Join Rolls-Royce as a Legal Counsel in Derby on a full-time, hybrid basis (three days on-site). This role provides essential commercial aviation contracting and transaction support within the Civil Aerospace General Counsel team.
Requirements
Qualified and practicing lawyer.
Ideally 5+ years post-qualification experience (PQE).
Technical legal knowledge and practical contracting experience, preferably in a civil aerospace customer-facing environment.
Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and commercial judgment skills.
Skills & Responsibilities
Contracting expertise: Deliver contract and commercial legal support for sales, engine leasing, and future programmes.
Risk management: Assess potential risks and liabilities while negotiating solutions to achieve expected financial returns.
Relationship building: Work closely with internal clients and manage external law firms in a cost-efficient manner.
Potential transition routes: People from commercial law or corporate legal backgrounds may bring relevant contract negotiation skills, alongside meeting the required legal qualifications.
Job description
Job Description
Legal Counsel
Derby (Three days Derby/hybrid)
Full time
Why join Rolls-Royce?
At Rolls-Royce we are proud to be a business that has truly helped to shape the modern world and are committed to always being a force for progress; powering, protecting, and connecting people everywhere.
By joining Rolls-Royce, you'll have the opportunity to work on world-class solutions, supported by a culture that believes individuality is our greatest strength, and all perspectives, experiences and backgrounds help us innovate and enable our high-performance culture.
Position Summary
An exciting opportunity exists for a Legal Counsel – Commercial Aviation Contracting to join the team in Derby. This role will support a variety of activities, as required, across the Commercial Aviation Contracting team as part of the General Counsel team.
In this role you will provide legal support to Customer and Business Development Team in Civil Aerospace working as part of General Counsel in Civil Aerospace. The Commercial Aviation Contracting team comprises of three areas: Sales & Contracting, Engine Leasing and Future Programmes.
The Sales & Contracting team works as to support the contracting new business opportunities with our commercial airline customers across the globe.
The Engine Leasing team supports leasing of engines to customers and engine financing and exchange activity across the business.
The Future Programmes team in involved in a broad range of business development and contracting opportunities for new engine programmes and opportunities with aircraft manufacturers.
What you will be doing:
Transaction support: Provide contract and commercial legal subject matter and business partner support and expertise for Customer Team activities across the Commercial Aviation Contracting team. This will include a degree of international travel, sometimes at short notice to support customer negotiations.
Legal advice: Deliver timely, cost effective, pro-active, and technically correct legal advice in a user friendly and decisive manner.
Risk management: At all phases of our transactions, identify and assess potential risks and liabilities proposing and negotiating solutions to manage, minimise or mitigate such risks or liabilities whilst achieving the expected financial returns.
Tools development: Assist the team in the development of new precedent documents, fallback positions, and playbooks to assist in the efficient deployment of our products and services to customers.
Training and learning: Develop and implement training and knowledge management, deploying best practice and actively sharing knowledge with colleagues in the legal function and the business.
External law firm management: Secure support from and manage interaction, as appropriate, with our external law firms in a cost-efficient manner.
Relationship building: Work closely with internal clients, building and maintaining strong and collaborative relationships across all businesses and functions.
Preferred requirements:
Qualified and practicing lawyer. Ideally 5+ years PQE
Technical legal knowledge and practical experience of contracting ideally in Civil Aerospace Customer facing environment.
Well-developed interpersonal, diplomacy, communication, influencing and negotiations skills.
Flexible, innovative, and fast paced working environment.
Ability to solve complex problems while maintaining customer focus.
Highly motivated and capable of working under own initiative.
Sound commercial judgement and business acumen.
Ability to prioritise workloads to meet demanding deadlines under pressure.
Experience of influencing both at a functional and task level, as well as at senior levels of the organisation
Regional Benefits
Generous Annual Leave
Retirement Savings through the Rolls-Royce Retirement Savings Trust
Group Life Assurance provides for a lump sum benefit if you die whilst employed by Rolls-Royce
Group Income Protection provides an income in the event that you are unable to work due to illness or injury
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Our vision is to ensure that the excellence and ingenuity that shaped our history continues into our future. Our multi-year transformation programme aims to turn Rolls-Royce into a high-performing, competitive, resilient, and growing company. Join us, and it can be your future vision too.
Rolls-Royce are committed to being a respectful, inclusive, and non-discriminatory workplace where individuality is valued, diverse perspectives fuel innovation, and everyone can thrive.
Closing Date: 13.11.2026
As part of our selection process, candidates in certain locations may be asked to complete an online assessment, which can include cognitive and behavioural aptitude testing relevant to the role. If required, full instructions for the next steps will be provided.
