New Role: Legal Operations Manager

Interesting new role just in from the Bank of England for a Legal Operations Manager (hybrid).

More details below:

About the job

The Bank of England is the UK’s central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its 4,000 plus people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

Join our award-winning legal team and work at the frontier of financial services to help maintain monetary and financial stability in the UK! We are looking for new colleagues who are willing to learn quickly, engage openly and rise to the challenge. We share information and insights freely. The work we do here is challenging and sometimes demanding, but always rewarding! This – together with the commitment of our 200 lawyers, paralegals and dedicated support staff – is what why The Lawyer and LexisNexis both named our Legal Directorate the In-House Legal Team of the Year 2022!

For more information on our legal team, please follow this link on the Bank’s legal career page.

Department Overview

Alongside the General Counsel’s Office, the Legal Directorate (LD) is split into five main teams:

• Central Banking, which provides legal advice on the Bank’s constitution and governance; Markets and Banking operations; commercial contracts, procurement and intellectual property; notes procurement, production and distribution; data and information management; employment policy and employee relations matters; and the Bank’s financial and funding arrangements.
• International and Domestic Reform Division, which provides legal advice on a range of trade and financial regulatory matters affecting the Bank including in connection with the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. Practice areas include:
  • Advising policymakers on the reform of the UK’s financial regulatory framework.
  • Contributing to the Bank’s role in negotiating trade agreements with international partners.
  • Providing advice on EU and Brexit legal issues.
• Enforcement & Litigation, which leads investigations and the imposition of any enforcement sanction within the PRA. It runs the investigative process from inception to recommendations concerning the appropriate sanction. It also runs any settlement process, and any litigation should a matter be contested.
• Financial Stability, which provides legal advice on the regulation and supervision of Financial Market Infrastructure (such as central counterparties, payment systems and securities settlement systems), on macro-prudential policy and regulation and associated legal framework for the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee and on the Bank’s role as the UK’s resolution authority.
• Insurance and Deposit Takers, providing legal advice to supervisors in relation to supervisory decision-making, and to policymakers in the PRA on capital, liquidity and other prudential requirements of banks, insurers and investment firms.

LD is also supported by a Strategy and Operations team, led by the Head of Strategy and Chief Operating Officer (COO), to whom this advertised role would report. Strategy & Operations works closely with the General Counsel’s Office and the wider LD Leadership Team (LDLT) to maximise the impact of LD and ensure the smooth delivery of LD’s strategic and business plans, new initiatives and the Bank-wide operational matters, including budgeting, communications and risk management. The team also works with Champions across LD to organise a rich and regular programme of legal training and to support the operation of LD’s Legal Wiki, a collaborative resource of internal legal know-how.

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Bank’s Legal Directorate (LD) as a Legal Operations Manager. The role reports to LD’s Head of Strategy & COO. It is a fast-paced generalist role requiring operational initiative, flexibility, adaptability, strong influencing skills, and a collaborative approach. You must be able to adapt to changing priorities and business needs and must be proactive in identifying areas of need and generating action plans.

The role holder will be responsible for:

