The Legal & Commercial Lead is responsible for the day-to-day execution and delivery of all legal and commercial activities across the business, ensuring contracts, procurement, and compliance matters are managed efficiently, consistently, and in line with company risk appetite.
Reporting directly to the Head of Legal Operations this role acts as the operational owner of legal and commercial workstreams, providing hands on support to sales, operations, finance, and compliance teams. The role is accountable for managing contract lifecycles, overseeing client onboarding and procurement, maintaining legal documentation, and ensuring contractual and regulatory obligations are met across all jurisdictions in which the business operates. The Legal & Commercial Lead is accountable for ensuring that legal and commercial operations are not only compliant, but operationally efficient, scalable, and supported by appropriate systems and automation.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
1.
· Own the end-to-end contract lifecycle for group companies, clients, suppliers, and ad-hoc requests from initial review through to execution, renewal, and termination.
· Draft, review, negotiate, and finalise a wide range of commercial agreements including NDAs, MSAs, MPA’s, Collaboration Frameworks, RFI’s, SOWs, agreements, and amendments.
· Ensure contractual terms appropriately reflect agreed commercial positions, flow downs, and risk mitigation measures.
· Maintain and continuously improve standard contract templates in line with regulatory changes and business requirements, liaising with external counsel where necessary.
· Ensure all client and supplier documentation is valid, up to date, and aligned with internal regulatory requirements (KYC’s, credit checks, company certificates, licenses).
· Act as the primary legal and commercial point of contact for client and supplier relationships, supporting negotiations and resolving contractual queries.
· Monitor contractual compliance and service obligations, escalating risks or breaches as required.
2.
· Provide day to day legal and commercial support to sales, operations, finance, contracts and compliance teams to enable efficient deal execution.
· Support the sales function by reviewing and negotiating client terms to facilitate timely deal closure while protecting the company’s commercial interests.
· Translate legal risk into clear, pragmatic commercial advice for non-legal stakeholders.
3.
· Ensure all contracts and commercial activities comply with internal policies, regulatory requirements, and jurisdictional obligations.
· Maintain accurate and up to date contract records, databases, and document repositories, flagging key dates, renewals, and expiries.
· Identify recurring risks or inefficiencies in contracting and procurement processes and recommend improvements.
· Support audits, internal reviews, and compliance initiatives as required.
4.
· Act as an operational escalation point for team members, providing guidance on legal or contract queries and process adherence.
· Support onboarding and training new team members on legal and commercial processes, templates, and best practices.
· Deputise for the Head of Legal Operations on routine operational matters when required.
5.
· Own and continuously improve legal and commercial operational processes, ensuring workflows are efficient, scalable, and aligned with business growth.
· Identify opportunities to automate manual, repetitive, or high volume legal and commercial tasks, including contract lifecycle management, procurement onboarding, approvals, and renewals.
· Act as the departmental lead for systems and tools, including contract repositories, workflow tools, CRM integrations, and document management platforms.
· Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks, and guidance for legal and commercial processes, ensuring consistency and audit readiness.
· Ensure automation and process changes continue to meet regulatory, contractual, and internal governance requirements.
EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS
· Proven experience in an in-house legal role or commercial legal role.
· Experience working within a commercial, operational or compliance environment (professional services or staffing industry preferred).
· Strong understanding of legal agreements, commercial risk, compliance and legal operational efficiencies and best practices.
· Knowledge of regulatory and operational compliance standards
· Skilled in relationship management across internal and external teams.
· Proficient with CRM systems, document management, reporting tools and Microsoft Office suite.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
· Strong analytical, problem solving and investigative mindset.
· High attention to detail and accuracy.
· Confident communicator with excellent stakeholder management capabilities.
· Proactive, commercially aware, and able to identify risks before they surface.
· Adaptable, organised and able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
· Integrity driven with strong professional ethics.
If you believe you obtain the relevant skills and for this role, we would love to hear from you!
Please contact the office today on 020 8642 9333 or apply via the advert with your up to date CV.
Headstart Recruitment are an equal opportunities employer.