Balfour Beatty plc
Senior Legal Counsel, Buildings and Defence
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About The Role
Balfour Beatty is looking for a commercially minded and influential Senior Legal Counsel to play a pivotal role in shaping legal strategy across our Regional Buildings Business Unit. As a senior member of our UK Construction Services Legal team, you’ll partner closely with senior leaders to enable growth, support winning bids and safeguard long-term value across major Defence, Transport, Aviation and Science & Technical projects.
In this highly impactful role, you’ll lead negotiations on complex, high-value bids and live projects—helping the business take informed, balanced decisions that strengthen competitiveness while protecting our commercial position. You’ll work at the heart of a rapidly evolving environment, providing pragmatic, solutions-focused advice that supports operational delivery and fosters trusted client relationships.
What you'll be doing
- Lead legal strategy and negotiations on complex, high-value bids, tenders and project agreements across major Defence and Buildings programmes.
- Drive commercially focused, risk-balanced solutions that support winning work while protecting long-term value.
- Shape negotiation strategy, identifying deal-critical risks, viable trade-offs and creative commercial solutions.
- Oversee the development and implementation of legal processes, policies and standard documents.
- Provide senior legal governance during bid reviews, advising on bid/no-bid decisions, departures and risk appetite.
- Partner with commercial, operational and bid teams to deliver clear, pragmatic legal advice aligned to client and business objectives.
- Manage external legal advisers, including budget oversight, on complex matters and dispute resolution processes.
- Provide expert support on disputes, adjudications and alternative dispute resolution.
- Review, negotiate and advise on bonds, guarantees, warranties and other commercial instruments.
- Lead, coach and develop team members, contributing to the wider capability development of the legal community.
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Who we're looking for
- Strong experience within construction or infrastructure, ideally across defence or government-regulated environments
- Extensive working knowledge of NEC3 and NEC4 contracts
- Proven ability to lead complex negotiations and manage high-value contractual risk
- Sound understanding of UK government contracting requirements, including procurement and defence-related regulations
- Commercially minded, with the judgement to balance legal risk and business opportunity
- Confident communicator, able to influence and advise at senior leadership level
- Pragmatic, solutions-focused approach to problem-solving
- Experience managing or mentoring legal team members
- Forward-thinking, with an interest in improving ways of working and legal innovation
Why work for us
Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities
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About Us
At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion We are a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/ We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: candidaterecruitmentqueries@balfourbeatty.com
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