• Legal Directorate Budgeting: Planning for, and delivering in conjunction with Divisional Management Teams, budget monitoring and forecasting, and annual performance and salary reviews. Budget reporting to LDLT.
• Risk and Supplier Management: Quarterly risk reporting, business continuity planning and other Bank-wide processes, including responding to internal audits. Coordinating LD’s supplier management, in collaboration with the Bank’s commercial legal team, and ensuring LD’s compliance with the Bank’s Supply Chain Cyber Security Risk Management standard.
• Data Analysis and Management Information: gathering, analysis and presentation of data relevant to LD’s operations, to better inform decision-making. Analysis of staff survey results, tracking and monitoring progress against Bank-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion targets, and supporting Our LD Forums and Bank-wide Champions.
• Legal Technology: Staying up to date with the rapidly evolving legal technology trends, and new entrants to the market. Exploring solutions to streamline and/or automate processes by using existing enterprise tech or evaluating legal-specific vendors. Planning and implementing a long-term process and technology roadmap and rolling out Bank-wide technology upgrades in LD.
• Stakeholder Management: Acting as an alternate for the Head of Strategy & COO at Bank-wide COO meetings and operational forums. Building and maintaining strong relationships with LD’s Business Partners in Finance, Risk, Technology, Change & Planning, Central Services and People Directorates.
• Leadership Team Meetings: Acting as an alternate for the Head of Strategy & LD COO, preparing the agenda for and chairing weekly LDLT meetings. Collaborating closely with other LDLT members and the General Counsel’s Office in the preparation of key updates, tracking the delivery of agreed actions and performing deep dives on priority matters.
• People Management: Supervising and collaborating with members of the Strategy & Operations team to deliver the above responsibilities in a fast-paced Directorate of over 200 people. As a people manager you will be responsible for line management of up to four junior members of staff. You will develop your direct reports through sharing information effectively, coaching and mentoring, setting clear goals and smart stretching objectives that are aligned to those of the division and directorate. You will also be responsible for leading on all staff-related matters that may arise including performance, absence and sickness.

Number of direct reports: 4 to 6

Role Requirements

Minimum Criteria

• Experience with legal project operations and management in-house in the public sector or at a law firm, or equivalent experience gained from leading teams and projects, involving an excellent understanding of operational risk, business planning and change delivery.
• A proven track record of handling a complex matrix of stakeholders at all levels. This includes an ability to communicate on a wide range of topics and to different audiences.
• Evidence of an ability to independently move projects forward by gaining the support needed from others while working in a cross-functional role.
• Experience of acting as a trusted confidant and advisor for Senior Executives, able to persuade and advise with confidence, influence and impact.
• Evidence of an inclusive approach to leadership and people management, bringing out the best in and developing the talents of each individual given a variety of different backgrounds.

Essential Criteria

• Excellent numerical analytical, problem-solving and communication skills. Significant experience of relevant IT systems for financial forecasting, budget management and risk management.
• Experience of operating successfully on multiple simultaneous and complex initiatives, particularly under time pressure, with constrained resource and in the context of fast paced events.
• The ability to (i) translate business needs into project specifications, and (ii) spot issues early and collaborate with others to develop pragmatic solutions for in-flight projects.
• Track record of leading and supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and encouraging others to do the same.
• High levels of ethical behaviour and very strong self-awareness, with a willingness to accept and learn from feedback and proactively identify areas for personal development.

Additional Information – External

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion – we want to reflect the society we serve better, we want the best people to work for us and we want our workplace to be inclusive. We value all forms of diversity, including but not limited to age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation. One way we support diversity, equity and inclusion is through our staff run networks.

We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive working environment, and are open to considering how the role might be carried out with flexible working. This role is therefore open to job shares, flexible and part time working patterns.

Where a role can be carried out from home, we are working towards colleagues spending at least half of their time in the office, so that we can all benefit from working together in person, while maintaining the flexibility offered by home working. From 6 June 2022, we expect colleagues to spend a minimum of 40% of their working time in the office per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them and their team.

We are also committed to making adjustments for candidates and employees where possible, and have partnered with external expert organisations to support us in this. We are a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, and people who wish to apply under this scheme should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

We anonymise applications so hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information when reviewing your submission, including your CV. Please fully complete the application form questions as requested, as any incomplete submissions may not be reviewed.

The closing date for applications is 21 May 2024.

Salary and Benefits Information

This specific role offers a salary range of £ 75,970 – 87,660.

We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro-rated basis as appropriate.

In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

* A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
* A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
* A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. (Note that from April 2023 and for the Benefits year 2023/24, this will increase to 8%)
* 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
* Private medical insurance and income protection.

More information and how to apply here