Job description
Job details
Location: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Gibraltar, Glasgow, Leeds, Leeds Broadgate, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Plymouth, Reading, Sheffield, South Coast - Southampton, Watford
Capability: International
Experience Level: Senior Manager
Type: Full Time
Service Line: International supprt
Contract type: Permanent
Job description
KPMG International and the International Office of General Counsel
This is an outstanding opportunity to join a growing and high-performing in-house legal team in a global organisation. We expect this opportunity will allow you to broaden and enhance your range of legal skills and experiences and to make a deep impact on the business.
KPMG International (KPMGI) is the entity with which all member firms of the KPMG global organisation are affiliated. KPMGI carries out business activities for the overall benefit of the KPMG global organisation, but does not itself provide professional services to clients. One of the main purposes of KPMGI is to facilitate the provision by member firms of quality Audit, Tax and Advisory services to their clients, including through the use of technology.
The International Office of the General Counsel is a global team within KPMG International that is based in six countries. The team provides legal advice on a wide variety of key strategic matters and legal, regulatory and reputational issues and risks, and also supports the execution of critical business decisions made by KMPGI.
Role Summary
KPMG is now a digital business, and as a result, technology enables everything it does and requires KPMG to continue to transform with technology in support of its Growth and Trust agenda. This role, which is focused on Intellectual Property (IP), Technology and Data, is an important part of IOGC. It focuses on providing legal advice and support from IOGC on: (i) complex, strategic technology procurement matters, (ii) strategic alliances and partnering with technology providers, and (iii) complex strategic, change management and legal remediation projects. This role also involves supporting efforts to (a) develop procurement and alliance templates, playbooks, guidance and best practice, and (b) develop and provide training to IOGC and procurement professionals on the use of such templates and playbooks.
This role requires a person to provide substantial value-add to business and technology development teams by enabling and supporting procurement transactions (which contribute to over $3.5 billion in spend value), technology alliances and partnerships with hundreds of millions in incentives, as well as supporting Collective Strategy projects for the benefit of the KPMG network such as the development, sharing and amalgamation of technology and IP for Global Priority Solutions, all while supporting IOGC’s senior leadership team in managing, mitigating and preventing legal and reputational risk.
The person performing this role is expected to drive substantial cost savings by performing complex matters internally without reliance on external counsel.
This role requires influencing of, and collaboration with, KPMGI Leaders and their teams, in particular, the Global CAO Office, the Global Alliance team, Global Business Sponsors of commercial technology transactions, technology development and managed services teams, the cloud infrastructure and enterprise technology teams in Global Technology & Knowledge and other IT and cybersecurity professionals.
The person in this role is expected to execute their responsibilities under the overall supervision of the Legal Head of IP, Technology and Data or, where delegated by the Legal Head of IP, Technology and Data, the most senior Global Director lawyer with respect to the commercial technology transactions, and:
(a) with a significant degree of autonomy while exercising appropriate judgment on when to consult/escalate; and
(b) using their substantial legal skills and experience in the areas of commercial technology transactions as well as IP and technology law as part of executing these responsibilities.
We expect that the successful candidate will primarily focus on:
Complex Commercial Technology Matters that promote and support KPMG’s Growth and/or Trust priorities
- Providing legal advice and support on complex technology procurement matters which are essential to the successful execution of KPMG’s Collective Strategy. This work will include advising on, drafting, and negotiating various technology agreements with leading technology providers, including complex cross-border services agreements, software license agreements and cloud services agreements (i.e., SaaS, PaaS, IaaS).
- Providing legal advice and support on commercial technology agreements with suppliers and alliance partners that support, or are a part of KPMG’s Global Priority Solutions which are essential to the successful execution of KPMG’s Collective Strategy.
- Supporting the provision of legal advice and alliance initiatives such as partnering with leading technology providers, including exchanges of confidential information and know-how, the development of technology and managed services offerings on or in connection with leading technology providers’ platforms (which may include the digitization of KPMGI know-how and expertise), and the use of low-code, no-code development platforms offered by such technology providers.
Supporting complex strategic, change management and legal remediation projects
- Supporting complex, strategic change management projects required due to new laws and regulations (e.g., contract projects related to Schrems II, the UK’s payment practices reporting requirements, etc.).
- This work will involve liaising and coordination with other KPMGI professionals as appropriate (including in tax, finance and procurement), developing templates, playbooks and guidance, and providing training. Under the supervision of the Legal Head of IP, Technology and Data or a Global Director, this will also involve working with, instructing and managing external counsel.
Driving day-to-day activities of the privacy and information protection practice
This work involves:
- Supporting efforts to create and/or creating day-to-day solutions to legal issues
- Developing and/or enhancing procurements templates, playbooks, guidance and best practice, and developing and providing training to IOGC and procurement professionals on the use of such templates and playbooks
- Contributing to the deepening of IOGC’s relationship with global procurement through developing and providing training and the participation in workshops to improve processes and ways of working.
Technical Skills
A candidate should have the following technical skills:
- Advanced legal drafting skills
- Advanced communication skills to enable the translation of complex legal and regulatory issues, within the context of complex technical and business issues, into easily understandable advice
- Strong negotiation and analytical skills
- Ability to advise based on first principles
IP, Technology and Data
- Advanced technical legal skills in the areas of complex technology procurement matters
- Strong negotiation and drafting skills across a wide variety of technology, IP and data agreements and transaction structures across various jurisdictions, as well as addressing complex legal, business and technical issues
Qualifications & Licenses
We are looking for a qualified lawyer with a significant amount of Post-Qualified Experience (PQE) advising on IP, technology and data law. Candidates should be a UK qualified lawyer (or equivalent if qualified outside of the UK).
Experience & Knowledge
A candidate should have the following experience and knowledge:
- Must possess a well developed working knowledge of both on-premises and cloud-based information technology businesses, services and products
- Must possess a well developed working knowledge of IP, technology and data law issues that arise in IP portfolios, technology solutions and business operations that span multiple jurisdictions with varied IP laws and levels of enforcement
- Experience in taking the day-to-day lead on managing the details of more complex/strategically significant procurement matters
- Experience in driving forward the implementation of solutions to complex issues and matters, with an international/cross-border dimension
- Ability to quickly absorb, process and analyse a large amount of information in respect of complex issues, which may be provided by stakeholders orally and/or in written form across multiple documents
- Ability to manage and prioritize a large volume of complex matters with competing deadlines and different internal stakeholders
- Knowledge and awareness of global business, geopolitical, legal, regulatory and technology issues/trends which may be relevant to KPMGI and the Audit & Accounting profession more broadly
- Experience in, and proficient at, instructing and managing external counsel on matters, as appropriate (other than the most significant matters, on which the individual in this role will work alongside a Partner or Director level lawyer within IOGC)
- Experience in working on cross border matters and well-developed cultural sensitivity to enable engagement with people at all levels and with diverse backgrounds
- Additional Notes
- This role offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package.
- Some domestic and international travel will be required.
- At KPMG International, we are supportive of helping you to achieve a balance between your home and work demands. We are happy to discuss individual requirements and our range of flexible working arrangements could be of interest. Please ask to find out more.