Senior Legal Counsel

**This post is subject to Budget Approval**

1.   OVERVIEW OF DIANA

The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (“DIANA”) is NATO’s newest body. From across the Alliance, DIANA will bring together innovators and operational end users to foster a transatlantic ecosystem supporting dual-use ground-breaking innovation in deep technologies.  

DIANA is an independent NATO body comprised of an Allied Board of Directors and an executive management team - the DIANA Executive (“DX”). Operating out of regional offices in Europe and in North America, the DX will conduct DIANA’s mission: accelerating deep tech, dual-use solutions to critical transatlantic challenges in defence and security. The DX will use Challenge Programmes in line with a published Strategic Direction, as the primary vehicle to accomplish this mission. DIANA is a dynamic, agile and hybrid workplace, which strives for innovation, diversity, and excellence. In order to achieve these aims, DIANA is committed to providing our people with an environment that is positive, inclusive, and collaborative.

2.   OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

The Office of the General Counsel of the DX, led by the General Counsel, is responsible for the provision of legal advice and other legal services to the Managing Director of DIANA, the DX, the Board of Directors, and, as appropriate, other NATO bodies or Allied Nations.

The Office advises its clients on all legal matters – domestic and international – impacting the responsibilities, functions, and other activities of DIANA. The work covers a broad-spectrum including matters of international law and the privileges and immunities of DIANA, legal agreements with partner organizations, potential litigation, and fast-paced commercial contracting with participating innovators and sponsors of development and procurement programs. 

The Senior Legal Counsel is an individual contributor who ensures that DIANA’s legal activities are flexible, coherent, and ready to meet future operational challenges.   

The Senior Legal Counsel will have a range of potential matters to support, but their primary responsibility will be supporting programme delivery through the drafting of programmatic support documents (evaluation materials, contract templates, and programme reports) and adoption-specific arrangements, including through the ability to independently support adoption motions from initial request for innovation support from DIANA stakeholders through delivery under negotiated legal arrangements.

Reporting to the General Counsel.

Duties of this role include:

• Analyse the legal questions affecting the DIANA operation and mandate, including applicable national and international law.
• Represent the DX, as required, in the preparation and discussion of agreements, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) or other legal documents to be concluded by DIANA.
• Provide advice to the Managing Director, the BoD, and, as appropriate, other senior personnel on relevant legal issues as instructed by the General Counsel. 
• Assist in drafting legal texts, internal memorandums, and other legal documents relevant to DX.
• Contribute to policy development in the legal domains and anticipate the legal implications of policy decisions, as assigned, with a focus on DIANA’s adoption efforts and nexus with public innovation and procurement mechanisms.
• Maintain and develop domain expertise by following major activities in the field of international law and relevant national and commercial laws and regulations that have a direct impact on assigned tasks, especially in the field of activities related to DIANA.
• Maintain and develop contacts NATO-wide, including with NATO member states, as well as with external legal offices.  
• Perform any other related duties as may be required.

3.   ROLE REQUIREMENTS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL

The incumbent must have:

• a Bachelor’s degree in law or a related field from a nationally recognized/certified university;
• a minimum of 3 years’ work experience advising on compliance, regulatory, or commercial legal matters
• experience with legal matters involving public procurement 
• Familiarity with the strategic issues and security challenges facing the Alliance and the Allied innovation ecosystem, including an understanding of multilateral defense capability planning and development; 
• ability to gather, compile, and analyze complex legal and technical information as well as apply analytical methods and techniques to identify and resolve legal issues with creativity; 
• ability produce quality results on time with a high attention to detail;
• resilience in managing a significant workload and the capacity to remain calm under pressure;
• excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing and the capacity to present complex issues in a concise and clear manner;
• Possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (“Advanced”) in one; and I (“Beginner”) in the other. 

NOTE: Most of DIANA’s internal work is conducted in the English language.

DESIRABLE

The following would be considered an advantage:

• Specialized postgraduate studies in the area of public international law; 
• Experience working on international legal matters
• Experience working with or within military or defence ecosystems
• Experience advising start-ups, accelerators, and/or systems integrators 
• Experience on matters involving, or experience directly advising, international organizations
• Knowledge of NATO institutional framework, policies and procedures

4.   WHAT WE OFFER

• Genuinely meaningful work as part of the newest unit within the most successful alliance in history
• Tax-free salary
• Household and children’s allowances and privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and educational allowances (where applicable) and additional home leave
• Excellent private health insurance scheme
• NATO pension scheme
• Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays
• Flexible working conditions and a smoke-free office in London
• Opportunities for learning and development

The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (“DIANA”) is NATO’s newest body. From across the Alliance, DIANA will bring together innovators and operational end users to foster a transatlantic ecosystem supporting dual-use ground-breaking innovation in deep technologies.  

DIANA is an independent NATO body comprised of an Allied Board of Directors and an executive management team - the DIANA Executive (“DX”). Operating out of regional offices in Europe and in North America, the DX will conduct DIANA’s mission: accelerating deep tech, dual-use solutions to critical transatlantic challenges in defence and security. The DX will use Challenge Programmes in line with a published Strategic Direction, as the primary vehicle to accomplish this mission. DIANA is a dynamic, agile and hybrid workplace, which strives for innovation, diversity, and excellence. In order to achieve these aims, DIANA is committed to providing our people with an environment that is positive, inclusive, and collaborative.

The incumbent is required to be a resident in the host nation for the duration of their contract. DIANA has a flexible teleworking policy to permit working in office, at home, and across NATO Allied Nations subject to managerial approval. In accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations, the successful candidate will receive a definite duration contract of three years, which may be followed by an extension.

If the successful applicant is seconded from the national administration of one of NATO’s member States, a 3-year definite duration contract will be offered, which may be renewed for a further period of up to 3 years subject to the agreement of the national authority concerned. The maximum period of service in the post as a seconded staff member is six years.

Appointment will be subject to receipt of a security clearance (provided by the national Authorities of the selected candidate) and approval of the candidate’s medical file by the NATO Medical Adviser.

Applicants who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment to another post of a similar nature, albeit at the same or a lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.

NOTE: DIANA will not accept in any phase of the recruitment and selection process assets prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. DIANA reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at DIANA’s sole discretion, and DIANA reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.

For more information on DIANA, please visit our website.