Director of Business & Legal Affairs - Commercial

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Director of Business & Legal Affairs - Commercial

Department: Legal

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London

Description

We have an exciting opportunity for a Director of Legal & Business Affairs - Commercial to join the BLA team.

This role leads the Business & Legal Affairs - Commercial team which provides legal support for all commercial, technology and operational matters for UKTV (effectively all matters other than the commissioning and acquisition of content). The post reports to the General Counsel for UKTV and works very closely with the Commercial, Digital, Technology and Operations, Strategy and Marketing teams at UKTV. The role would suit someone who is curious, driven and passionate about the television and media industry. This is a great opportunity to lead a high-performing team and to work in a highly varied and strategic role and build relationships within the UKTV business and the BBC Group.

We are a team that works very flexibly and would welcome applicants who want to discuss different working patterns.

What we would like you to bring to the role - key experience, knowledge, skills & personal qualities

Experience

• Qualified solicitor operating at a senior level with demonstrable leadership experience.
• Strong and demonstrable leadership experience having managed teams
• Extensive experience of advising on and negotiating agreements in respect of complex programming and/or channels sales (e.g. content sales, digital distribution, carriage agreements)
• Extensive experience of negotiating and contracting complex agreements in respect of technology, operations and digital distribution agreements.
• Experience of leading and delivering complex projects/deals, including M&A transactions, and implementing strategic objectives.
• Experience advising on consumer law and data protection issues, ideally in the context of a D2C video services.
• Experienced at building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and positively influencing at senior management level.

Knowledge

• Is fully conversant with overall and specific market/competitor knowledge and demonstrates sound commercial judgment.
• Good understanding of TV landscape in the UK and the models deployed by different platforms in the market - linear and on demand; an understanding of the advertising market and ad tech
• Comprehensive and up to date understanding of legal areas most frequently impacting our business, including regulatory landscape
• Knowledge of IP law, consumer law and data protection.

Skills & personal qualities

• Takes a proactive and flexible approach to work and comfortable with a dynamic environment with constantly changing priorities.
• Good interpersonal skills and excellent written and oral communication skills, in particular ability to explain and analyse complex concepts or situations clearly and succinctly.
• Approaches conflicts, trade-offs, challenges and risks dispassionately, pragmatically and collaboratively, seeking the best overall solution for the business.
• Resilient with the ability to work to tight deadlines and under pressure, effectively managing stakeholder expectations.
• Ability to work as part of a team but to work reliably independently referring whenever appropriate.
• A genuine passion for TV

Key outputs and responsibilities of the role

What you will get to work on

• Lead a high performing team, providing them with clear goals and direction. Work to inspire, empower, motivate, and develop them, fostering an inclusive environment where they can perform at their best.
• Be a key member of the BLA leadership team, and with the General Counsel and Director of BLA - Content leading by example in maintaining a culture of trust and empowerment and promoting and championing learning, improved ways of working, collaboration, creativity and diversity.
• Lead and manage a team of high performing lawyers responsible for all commercial (non-content) contracts at UKTV. In particular this includes strategic input into, negotiating, drafting and advising in relation to:
  • our VOD service, U, and our wider digital presence;
  • complex distribution agreements for our portfolio of channels, U and our FAST channels;
  • our major revenue generating contract for advertising sales; and
  • marketing campaigns and initiatives, demonstrating a good level of awareness of industry norms, and practical and commercial issues;
  • technology agreements, outsourcing agreements, platform arrangements, facilities agreements (e.g. TV playout, encryption and satellite capacity)
  • a wide variety of other commercial, digital, technology and operational matters.
• Advise on all consumer law aspects of operating a D2C VOD service including data protection.
• Advise on IP issues including copyright and trademarks.
• Carry out legal risk assessment and implement measures to minimise UKTV's exposure to legal risk.
• Manage policy, process and template documents, working closely with stakeholders across the business and at BBC Studios and support the General Counsel and COO on governance, compliance and risk matters generally.
• Act as a lead to the business in all relevant fields of law and industry, ensuring the business is kept updated on all relevant regulatory developments.

How we lead: Our leadership qualities

As a leader for the business, we're looking for...

Strategic thinking and vision

• Translating strategic ambition into clear and measurable goals for your team/s.
• Using storytelling to create a vision and inspire your team to deliver their best work.
• Driving collaborative working across teams to deliver value for our audiences.
• Pro-actively contributing to areas of company-wide strategic focus.

A Digital-first mindset

• Identifying and integrating data and insights to better inform business decisions in your area.
• Encourage a test and learn approach, ensuring your teams can iterate and adapt their work based on results.
• Embrace new ways of working, tools and technologies to improve agility.

Leaders who embrace ambiguity and change.

• Challenging the status quo, championing a growth mindset and continuous change.
• Role-modelling resilience and a growth mindset that recognises the need for ongoing change.
• Having strategies for dealing positively with your own discomfort and emotion.

As a leader for your team, we're looking for....

Authenticity and empathy

• Creating and maintaining a psychologically safe environment, ensuring all perspectives are valued and exclusive behaviour is challenged.
• Being curious about yourself and others; know your own strengths and areas of development as a leader, actively listen and challenge your own thinking, seek feedback and adapt your approach.

Courage and conviction

• Being bold and decisive; adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and be prepared to take risks.
• Facing into challenging conversations, difficult decisions and messages

Leaders who develop capabilities and people

• Pro-actively identifying and developing capabilities within your team.
• Creating a continuous improvement mindset in your team and a culture of constructive feedback
• Coaching your team and supporting them to develop their skills; proactively manage talent in your team.
• Empowering your team to take responsibility for their own development, helping them grow and thrive.

Diversity and inclusion

• Purposefully putting diversity at the heart of your decision-making
• Fostering a sense of belonging and proactively creating and maintaining an inclusive working environment

High-performance culture

• Role modelling the desired behaviours and set the standards for those around you.
• Creating a high support/high challenge culture which delivers on strategy.
• Setting ambitious goals that stretch and empower your team/s and motivate them to deliver.
• Challenging where behaviours or standards are not being met.