Legal Counsel

The Role

Legal Counsel

We’re looking for a Legal Counsel to join us at Imperial Brands, with deep specialist expertise gained in a highly regulated environment, alongside strong commercial, ESG, data protection and marketing governance capability. Acting as a trusted adviser to key stakeholders, you’ll balance regulatory, operational and commercial priorities while driving compliant implementation across the business. You’ll also help strengthen and continuously develop the legal governance framework, embedding best practice, managing legal risk and enabling innovation at scale. Reporting to the Fontem Ventures Associate General Counsel, this is an exciting opportunity to lead with impact and help deliver a core pillar of Imperial Brands’ long‑term strategy.

We are an inclusive, innovative global FMCG business supported by 25,000 employees, Imperial Brands is on a bold journey of transformation—and our Next Generation Products (NGP) are a core strategic pillar of that future. As Legal Counsel, you will play a pivotal role in that journey. This high‑impact position will see you independently leading complex, business‑critical legal workstreams across multiple categories, delivering clear, commercially grounded advice in a fast‑paced, highly regulated global environment. Working closely with the Global Consumer Office and senior stakeholders, you’ll bring precision, confidence and foresight to strategic decision‑making that shapes our evolving NGP portfolio.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead day‑to‑day legal support across NGP categories, independently managing complex and high‑impact matters.
• Provide expert advice on regulatory compliance, including product regulation, claims, packaging and labelling requirements.
• Negotiate and deliver a wide range of commercial agreements, supporting key supply chain, innovation and strategic initiatives.
• Lead NGP Legal’s data privacy, digital and marketing governance activities, including global data protection compliance.
• Act as the NGP legal lead for ESG and corporate governance matters, advising on regulatory and operational impact.
• Drive continuous improvement across NGP legal governance, templates and knowledge‑management frameworks.

Skills & Experience

• A degree in Law, underpinned by a solid grounding in regulatory and commercial legal practice.
• Substantial experience gained in private practice or in‑house, ideally within a large, international and matrixed organisation.
• Proven expertise across regulatory, commercial and/or data privacy matters, with the confidence to apply judgement in complex situations.
• The ability to work independently with precision, managing sophisticated legal issues in a fast‑moving, highly regulated environment.
• A strong influencer who can partner credibly with senior stakeholders across functions and geographies.
• Excellent analytical, communication and prioritisation skills, with the resilience to perform under pressure and drive solutions forward.

All CVs to be submitted in English

What We Offer

In return for playing your part in building our future, you will receive a comprehensive compensation package with salary, bonus scheme and further benefits as well inspiring places to work and collaborate with purpose. Here at Imperial we will give you the opportunity to grow and learn, innovate at pace and be a part of our purpose to forge a path to a healthier future for moments of relaxation and pleasure for our consumers.

Everyone Belongs

Everyone belongs in Imperial. We are proud of being a truly inclusive organisation. We encourage and welcome applications from people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, nationalities, disabilities, sexual orientation, religions or beliefs and of neuro divergence. We give fair and equal consideration to all our applicants. Please contact us at recruitment@impbrands.com to let us know if we can provide support in helping you complete an application and/or attend an interview.

About Us

We're a truly international company, fourth largest in our industry and operating across 120 markets. An inclusive, innovative global FMCG business supported by 25,000 employees. As we embrace a new era of growth, we are transforming. Our ways of working and culture are driven by a challenger mindset, constantly questioning the status quo where people can bring their best selves to work. Our agility and collaboration are driving our ambitions, innovation and success all supported by our award-winning development programmes that creates exciting and rewarding career opportunities for all.  Encouraging inclusion at local levels and supporting a developing and robust diversity agenda globally, we’re fully committed to creating and maintaining an environment that celebrates and respects difference.

As a matter of policy, Imperial Tobacco or its subsidiaries never requests or requires payment as part of any recruitment process.