group Legal and Compliance function, to facilitate the achievement of commercial objectives while managing legal risk. The role requires excellent business partnering skills to support and enable OUP’s Group Technology function by providing strategic, commercially focused, and solutions-driven legal advice and insight. The principal focus of the role is on enterprise technology and cybersecurity matters, though the role holder will be expected to support other lawyers in the Group Legal and Compliance function in relation to product technology matters.
Duties will include the following:
Deliver proactive first line business partnering legal support and excellent customer service to OUP’s Group Technology function, to deliver business goals while managing legal risk and compliance with the law.
Enforce OUP Group Legal Policy and procedures throughout Group Technology, to ensure that legal advice is sought from Group Legal and Compliance where required.
Negotiate, draft, and advise on technology contracts, working closely with the Technology Procurement team to ensure timely triaging and review of new agreements and renewals. Maintain visibility of the technology contracts pipeline.
Monitor and advise on the legal impact of technological, cybersecurity, and privacy developments to assist the business in responding to them. This will involve a particular focus on the development of AI systems and tools, and their applicability to OUP’s business, working with other lawyers in the Group Legal function.
Provide legal support to major enterprise, CRM, and product technology programmes within OUP (the latter in co-ordination with divisional General Counsels).
Ensure that technology, cybersecurity, and data privacy matters which impact upon divisions or other group functions (e.g. HR), are referred to other members of the Group Legal and Compliance function for dealing or escalation.
Provide training and awareness of technology legal matters to the wider Group Legal and Compliance team as required from time to time.
Provide support to the Group Legal Director in relation to the management of cybersecurity-related legal risks.
Provide general commercial contract support in relation to non-technology matters as required from time to time.
All of the above will be undertaken at the direction and under the supervision of the Senior Legal Advisor, Corporate & Group.
We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.
About You
UK qualified solicitor with significant and relevant post qualification experience
Private practice and in-house experience
Good understanding of enterprise technology, including systems implementation and software licensing
Experience in advising on cybersecurity and data privacy matters
Experience in advising on digital products, and AI know-how
Excellent drafting, analytical, and problem-solving skills
Excellent organisational and prioritization skills
Effective risk identification and management skills
Strong ethical sense and understanding of the business
Benefits
We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.
We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.
This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a management bonus.
Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.
We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.
