Head of Legal Affairs

Institute of Photonic Sciences; Castelldefels; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) seeks a Head of Legal Affairs to build and lead its internal Legal function, serving as the institution’s senior legal reference. Reporting to the Executive Direction, the role combines strategic legal leadership with hands-on drafting, negotiation and problem solving to support ICFO’s scientific and institutional objectives.

The successful candidate will design processes, tools, templates and governance mechanisms, manage legal risk across the

Qualifications

• Senior lawyer with capability to build a legal function.
• Knowledge of public-sector regulations, IP, tech transfer.
• Ability to identify, assess and manage legal risk across an institution.
• Experience in drafting, negotiating and problem solving in legal matters.

Responsibilities

• Act as ICFO's senior legal reference for executives and decision-makers.
• Design and develop the Legal function, processes and templates.
• Map legal risks and define operating model and priorities.
• Provide senior advice on governance, data protection and compliance.
• Lead and develop the internal Legal team and coordinate external counsel.

Skills

Senior legal adviser

Leadership

Drafting and negotiation

Problem solving

Tools

Legal governance tools

Job description

ICFO is looking for a Head of Legal Affairs to build and lead its internal Legal function and become the institution’s senior legal reference.

Reporting directly to the Executive Direction, the Head of Legal Affairs will have overall responsibility for ensuring that legal matters and legal risks across ICFO are appropriately identified, assessed and managed.

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced lawyer who wants to go beyond managing individual legal matters and shape a legal capability from the ground up. The successful candidate will combine senior legal judgement and hands-on legal work with the opportunity to build the processes, tools, knowledge base and team required for ICFO’s next stage of development.

ICFO operates at the intersection of cutting-edge research, public-sector regulation, intellectual property, technology transfer and international collaboration, creating a diverse and demanding legal environment.

The internal Legal team will include a Legal Counsel and a Legal Operations Officer, complemented by specialized external legal support when required.

The role
A key initial mandate will be to assess ICFO’s current legal activity, risks and ways of working and, based on this diagnosis, design and progressively develop the Legal function.

Main responsibilities will include:

• acting as ICFO’s senior legal reference and advising the Executive Direction and other relevant institutional decision-makers on complex, sensitive and strategically relevant matters;
  
• taking overall responsibility for the quality, consistency and appropriate management of legal matters across the institution;
  
• mapping and prioritizing legal risks and defining the operating model, priorities and ways of working of the Legal function;
  
• providing senior legal advice on the public-sector legal and regulatory framework applicable to ICFO, including governance, transparency, incompatibilities, conflicts of interest, public funding and the legal implications of economic-financial and regulatory requirements;
  
• monitoring relevant regulatory developments and supporting their appropriate interpretation and implementation across the institution;
  
• providing senior legal expertise on intellectual property, research agreements, technology transfer, licensing, spin-offs and national and international research collaborations;
  
• supporting institutional governance, Board-related matters, internal regulations, policies, resolutions and other governance instruments;
  
• ensuring appropriate legal coverage of cross-cutting areas such as data protection, integrity and anti-fraud, complex labor matters and emerging digital and AI-related legal issues;
  
• contributing to the preparation and review of institutional policies, procedures, internal regulations and other normative instruments;
  
• creating and maintaining a coherent body of legal criteria, precedents, templates and internal regulatory documentation;
  
• designing, documenting, simplifying and improving Legal processes, including their digitalization and automation where appropriate;
  
• participating in cross-functional working groups and strategic institutional projects;
  
• determining when specialized external legal expertise is required and coordinating external counsel;
  
• leading and developing the internal Legal team.
  

The objective is to build a Legal function that is rigorous, pragmatic, accessible and efficient, capable of anticipating and managing legal risk while enabling ICFO to pursue its scientific and institutional objectives.

The Head of Legal Affairs will have overall accountability for Legal while working closely with the institutional functions that retain ownership of their respective activities.

Public procurement and tender-management activities are not part of the Legal function.

This is a player-coach role; the successful candidate will lead and develop the function while remaining directly involved in legal analysis, drafting, negotiation and problem-solving.