Role Purpose:

The Manager Legal is responsible for providing the organization with support to facilitate effective legal services, advice, and representation for all legal issues including corporate, Business Development, Marketing, People and Organisation, Supply Chain, Procurement, and other legal and regulatory matters-either directly or with the support of external lawyers.

The role holder is also responsible for supporting the Legal team in all legal matters and providing support on advice given to the business and regulatory functions on legal issues and internal standards, policies, procedures, and processes in a timely manner while ensuring consistency of approach and style, ensuring decisions are aligned with business objectives, internal governance, and applicable law..

Role Details – Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Legal Due Diligence

Review, draft, negotiate, and amend commercial agreements (including leases, supply, services, and NDAs) to ensure accuracy, legal sufficiency, operational clarity, and alignment to internalProvide support when advising concerning business transactions, claim assessments and liability, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits, or legal rights and obligations.Own execution readiness: ensure required approvals, workflows, authority thresholds, and legal governance are met before signature.Support the development of strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.Advise on matters related to competition law, including antitrust laws, competition regulations, sustainability, and third-party due diligence.

Legal Research and Evaluation

Support and independently conduct in-depth research on laws, rulings and regulations to proactively identify risks, inform business decisions, and safeguard and legally protect business operations.Gather comprehensive evidence to formulate legal positions, defense or to initiate legal actions, by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case.Support the development of strategies and arguments in preparation for negotiations, disputes, and presentation of cases.Research the probable outcomes of cases and provide structured legal opinions based on precedent and factual analysis.Monitor, interpret, and communicate changes to laws and regulations of the region, ensuring timely implementation and awareness across stakeholders, including horizon scanning of emerging legal trends impacting operations and contract terms.

Governance, Policies, Procedures, and Processes

Analyze policies for legal correctness and operational practicality, with a view to provide clear, commercially aligned legal advice in relation to the drafting of contracts/policies.Ensure legal applicability to policies, procedures, and processes to protect the organization in conjunction with allowing for commercial advantages.Develop and maintain reports on internal legal operations, and ensure tasks are completed within the deadlines, and promptly address any operational disruptions.Proactively report any acts or omissions that might interfere with the operations of the company.Assist in legal operations and legal transformation projects including automation, standardization, templatization, workflow optimization, governance frameworks.Assist in the development and delivery of team and stakeholder legal and compliance training modules to drive better contract discipline and reduce recurring legal exposure..

Human Capital Responsibilities

Assist with the implementation of the performance management process by setting objectives, monitoring performance, and provide constructive feedback and provide inputs to senior management.Provide mentorship and coaching for the purpose of developing a continuous talent pipeline for key roles.Provide inputs on training needs and coordinate with the HC department to ensure the effective rollout of training requirements.Develop and implement structured on the job-training programs for the team.Provide inputs for the development of annual manpower and capability plan.Ensure the implementation of company’s corporate policies and relevant procedures

Disclaimer: This role description reflects the general details considered necessary to describe the principal responsibilities of the role identified and shall not be construed as an exhaustive description of all the work requirements inherent to success in the role.

Definition of Success

Quality of legal reviews and positions with fewer escalations, fewer reversals, fewer compliance breaches.Speed to contract with maintained or improved risk protection.Contract clarity with measurable drop in post-signature disputes due to ambiguity.Timely and effective settlement of legal issuesCompliance to internal governance (DOA, workflows, template use).procedural and legislative requirementsEffective communication of policies and procedures and updated laws and regulations

Qualification, Experience & Skills:

Minimum Qualifications/education

Bachelor’s Degree in Law, common law qualification strongly preferred.

Minimum experience

A minimum of 6+ years' of legal experience in a common law jurisdiction, 2+ years in retail and or FMCG experience.

Skills

Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume contracting whilst maintaining quality.Excellent business communication and presentation, with clarity in written and verbal communication and ability to draft in plain language. Strong negotiation skills that balance legal protection with commercial practicality.Risk prioritization and the ability to differentiate high-material vs. low-material issues.Analytical problem solvingTime managementTeam managementFluency in English, Arabic and French is an optional advantage.