About the job

Job summary

The Role and Our Team  

Hays are delighted to be partnering with the Office for Product Safety Standards (OPSS) to recruit three key roles within their highly regarded legal team – Data lawyer (x1) and Regulatory Lawyer (x2). This is a fantastic opportunity for experienced lawyers who are looking to work for a national regulator and join a friendly, inclusive, and diverse in-house legal team. OPSS has offices in Birmingham, London and Teddington and these roles can be based at any of those locations.

The opportunity:

The Legal Practice and Advice Team are from a mixture of public sector and private practice backgrounds and from the Criminal Bar.  The team provides legal advice across all of OPSS’s functions. These are exciting opportunities for highly motivated lawyers with strong interpersonal skills who are able to work well within a team. These posts report directly to the Head of Regulatory Legal Advice. 

You will work closely with teams across the OPSS to provide pragmatic, solution focussed and high-quality legal advice. The scope of the role, reflecting the breadth of OPSS’s functions, is broad. We do not expect applicants to have existing expertise in all areas of OPSS’s work but you must be willing to advise on a wide range of matters including our data transformation programme, development of policy, enforcement across a range of civil and criminal legislation, and statutory decision-making. In doing so, you will liaise with both Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and other government departments, such as the Government Legal Department (GLD), as well as other regulators and commercial entities as appropriate.​ 

Job description

Key Responsibilities: 

​​You will have responsibility for a stimulating, wide-ranging portfolio of work which includes: 

• ​Advising on compliance with relevant laws in respect of data sharing, data handling and data security, advising on data protection and FOI issues.(Data role)
• ​Providing timely and high-quality legal advice to colleagues on a wide range of issues, both in respect of discrete requests for legal assistance and on more significant matters.
• ​Managing, with appropriate supervision, your own caseload and working collaboratively with others on larger matters.
• ​Providing strategic legal advice when OPSS is considering, or has committed to, taking on new regulatory functions on behalf of other Government departments.
• ​Understanding policy perspectives and confidently presenting delivery solutions.
• ​Highlight to senior colleagues any significant legal risks, particularly in your practice areas, on a timely basis.
• ​Liaising with legal teams/advisers of stakeholders and other government departments/regulators as appropriate.
• ​Contributing to the learning and development of the OPSS Legal Advice and Practice team, as well as to the OPSS more broadly.​

Person specification

What you will need to succeed:

Skills & Experience 

​​We are interested in hearing from applicants who feel that they can demonstrate the following attributes: ​ 

• ​An ability to assimilate complex information and provide pragmatic, delivery-focused advice on the back of it, underpinned by well-reasoned analysis.
• ​An aptitude for problem solving in a way that takes account of the ‘bigger picture’, particularly where there are uncertainties at play.
• ​A trusted advisor and advocate, able to listen and understand needs through open, structured and productive conversations.
• ​Capable of exercising sound judgment, even when balancing conflicting pressures and interests.
• ​Excellent communication skills with the ability to express sophisticated concepts clearly and concisely and to influence colleagues.
• ​An ability to work at pace, recognising the need to prioritise or to adopt a flexible approach when appropriate.
• ​Ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships with a range of colleagues at all levels across a number of organisations.

Essential criteria: 

• ​Applicants must be qualified to practice as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales. You must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEX. 
• ​​A sound knowledge of public law principles.  
• Experience of advising on data protection and security, information law, FOI and / or data governance (data lawyer vacancy) 

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of working within the Regulatory sector and advising on regulatory law
• Experience of advising on data protection and security, information law, FOI and / or data governance (regulatory lawyer vacancies)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,560, Department for Business and Trade contributes £14,461 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually and will include a written legal exercise. We will, consider in-person interviews by exception.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:    

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages. 
• A Personal Statement of up to 500 words, explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.   

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift will be conducted based on CV only. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.  

Sift will take place w/c -18th March 2024

Interviews will take place w/c -1st April 2024

Qualifications

Applicants must be qualified to practice as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales. You must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEX.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.