Job Description

As construction, consulting and digital partners we engineer solutions to the most complex problems. Together, our people transform the performance of the infrastructure that connects, protects and powers people's lives.


Everything we do is rooted in delivery and organised around our clients, anticipating and solving their challenges across the infrastructure ecosystem. Our 160-year heritage of pioneering problem solving, together with constant innovation, enables us to deliver sustainable, efficient and practical answers for our clients.


Headquartered in London, the company also has offices in Manchester and Aberdeen and presently employs around 3,400 staff. The Group has a clear purpose and strategy, excellent reputation and strong track record of performance.


The company operates through two divisions:


o Natural Resources - with responsibility for Water, Energy and Defence/Nuclear; and


o Transportation - with responsibility for the Rail, Highways and Aviation sectors.


In addition, the Group has consulting capability and digital capability which operate across the two divisions. Evolving our digital and consultancy offering is a core strand of Costain's strategy and we continue to grow these capabilities to solve our clients' most pressing challenges.


You will be a member of the legal & company secretarial team which provides strategic legal advice, governance support and compliance expertise to the Group.



You will be responsible for:


Supporting the business on all aspects of data protection compliance, including responding to DSARs, ad hoc queries and reviewing contract clauses Legal input into the review and development of contracts across the Costain business Reviewing and developing a broad range of commercial contracts including heads of terms, collaboration agreements, software licences and service agreements, Discussing and negotiating with clients and suppliers to develop and agree contracts Working with the wider legal team and the business to ensure procedures and processes are in place to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Providing advice and support in relation to the identification and protection of intellectual property rights Supporting the business to identify risk and to identify the best means of managing/ mitigating such risk.

UK qualified solicitor/paralegal: NQ & PQE (flexible)


Transactional contract experience


Strong technical skills in contract drafting & negotiation


Commercially aware with a strong business acumen and a desire to support business objectives


Ability to present key messages/complex matters in a clear, concise and engaging manner. Strong communication (written and verbal) skills


Proactive self-starter who is highly organised and able to handle many ongoing and changing priorities without impact on outputs


Prior experience of handling data protection matters


Able to demonstrate behaviours of a high performing team:


1. Acting as Owners - feeling and acting empowered to drive our work forward and make the best decisions for our future


2. Using Curiosity to grow our business - being excited, connected and integral to growing and developing what we offer and how we deliver it.


3. Having an Ambition for Costain - delivering your part in ensuring Costain is a success and realises its potential to become a leader across our fields of expertise.


4. Using Inclusion to encourage collaboration - working together to deliver our work as a close-knit community that is built on trust, equity and positive approaches.


5. Bringing Clarity and focus to what we do - challenging ourselves to remain clear and focused to ensure we land our work in the most effective, consistent ways possible


6. Can work independently as well as part of a team


Prior experience in an in-house legal team (or on secondment)


Prior exposure to IP/Software/Consultancy agreements



Costain helps to improve people's lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK's energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK's leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future-shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.



A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.


It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.





For more details please go to the Disability Confident website:


https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign