Head of Legal - Retirement Solutions & Asset Management

Phoenix; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 200,000 +; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services organization in the UK is seeking a Head of Legal to oversee the legal function across its asset management business. In this strategic role, you will provide key legal advice and manage senior legal professionals while ensuring compliance and regulatory matters are effectively addressed. The ideal candidate is a qualified lawyer with significant expertise in asset management and derivatives, capable of balancing legal risks with business priorities. This position offers a hybrid work model and competitive salary.

Benefits

Private medical cover

38 days annual leave

Career breaks

Income protection

Volunteering days

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• Significant experience in-house or in private practice specializing in asset management.
• Strong understanding of the regulatory landscape for derivatives.
• Proven leadership experience managing senior legal professionals.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic legal advice to RS&AM leadership.
• Lead and manage the Heads of Legal for cohesive service delivery.
• Oversee legal risk management and regulatory compliance.

Skills

Leadership

Legal expertise in asset management

Understanding of derivatives

Regulatory compliance

Commercially minded

Education

Qualified lawyer

Job description

Job Description

Job Type: Permanent

Location: Based from our Birmingham/London/Edinburgh offices with hybrid working options.

Flexible working: All of our roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about Phoenix Flex here.

Closing Date: 12.12.25

Salary and benefits: From £140,000 plus an indicative bonus range of 30%-60%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Who are we?

We want to be the best place that any of our 6,600 colleagues have ever worked.

We’re Phoenix Group, we’re a long‑term savings and retirement business. We offer a range of products across our market‑leading brands, Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure. Around 1 in 5 people in the UK has a pension with us. We’re a FTSE 100 organisation that is tackling key issues such as transitioning our portfolio to net zero by 2050, and we’re not done yet.

The Role

As Head of Legal – RS&AM, you’ll lead the legal function across the entire RS&AM business, supporting both current operations and future strategic ambitions. You’ll act as a key business partner to the RS&AM Executive Committee and senior leadership, providing commercially astute legal advice and ensuring legal risk is managed effectively.

You’ll report to the General Counsel – Corporate Centre, Shared Services, Asset Management & Retirement Solutions (GC CCSSAMRS), and act as their deputy on all RS&AM matters. You’ll also lead two senior Heads of Legal (technical experts) ensuring cohesive delivery of legal services across the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic legal advice to RS&AM leadership and support the delivery of business objectives.
• Lead and manage two Heads of Legal, aligning legal services across asset management, defined benefit solutions, reinsurance, and policyholder investments.
• Represent Legal on RS&AM steering committees and working groups.
• Oversee legal risk management, regulatory compliance, and external legal spend.
• Collaborate with Risk and Compliance on regulatory matters including market abuse, trade reporting, and cross‑border issues.
• Deliver effective legal solutions to complex, high‑value, and often ambiguous challenges.
• Contribute to the wider General Counsel leadership team and support the delivery of the GC function’s strategic goals.

What are we looking for?

This is a high‑impact, strategic position for a seasoned legal professional with deep expertise in asset management, derivatives, and financial services regulation.

Essential Criteria

• A qualified lawyer with significant experience, either in‑house or in private practice specialising in advising in respect of large scale in‑house and/or third‑party client asset management and/or sales and trading activity (i.e. a firm conducting such activities on behalf of itself or third‑party clients, as distinguished from a firm externalising such activities to third‑party asset managers/providers).
• Strong understanding of derivatives (including complex structures) and the regulatory/licensing landscape.
• Proven leadership experience, including managing senior legal leadership professionals.
• Commercially minded, with the ability to balance legal risk and business priorities.
• Experience in areas such as private credit, bulk purchase annuities, individual annuities, or securitisation is desirable.

We want to hire the whole version of you.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.

We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so apply early to avoid missing out.

Find out more about

• Guide for Candidates: thephoenixgroup.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates
• Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.thephoenixgroup.com/careers/talk-to-us

Hiring Over The Festive Period

Many of our colleagues will be taking a well‑earned break over the festive period. We’re still advertising our open roles and as part of our commitment to providing the best candidate experience, we wanted to let you know that there may be a delay in responding to applications received between the 19th December and 5th January. Please bear with us and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.