Senior Legal Council UK & Ireland

UCB; Brussel; Hybrid; EUR 108,000 - 156,000; Full time

Job summary

UCB is seeking a Senior Legal Council UK & Ireland to provide strategic legal leadership across the UK and Ireland, guiding strategy from development through commercialization and lifecycle management. You will serve as a trusted partner to cross-functional teams, ensuring compliant local execution of global strategies while managing risk and enabling growth.

You will collaborate with regional and global teams, lead complex agreements, and coach legal professionals in a high-performing

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with a law degree and admission to practice in a relevant jurisdiction.
• Significant experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or life sciences legal environments.
• Experience supporting global or regional product assets, including launches and lifecycle management.
• Strong knowledge of medical, regulatory, commercial and compliance considerations within the healthcare sector.
• Demonstrated success in complex, matrixed, international organizations.

Responsibilities

• Provide clear, practical, and business-focused legal advice to senior leaders and governance bodies on key strategic decisions.
• Drive alignment of legal positions, risk assessments, and decision-making frameworks across teams.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to support compliant patient engagement, medical, regulatory, commercial, and market access activities.
• Anticipate, assess, and mitigate legal, compliance, and reputational risks while enabling innovation and business growth.
• Support launch readiness, pricing, reimbursement, commercialization, and stakeholder engagement activities across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• Lead legal support for complex agreements, investigations, disputes, and external counsel management.
• Coordinate legal input for innovative digital, data-driven, and patient-focused initiatives.
• Develop and coach legal professionals while fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing team culture.
• Build strong partnerships across regions to ensure consistent legal guidance and effective local implementation.

Skills

Stakeholder influence

Strategic thinking

Communication excellence

Collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Law degree

Bar admission or equivalent

Job description

Make your mark for patients

Senior Legal Council UK & Ireland

We are looking for a Senior Legal Council UK & Ireland who is strategic, collaborative, and pragmatic to join us in our Legal team, based in our Slough office in the United Kingdom.

About The Role

You will provide legal leadership and support business activities across the United Kingdom and Ireland. You will guide legal strategy throughout the asset lifecycle, from late-stage development and launch through commercialization, lifecycle management, and loss of exclusivity planning.

Acting as a trusted business partner, the Legal Lead UK&I provides pragmatic, solution-oriented legal guidance to cross-functional teams supporting the launch, commercialization, and ongoing management of UCB’s portfolio.

Based in UK and operating within UCB’s hybrid working model, this position reports to the Head of Patient Impact Legal Europe and is part of the broader Europe Legal Community. The role collaborates closely with European, US, Intercontinental, asset, and Patient Evidence legal teams to ensure consistent risk assessment and mitigation across UCB.

Who You'll Work With

You will be working in a team that partners closely with colleagues across Legal, Ethics and Compliance, Data Privacy, Intellectual Property, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Commercial, and Patient Evidence functions.

You will collaborate with Global Asset Leadership Teams, regional legal leaders, and affiliate teams across multiple markets. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, you will serve as a trusted legal partner to local leadership and cross-functional teams, helping translate global strategies into compliant local execution.

What You'll Do

• Provide clear, practical, and business-focused legal advice to senior leaders and governance bodies on key strategic decisions.
• Drive alignment of legal positions, risk assessments, and decision-making frameworks across teams.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to support compliant patient engagement, medical, regulatory, commercial, and market access activities.
• Anticipate, assess, and mitigate legal, compliance, and reputational risks while enabling innovation and business growth.
• Support launch readiness, pricing, reimbursement, commercialization, and stakeholder engagement activities across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• Lead legal support for complex agreements, investigations, disputes, and external counsel management.
• Coordinate legal input for innovative digital, data-driven, and patient-focused initiatives.
• Develop and coach legal professionals while fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing team culture.
• Build strong partnerships across regions to ensure consistent legal guidance and effective local implementation.

Interested? For this role we're looking for the following education, experience and skills

• Qualified lawyer with a law degree and admission to practice in a relevant jurisdiction.
• Significant experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or life sciences legal environments.
• Experience supporting global or regional product assets, including launches and lifecycle management activities.
• Strong knowledge of medical, regulatory, commercial and compliance considerations within the healthcare sector.
• Demonstrated success working in complex, matrixed, international organizations.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and lead through collaboration rather than formal authority.
• Strong strategic thinking, risk assessment, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including interaction with senior leaders.
• Sound commercial awareness combined with practical and balanced legal judgment.
• Commitment to ethical decision-making, integrity, inclusion, and patient-centered outcomes.

Are you ready to 'go beyond' to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!

About Us

UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.

Why work with us?

At UCB, we don't just complete tasks, we create value. We aren't afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We 'go beyond' to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that's on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.

At UCB, we've embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.

UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on [e-mail]. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.