Nutrition Commercial Legal Counsel

Job description

ABOUT UNILEVER,

 THE BUSINESS GROUP NUTRITION & LEGAL POWER HOUSE

Unilever is one of the world`s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) businesses, with interest across 5 Business Groups, including the Nutrition Business Group. As Unilever we want our business to flourish, and we know that our success depends on others flourishing around us. That's why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model. 

Nutrition is a €12bn business with an industry leading profit margin. Nutrition is close to 1/4th of the Unilever’s Turnover, present in (virtually) every market where the Company operates. Our products get chosen more than 10bn times a year, 3bn of those purchases are generated by Knorr, our biggest mega-brand accounting for almost €4.5bn Turnover. Hellmann’s is the second largest brand within Nutrition with a €2bn Turnover. The rest is represented by strong regional and local brands including Horlicks, The Vegetarian Butcher, Unox, Bango, Calve and Red Label. Our Nutrition ambition is to be ‘a World-Class Force for Good in Food’. We strongly believe that there is competitive, profitable Nutrition growth to be had from serving consumers food that is healthier for them and for the planet. And Nutrition employees – ‘Chefs’ – are instrumental to make that happen.

We’re establishing three Legal Powerhouses in Bangalore, Mexico City and Barcelona, which will be an integral part of the Legal Function and provide defined, structured services to our other lawyers and to the wider business. This position will be based in the Powerhouse in Barcelona.

JOB PURPOSE 
An opportunity has arisen for a qualified lawyer to partner the Nutrition business and provide world class legal support to our Nutrition business team.

The Nutrition Legal Counsel position is a marketing and commercial legal role reporting to the General Counsel Nutrition Marketing. We are looking for a legal business partner who works proactively and collaboratively with our Nutrition business colleagues, aiming to grow our business whilst also managing and mitigating legal risks. Tasks include legal advice to cross-functional international business partners on all areas of commercial law including drafting and negotiating of contracts, legal advice on marketing and advertising law, data protection and competition law.

We are looking for an internationally minded, highly collaborative, qualified lawyer who has a successful track record of supporting the sales and/or marketing function.

Cross functional collaboration with colleagues across the world for example Regulatory Affairs, Licensing Team, Communications and External Affairs are important aspects of the role. Of course, there is close collaboration with other colleagues in Unilever’s Legal Department, such as legal team members located in the countries where we sell our Nutrition products and our specialized Competition law and Privacy colleagues.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE? 

Candidates must be a lawyer with a qualification in either the Netherlands or another major global jurisdiction and have a strong knowledge of:

·  Commercial contracts
·  Licensing contracts

and a working knowledge in the following areas:

·  Competition law
·  Marketing and advertising law
·  Data protection
·  Food law

Legal Advice

·  Draft, advise on, review and negotiate, contracts entered into by the Nutrition Business Group, including partnership agreements, license agreements, data related agreements and international sales agreements.
·  Advise on contentious issues that have global implications in accordance with the business strategy.
·  Managing, creating, and collecting: knowledge, best practices, precedents, and know-how for Nutrition Group Legal
·  Identifying potential legal risks of business activities and proactively taking steps to minimize legal exposure effectively through practical advice to the business.
·  Ensuring that the business complies with all internal policies, local regulatory and reporting requirements;
·  Keeping abreast of legal developments and advising the potential impact of these developments on the business.

GENERAL

·  Liaison (written and oral) with key internal business partners.
·  Identify and explain legal risks to business partners including proposing solutions and provide pragmatic, commercial advice to the business and offer a solutions based approach to navigate the risks together with them.
·  External engagement: stay up to date on new regulatory and legal developments, conduct research into applicable areas of existing or emerging law and inform and train colleagues in the Nutrition Business Group regularly about the findings and on hot topics.
·  Prepare legal updates for, and share know-how within, the Nutrition Legal team.

Skills You Should Have

·  Passionate about taking care of and improving the lives of people every day, bringing the voice of the consumer into everything we do;
·  passion for business and for understanding how businesses operate.
·  Entrepreneurial Thinking:
·  Able to figure out what you need to know if this were your own business vs getting caught up in the processes;
·  Ability to understand the big picture from a business point of view and adopt the appropriate legal risk profile to deliver against the top business priorities as opposed to getting lost in every detail.
·  Ability to assimilate information quickly, identify legal risks and provide  solutions-oriented, pragmatic advice to the business;
·  Positive, adaptable, proactive team player, keen to learn and take on increasing degrees of responsibility, ready to acquire autonomy in response to work well done;
·  Ability to lead decisions and to work independently, including coordinating input from a number of global business partners, such as legal, Marketing, R&D and Regulatory.

Experience You Should Have

·  Qualification as lawyer with 3-5 years experience
·  Preferably experience in the FMCG 
·  Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and common TM search platforms.

WHAT DO WE OFFER:

Unilever is the place where you can be yourself and bring your purpose to life with the work that you do – creating a better business and a better world. We offer an exciting & dynamic work environment where you can make things happen. Furthermore, we offer some great reward and benefits! 

·  Attractive total remuneration package; good company pension, bonus, share scheme
·  Flexible cross-disciplinary career opportunities and a wealth of training opportunities & wellbeing resources whenever and wherever
·  Plenty of company-paid holidays to further ensure your work-life balance is maintained 
·  We encourage an inclusive culture, which comes to life with interchangeable public holidays, paid paternity leave of 6 weeks and our transgender policy 
·  Informal culture and being the first one trying our new products 

EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE?

Join Unilever and our team! To apply, you must do so online. Please do not forget to upload your CV and a motivation letter. Your application will be reviewed against our requirements, and we will be in touch shortly after the closing date to provide you with an update on the status of your application.  

Looking forward to meeting you! 

Please note this is a Direct Search led by Unilever. Applications from agencies will not be accepted, nor will fees be paid for unsolicited CVs.   

Disclaimer   

Equal Opportunity Employer: Unilever is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, or any other basis protected by applicable law, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.