General Counsel

UNICEF ensures more of the world’s children are vaccinated, educated and protected than any other organisation. We have done more to influence laws and policies to help protect children than anyone else. We get things done. And we’re not going to stop until the world is a safe place for all our children. 

This is a great opportunity to join the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) as General Counsel & Company Secretary, you will lead UNICEF UK’s legal, governance and regulatory strategy, ensuring the organisation operates with integrity, sound judgement and confidence. Acting as the principal legal adviser to the Executive Team and Board, you will provide pragmatic, commercially focused advice to support high-quality decision-making. You will also lead a multi-disciplinary department, positioning legal, governance and risk functions as strategic enablers of organisational impact. 

You will bring significant senior-level experience leading legal and governance functions within a complex organisation, with a track record of supporting executive and board-level decision-making. You combine strong commercial acumen with sound judgement, able to balance legal risk with organisational priorities and provide clear, practical advice. You are an influential and collaborative leader, skilled at building relationships and leading high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams. 

We have partnered with GatenbySanderson for this search and we invite you to learn more about this opportunity and visit our dedicated microsite: https://unicefuk.gs-attract.com/  The site contains further information about the role, UNICEF UK, further details on how to apply, our recruitment process, as well as contact details of our search partner, GatenbySanderson. 

Please bear in mind that when you write your response to our application questions, you demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and understanding of the role requirements and how well UNICEF UK’s values and mission aligns with yours. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT to generate your answers, will automatically exclude your application from our recruitment process.

In order to complete your application, please download the following:

Job Description– this includes the criteria for the role, which you will need to respond to as part of your application

Our Shared Commitment – These are our organisational values. Please click here and scroll down the page to read more about them.

Benefits – UNICEF UK salaries and benefits are benchmarked against other organisations in the charity sector. Please click here to view a full description of our benefits.

Fair and Inclusive Recruitment – Click here to see the steps in our recruitment process and here to read more on how we support you throughout your candidate journey.