Legal Counsel

Position Summary

Legal Counsel – Commercial Aviation Contracting (Derby, three days Derby/hybrid, full time). The role supports a variety of activities across the Commercial Aviation Contracting team as part of the General Counsel team, providing legal support to Customer and Business Development in Civil Aerospace.

Responsibilities

• Transaction support: provide contract and commercial legal subject matter and business partner support and expertise for Customer Team activities across the Commercial Aviation Contracting team, including international travel for customer negotiations.
• Legal advice: deliver timely, cost‑effective, pro‑active, and technically correct legal advice in a user‑friendly and decisive manner.
• Risk management: identify and assess potential risks and liabilities at all transaction phases, proposing and negotiating solutions to manage, minimise or mitigate such risks while achieving expected financial returns.
• Tools development: assist the team in creating new precedent documents, fallback positions, and playbooks to improve deployment of products and services.
• Training and learning: develop and implement training and knowledge management, share best practice with colleagues in the legal function and the business.
• External law firm management: secure support from and manage interaction with external law firms cost‑efficiently.
• Relationship building: work closely with internal clients, building and maintaining strong and collaborative relationships across all businesses and functions.

Qualifications

• Qualified and practising lawyer with ideally 5+ years PQE.
• Technical legal knowledge and practical experience of contracting, ideally in Civil Aerospace and customer‑facing environment.
• Well‑developed interpersonal, diplomatic, communication, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Flexibility, innovation and ability to thrive in a fast‑paced environment.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with a customer focus.
• Highly motivated, able to work independently and under own initiative.
• Sound commercial judgement and business acumen; ability to prioritise workloads to meet demanding deadlines under pressure.
• Experience influencing at functional, task and senior organisational levels.

Benefits

• Generous annual leave.
• Retirement savings through the Rolls‑Royce Retirement Savings Trust.
• Group Life Assurance providing a lump‑sum benefit if you die whilst employed.
• Income Protection providing an income if you are unable to work due to illness or injury.

Rolls‑Royce is committed to being a respectful, inclusive, and non‑discriminatory workplace where individuality is valued, diverse perspectives fuel innovation, and everyone can thrive.

Job Category: Legal Counsel – Closing Date: 24.06.2026