Director of Legal Services

The Open University; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent UK educational institution is seeking a Director of Legal Services to oversee its legal function. The role entails leading a team, managing legal advice for various university functions, and ensuring compliance with regulations. Ideal candidates must be qualified solicitors with substantial experience, particularly in commercial law, and possess excellent leadership and negotiation skills. Located in Milton Keynes, the position offers a hybrid working model allowing both office and remote work.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Comprehensive staff benefits

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of senior-level legal experience.
• Experience in the higher education sector is preferred.
• Outstanding technical legal skills in commercial and corporate law.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Legal Services Team and ensure effective legal support.
• Provide strategic legal guidance across the University.
• Manage external legal services and budget.

Skills

Leadership

Legal compliance

Team management

Drafting and negotiation skills

Risk assessment

Education

Law degree

Qualified Solicitor with current SRA Practising Certificate

Job description

Job Location: Milton Keynes, Remote/Hybrid

Weekly Working Hours: 37

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

Reporting to the Director of Governance, Compliance and Legal Services, the Director of Legal Services will lead the University’s legal function and provide strategic, actionable advice on legal matters across the University.

The successful candidate will be a qualified solicitor who holds a current Practising Certificate from the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority. They will have significant post‑qualification experience gained through operating in complex and highly regulated environments, ideally within the higher education sector, and a demonstrated history of service delivery and team leadership.

You will:

• Lead and manage the in‑house Legal Services Team, inspiring high performance to ensure the provision of effective and efficient legal support across a broad range of activities;
• Lead and advise on all legal matters arising from the activities of the University and its group, including but not limited to employment, commercial, contracting, research, governance and student matters;
• Be responsible for the procurement and management of external legal services when required, ensuring quality and value is achieved;
• Provide advice and support to the University Secretary and other senior leaders on significant legal issues that arise in the running of a University;
• Be responsible for management of the Legal Services budget and resources.

As part of the senior leadership team in Governance, Compliance and Legal services, support the Director in joint delivery of the Unit Business Plan, People Plan, objectives and KPIs, contributing to a culture of professional development, inclusive working practices, high engagement and motivation.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership for all legal activities across the University and manage a full and diverse number of legal matters, always taking a risk‑based approach.
• Manage and supervise the work of the Legal Services team and direct and prioritise its work, ensuring deadlines are met and work is produced to a high standard.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships, working with a broad network of staff across the University as a trusted and respected advisor, helping to position the Legal Services Team as a key strategic partner within the organisation.
• Provide legal advice to the Executive to enable it to discharge its responsibilities legally and effectively, and to the University’s subsidiary and associated companies as required.
• Effectively manage all external legal advice ensuring it is properly instructed, managed, and represents quality and value for money, including the requirement to deliver within agreed budgets and in line with the University’s Procurement Policy.
• Keep up to date with relevant strategic, policy and service innovations, and relevant legal and regulatory changes to inform best practice and continually drive excellence.
• Together with the Legal Services team pro‑actively identify legal and practical problems associated with the business of the University and establish methods to reduce potential risk or liability.
• Deliver or support service improvement interventions that realise key benefits for stakeholders, including through the use of AI tools.

About You

• Educated to Degree or equivalent level of expertise and experience.
• Qualified Solicitor holding a current SRA Practising Certificate.
• Demonstrable recent post‑qualifications experience with a minimum of 5 years at a senior level. This experience may have been gained outside of the Higher Education sector in the regulatory, commercial, or public sector or in private practice.
• Possessing outstanding technical legal skills and experience in one or more of the following: commercial, corporate, and Intellectual property law, with a good understanding of data protection law and with a passion to learn more and train others.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills and an ability to communicate complex legal matters to lay audiences in an understandable way.
• Ability to listen and understand the needs of University stakeholders and provide practical, risk‑based legal advice.
• Ability to understand, evaluate and advise on a range of complex options and to deliver innovative and pragmatic solutions.
• Demonstrable experience of leading, managing and developing a team to deliver a high quality service.
• Resource and budget management experience.
• Able to demonstrate resilience and effectiveness when working under the pressures of multiple and varied legal matters and the competing demands and priorities of internal stakeholders.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email [e-mail] quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be on average 1-2 days per week.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

We anticipate that we will be conducting interviews for this role during the week commencing 23 February 2026.

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following documents:

• CV
• A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the criteria for this role as detailed above within the job description.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.