Director Legal

This is a high-profile role at the heart of the NCAs Senior Leadership Team, operating at board level and actively contributing to wider policy developments across Whitehall.

The Director Legal provides independent, accurate, timely and high-quality legal advice to the Director General NCA and the Board on the business of the Agency.

The job holder is expected to be an active member of the Agency Command team, proactively spotting risks and leading cross Agency work on strategic issues.

Key responsibilities:

• Advising the Director General and the Board on all legal matters relating to the Agencys business, including governance and exercise of its powers, litigation, contract and employment law, and the management of strategic legal risks relevant to the NCAs work;
• Leading and managing the NCAs internal team comprising circa 70 - 80 generalist and specialist lawyers, paralegals and a business support function and managing a budget of circa 11m.

• Lead a multidisciplinary legal function, setting strategic direction and ensuring legal advice supports the NCA's operational priorities and corporate objectives.

• Lead the modernisation of legal services and drive digital transformation including the adoption of AI enabled tools.

• Working with operational colleagues, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and their specialist prosecutors to maximize the probability of successful prosecutions, or other legal interventions;

• Advising on relevant EU and international legal developments.

• Managing external legal contacts for specialist advice as required and maintaining excellent relations with the legal profession generally;

• Representing the Agency across Whitehall on all aspects of legal developments and proposals for legislative change affecting the Agency, and in respect of matters relevant to the wider law enforcement and intelligence communities.

• Build organisational capability by developing future legal leaders, strengthening succession planning and creating an inclusive, high-performing culture.

• Active member of the NCAs senior leadership team and, as such, takes on leadership activities beyond their specific role.

• As a lawyer in the NCA you will be a member of the Government Legal Profession.

In your application you will need to demonstrate evidence against the below essential criteria:

We ask that you write a statement of suitability of no more than 1250 words using examples to explain how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

• Inclusive leadership skills comfortable operating in a complex operational environment, and able to manage political and operational risks, with a demonstrable commitment to lead, develop and nurture a highly performing, diverse and talented workforce based in the UK.

• Ability to advise on, and deal calmly and decisively with, complex and sensitive legal issues. Significant experience of identifying legal risks and operating at senior levels in an organisation, up to Board level;

• Experience of articulating vision and strategy for a large organisation or system, influencing up and out to ensure support, and translating this into operational delivery, in your own organisation and with and through partners;

• Experience of building effective partnerships across a wide range of organisations e.g. government, UK public and private sectors and with international partners at a strategic level. and feel comfortable communicating complex issues to a wide audience e.g. parliament, ministers and non-executives;

• The ability to lead and deliver change, with a track record of delivering substantial improvements to increase operational effectiveness and value for money, including through running programmes and setting up new capabilities;

• Experience of working in, and building networks in, the law enforcement environment e.g. intelligence & security, or home affairs/criminal justice policy or the ability to translate your work and networking experience successfully into a law enforcement environment;

• Experience of delivering interventions that ensure that Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) is embedded in the organisations way of working, fostering a culture of trust which enables people to speak up, feel safe and advocate for others;

• Experience with a wide range of complex cases and/or issues in public law fields relevant to the NCA's work and jurisdiction e.g. the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and Data Protection Act (DPA). The successful candidate will need to demonstrate they have relevant legal skills for this role and be able to offer credible legal leadership to NCA's expert lawyers.

• Applicants must be qualified to practice as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales.

Please Note

The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. You are expected to participate in an on-call rota (approx. 4 - 5 weeks per year).

On-call runs 1800-0800 Mon-Fri and 24/7 weekends and bank holidays and training will be given prior to joining the rota.

This is a corporate requirement and no additional remuneration is paid.

Examples for on-call include staffing incidents; building issues (flooding etc); operational incidents; cross-government liaison.

Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

If successful, the offer made will be conditional on you being able to acquire and retain security clearance Developed Vetting (DV) prior to commencing in the role, and STRAP post appointment.

We want to recruit and retain the very best and broadest diversity of officers so the NCA welcomes applications from individuals from all minority backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only.

If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.