Senior & Principle Commercial and Employment Lawyers

Job Description

The Role

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is seeking highly motivated lawyers with suitable employment and/or commercial law skills to join a high performing team in challenging roles at the EL1 Senior Legal Officer and EL2 Principal Legal Officer levels in ASD Legal.

Typical Duties of the Roles

As an EL1 or EL2 Legal Officer, you could be required to:

• Prepare briefing material, submissions, correspondence, reports, legal documents and instruments, including for the Director-General of ASD and other ASD senior executives;
• Develop and foster good working relationships with all stakeholders, including external legal providers and counsel;
• Mentor and develop junior lawyers;
• Provide high quality and timely legal advice on a range of matters in a national security context, including Commonwealth procurement processes and employment, workplace, corporate and commercial law (in particular the Workplace Relations Act 1996, Fair Work Act 2009, and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013);
• Assist in the drafting of contracts and other agreements;
• Communicate effectively to develop productive working relationships with key internal clients and external stakeholders; and
• Work closely with the other members of ASD Legal to deliver support to ASD’s mission

About the Team

If successful, you will provide timely, high quality legal advice to ASD on complex matters relevant to the National Intelligence Community, including Commonwealth procurement processes and workplace, employment, corporate and commercial law.

If you enjoy being challenged and working in a unique, dynamic, operational environment, then this position is for you. As a Legal Officer within an Australian Government intelligence and security agency, you will have the opportunity to advise on sensitive matters and issues that few other lawyers ever will.

Our Ideal Candidate

ASD EL1 Senior Legal Officers and EL2 Principal Legal Officers work with considerable independence, and are accountable to perform and achieve very complex legal work within an integrated workforce. You will require extensive knowledge of and compliance with legislative frameworks, government decision-making and ASD’s mission and policy requirements.

As an EL1 Senior Legal Officer or ASD EL2 Principal Legal Officer, you will exercise a significant degree of independence and perform an important leadership role. You will be responsible for influencing and developing strategies, policies, priorities and operational practices in support of the Australian Signals Directorate’s objectives based on high-level decision making and judgement. You will provide strategic advice to senior management and stakeholders as well as leading and assuming accountability for complex work, sensitive projects or work programs that have strategic, political or operational significance.

The EL2 level has people management responsibilities (and potentially also at the EL1 level) and at this level you would be required to exercise your leadership and management skills and experience as part of a small, cohesive team. You will be accountable to plan and manage a range of human and physical resources and exercise the associated people and financial responsibilities. You will provide strategic direction to the work unit, including assisting with developing business plans, strategies and priorities and monitor work flow and performance. You will be accountable for developing, coaching and reviewing individual, team and business performance, and will identify opportunities for building team capability and continuous improvement. You will set work aligned with strategic objectives and communicate expected outcomes.

As an ASD EL2 Principal Legal Officer, you will have extensive knowledge relating to the methodology, systems and procedures within the legal function and have the ability to translate this into strategy. You will provide a strategic level of specialist, professional and technical expertise, potentially relating to the work of different function areas. You will also initiate, establish and maintain strong relationships with a network of stakeholders internally and externally and will have the ability to recognise shared agendas and work toward mutually beneficial outcomes.