Corporate and Legal Affairs Operations Manager

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 over 27,500 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. Our agility and entrepreneurial spirit, alongside award winning development programmes, enable innovation and success while creating exciting and rewarding career choices.

As we move forward, our customers will be at the heart of what we do, evolving to needs and expectations and committing to a more meaningful contribution to harm reduction by building a successful NGP business. Integral to our long-term success is our sustainability strategy, behaving responsibly and supporting our ambitions, all underpinned by high governance.

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.

The role

The incumbent will manage, and have day-to-day responsibility for, the new Corporate and Legal Affairs Operations agenda at Imperial. This is a new area for the business.

The incumbent will be expected to work with the Director of Group Corporate Affairs and Head of Corporate and Legal Operations to define the scope and ambition of the CLA Ops agenda, to diagnose areas for process and operational improvement, to work with partners to design solutions to add value in these areas, and to achieve organisational buy-in to implement these solutions.

Alongside this change and improvement programme, the incumbent will pick up immediate responsibility for many of the operational aspects of the Corporate and Legal Affairs function, including overseeing budgets, information management, and, with the assistance of a Projects & Communities Lead, the management of training events, webinars, and similar for the global CLA Community.

Key accountabilities

• Work with the CLA Leadership team, and the Group Finance business partner for CLA, to understand and monitor departmental spend and budgets. Own the Business Planning process for CLA throughout the company’s financial year, with a specific goal of seeking areas for optimisation in the procurement of legal and professional services.
• Take responsibility for information management and sharing within the department. Conduct a full review of current practices and processes. Explore opportunities for improvement, in awareness that these may require internal process changes, or the implementation of novel external solutions.
• Build strong business cases for operational change, and work with the CLA Leadership team to prioritise investment in those areas where the function would see the most significant returns.
• Act as a champion for efficient processes and new technology across the Imperial Brands group, in line with our corporate strategy. Ensure widespread buy-in to any operational change, and take responsibility for not only the implementation of new processes, but also the adoption and continued use of these new processes. Implement appropriate training programmes to achieve this.
• Attending Legal Operations conferences and external events to learn from, and share learnings with, other businesses going through similar operational transformation.
• Through the management of a Projects and Communities Lead (to be recruited) ensure the cohesion of the 150+ professionals in the global CLA function, through the provision of webinars, training, and similar events and programmes.

Skills & Experience

Essential:

• Previous experience in Legal Operations, ideally with a large corporate
• Project management experience linked to process change and/or technology implementation
• Strong technical literacy

Desirable:

• Experience in FMCG businesses
• Paralegal experience
• Willingness to work from Bristol

What we offer

Imperial Brands offer a competitive package of salary, bonus scheme, pension and 25 days holiday (with an additional 4 days on top to cover the Christmas period and bank holidays) and hybrid work.

Next steps

Interested applicants should apply with their CV highlighting their suitability for the role.