Legal Counsel - Employment Law Advisory (Hybrid - 80-100%)

Are you a qualified UK legal professional looking to apply your expertise in a dynamic global reinsurance / insurance environment? Join our Employment Advisory Team, where you'll provide critical employment law guidance mainly for UK but also across diverse jurisdictions while supporting our most valuable assets – our people.

About the Role

As Legal Counsel specializing in Employment Law, you'll serve as a valued and trusted advisor across Swiss Re's operations, with a primary focus on UK. You will provide expert guidance on a wide range of employment matters, from routine advisory work to complex employee relations issues and multinational cross-border projects, navigating the evolving workplace environment successfully, always in compliance with both external and internal requirements.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide comprehensive legal counsel on the whole employee lifecycle (recruiting, hiring, promotions, development, employee relations, discipline, terminations / retirement)
• Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of HR related legal documents
• Support employment aspects of corporate restructurings, acquisitions, and dispositions
• Develop and improve local as well as global templates, policies, processes and best practices for the business and HR teams to enhance efficiency and effectiveness
• Ensure adherence to legal and regulatory requirements including pay equity, discrimination prevention, wage and hour issues, workplace safety, data protection, and global mobility
• Monitor and report on developments and trends in laws and regulations, providing timely updates and guidance
• Prepare and deliver presentations, legal reports and in-house trainings

About the Team

This role reports to the Head of Employment Advisory. You will join a global team of passionate and solution-oriented employment legal counsels operating in a culturally diverse environment. The team is committed to providing exceptional legal guidance on a wide range of employment law issues across all Swiss Re's businesses and jurisdictions.

About You

You are an experienced and skilled employment lawyer who combines strong technical employment law expertise with commercial awareness, "can do" mindset and thrives when working independently and managing multiple requests with competing deadlines. You like working in a complex, regulated environment and balancing legal considerations with practical business solutions. Your strong communication skills allow you to translate complex legal concepts clearly and succinctly. You are comfortable sharing your thought process openly and welcome constructive challenge.

We are looking for candidates who meet these requirements:

• Fully UK-qualified lawyer
• Minimum of 7+ years post-qualification employment law experience (both contentious and non-contentious)
• Law firm as well as prior in-house experience in a multi-national company, preferably in banking, insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry
• Strong familiarity with corporate HR operations and the employee lifecycle
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, and influencing skills
• Strong commitment to high-quality, timely, and pragmatic, solution-oriented client service

These are additional nice to haves:

• Experience working on international employment law issues
• Proficiency in additional language beyond English
• Knowledge of emerging technologies affecting the workplace
• Project management experience with multi-jurisdictional initiatives
• Advanced degree or certification in employment law or related field / having worked abroad

Are you curious to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and what your role could be? Contact us to find out. #LI-Hybrid

Our company has a hybrid work model where the expectation is that you will be in the office at least three days per week.

For London the annual base salary range for this position is between GBP 94 000 and GBP 140 000 (for a full-time role). The specific salary offered considers:

• the requirements, scope, complexity and responsibilities of the role,
• the applicant's own profile including education/qualifications, expertise, specialisation, skills and experience.

In addition to your base salary, Swiss Re offers an attractive performance-based variable compensation component, designed to recognise your achievements. Further you will enjoy a variety of global and location specific benefits. Eligibility may vary depending on the terms of Swiss Re policies and your employment contract.

About Swiss Re

Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. We anticipate and manage a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. Combining experience with creative thinking and cutting-edge expertise, we create new opportunities and solutions for our clients. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of more than 15,000 employees across the world.

Our success depends on our ability to build an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We embrace a workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and develop professionally regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, skillset, thought or other characteristics. In our inclusive and flexible environment everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.

If you are an experienced professional returning to the workforce after a career break, we encourage you to apply for open positions that match your skills and experience.

We may use AI-powered tools to support the review and evaluation of applications for this position. These tools provide additional insights to our recruitment teams, but all hiring decisions are carefully reviewed and made by people. To learn more about how we use AI in recruitment and how we handle your personal data, please review our Data Privacy Statement before applying.