Legal & Business Affairs Manager

Job description

The BBC’s Digital & Archive Rights, Legal and Business Affairs team provides legal and business affairs support for a variety of activities across BBC Digital.   Such work included technology licensing, advising on digital media framework agreements, development of BBC digital archive projects, and supporting industry-wide digital partnerships and BBC technology innovation.  The team also supports digital technology initiatives with the BBC’s central Right, Legal and Business Affairs team, and is part of the wider Legal & Business Affairs team that supports the BBC’s Digital Division.

The team is responsible for providing legal and business support for project procurements, collaborations that involve new IP development, commercial arrangements, and confidentiality and IP protection.  The team supports on agreements for the acquisition, use, trial and evaluation of new technologies and platforms, and for software and content development. The team also advises on regulatory and BBC Fair Trading compliance for the Digital Division’s current and new projects and services. 

Role Responsibility

The Legal and Business Affairs Manager will provide a comprehensive legal & business affairs service to the business and to support the business’ stated objectives. It will be your responsibility to advise the business on day to day legal matters including copyright and intellectual property rights, open source, open data, trademarks, BBC Fair Trading principles, Data Protection Act and privacy issues, and EU procurement, with reference to and involving relevant specialists in BBC Legal as necessary. This will include helping to develop key commercial terms, highlighting issues and risks to the business and advising on ways to manage or mitigate those risks, and ensuring that risks are flagged to the Senior Lawyer, Digital & Archive and Head of Legal & Business Affairs for BBC Digital, as appropriate.

You will undertake all necessary checks and investigations are undertaken e.g. company searches, rights clearance, Data Protection Act compliance whilst keeping in mind the Freedom of Information Act, EU procurement, and other key related legislation. You should be aware of the full extent of any financial and/or purchasing authority vested in the post, and to ensure that this authority is exercised in accordance with BBC financial arrangements. You will be required to provide legal and business affairs support on a variety of digital media and technology projects, framework agreements, and other transactions including: drafting and negotiating agreements for software licensing and development, cloud-based services,  mobile and tablet applications, testing and evaluation, social media services,  content licensing, service level agreements, collaboration agreements, and working closely with the business to ensure that the best possible terms are negotiated for the BBC.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will be a qualified lawyer with at least 2-4 years PQE (or the equivalent experience), gained from in-house legal and business experience in the digital media and technology sectors, and/or in private practice dealing with the broadcast/digital media/technology sectors; and with experience in the commercial, IP, and IT areas.

You should be able to demonstrate experience in providing comprehensive legal and business advice on a variety to technology and digital media projects, such as licensing, application development, cloud-based services, social media, mobile, and digital rights management and their relevance within the broadcast/media sector. The successful candidate will be capable of managing a number of varied projects at any one time to tight deadlines. Sophisticated drafting skills with demonstrated ability to draft and format complex and multi-faceted digital media or technology agreements would be an advantage. A good eye for detail with a demonstrated ability to spot errors/mistakes at an early stage and to check details in contracts and other documentation so that they accurately reflect the outcome of negotiations would be a key attribute to this role. First-hand experience of digital media or technology procurements would be desirable.

Package Description

Grade: 9

8 Month Fixed Term Contract / Attachment

About the Company

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are very important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below. You’ll be asked questions relating to them as part of your application for this role.