Hybrid Head of Legal

at Rowden

• Job title: Head of Legal
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Bristol, United Kingdom

About the role

• Head of Legal overseeing legal strategy and operations at Rowden, UK's growing engineering firm. Responsible for governance, risk, and compliance in complex legal matters.

Responsibilities

• Leading all legal matters across Rowden, holding full accountability for the legal function.
• Reviewing, negotiating, and advising on a broad range of commercial contracts, including public sector agreements, partner agreements, supplier contracts and NDAs.
• Driving intellectual property strategy and management, working closely with engineering and product teams.
• Providing legal support across new product development, complex engineering programmes, marketing activities, and broader operational initiatives.
• Leading corporate governance, covering Board matters, shareholder matters, company filings, and statutory compliance.
• Advising on fundraising and M&A activities, including due diligence, structuring, and transaction execution.
• Maintaining up-to-date understanding of relevant legislation, with a particular focus on public sector procurement and international export regulations.
• Line management, mentorship and development of our Junior Legal Counsel, ensuring high-quality output and professional growth.

Requirements

• UK-qualified solicitor with a minimum of 6 years’ PQE.
• Experience operating with a broad remit in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Experience working with technically complex products, systems, or capabilities.
• Eligibility to work in the UK and ability to obtain SC National Security Vetting.
• Experience in some of the following areas is valued but not essential:
• Public sector procurement and related commercial contracts, particularly in defence.
• Intellectual property
• International product export and trade compliance.

Benefits

• We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
• We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
• Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
• Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!