ASSOCIATE COUNSEL, GLOBAL PROCUREMENT/ LONDON BRIDGE OR MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE / PERMANENT/ HYBRID/ £60,000-£65,000 PLUS BENEFITS 

About the Team / Role

WEX is an innovative payments and technology company looking to forge the way in a rapidly changing environment, with a goal to simplify the business of doing business for our customers, freeing them to spend more time, with less worry, on the things they love. We are on a journey to build consistent world class user experience across our products and services and leverage customer driven innovation across all of our strategic initiatives.

Reporting to the Legal Director, Global Procurement, this role will provide legal support to WEX’s Business Owners and Procurement Team on a range of vendor engagements, as well as other third-party transactions and related matters. Specifically, this role will provide tactical legal advice on WEX’s engagement of third-party vendors/service providers in connection with all WEX lines of business.  The ideal candidate will have a technology background, with an understanding of the legal and practical components of vendor engagement and related considerations, have experience with relevant data privacy laws, rules and regulations, and be comfortable solving time-sensitive problems in close partnership with a variety of cross-functional stakeholders. 

Whats’ on offer? 

• Highly competitive salary- £60,000-£65,000 (dependant on experience)

• Annual company bonus

• 40 hour week – Monday to Friday, no evenings or weekends

• Hybrid working (2days per week in London Bridge office or Manchester City Centre)

• Industry leading pension scheme

• Private Medical

• 25 days plus bank holidays – with the opportunity to purchase additional holidays

• Life assurance

• Income Protection

• Gym Flex membership

• Discounts & perks platform

• Employee wellbeing

How you’ll make an impact

• Draft, review and negotiate a wide variety of standard vendor and third-party agreements, including technology licenses (software-as-a-service, software, cloud, and related ancillary documents, including SLAs, security exhibits, and privacy addenda), consulting, professional services, telecom, hardware, marketing, real estate, and other services agreements and related documentation.

• Ensure all procurement activities comply with applicable laws and regulations, including procurement policies.

• Identify, manage, and escalate issues and risks arising during vendor and third-party discussions and/or negotiations and provide actionable recommendations.

• Provide general in-house support for legal matters concerning the WEX Procurement Team’s initiatives, activities and operations.

• Actively assist in the development and maintenance of standard templates and playbooks for vendor agreements; provide guidance on development and maintenance of contracting standards, policies and processes.

• Actively assist in the development of training materials and conduct training sessions for the WEX Procurement Team and other business owners/stakeholders.

• Present issues in a clear and concise manner and provide succinct results-oriented legal advice to business owners and stakeholders.

• Work closely with the Procurement Team to further develop, maintain, operationalize and foster awareness of and compliance with policies and processes related to vendor assessment, on-boarding, risk and performance monitoring, policy compliance, and offboarding.

• Actively assist in the management and resolution of specific contractual queries and pre-litigation disputes related to vendor and other third-party contracts.

• Maintain a current understanding of relevant laws, regulations, industry standards and policy trends relevant to WEX products and technology, including those related to data privacy, IP, trade secrets, artificial intelligence and data security.

• Proactively contribute to the development of the WEX Legal Team culture and practices and assisting with other projects and matters in areas which may include information security, compliance, contract management, mergers and acquisitions and other legal and regulatory issues.

• Collaborate closely within the WEX Legal Team to design, modify and implement company policies and processes to ensure legal compliance with internal policies, organizational goals, as well as applicable laws and regulations.

• Handle other day-to-day legal issues arising in a growing and complex business.

Experience you’ll bring

• Qualified lawyer or practicing solicitor with current practicing certificate.

• PQE in a well-regarded firm and/or corporation.

• Experience negotiating technology license agreements (software-as-a-service, software, cloud, and related ancillary documents, including SLAs, security exhibits, and privacy addenda).

• Experience negotiating consulting, professional services, telecom, hardware, and real estate agreements.

• Ability to project manage and gather business requirements to accomplish tasks with multiple stakeholders.

• Excellent communication (oral and written) and interpersonal skills.

• Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to multitask, prioritize, and adjust as priorities shift.

• Strong reviewing and drafting skills; commitment to quality through demonstrated accuracy and thoroughness.

• Strong third party tool usage skills (online resources, AI, other paid for subscription resources).

• Ability to work independently, yet still be team-oriented and collaborative.

What’s next?

If you feel that you have the necessary skills to be our new Associate Counsel  then please APPLY TODAY for immediate consideration.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/ belief, sexual orientation, or age

Due to the volume of applications received, unfortunately it is not possible to respond to each one individually, applicants that are shortlisted will be contacted within one week of applications.

We do not accept speculative agency CVs. Any CV received by WEX will be treated as a gift and will not be eligible for an agency fee. PSL agencies should only send CVs if authorised to do so by the Talent Acquisition team.