Senior Legal Counsel

AnaVation LLC; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job description

About Us

Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced security solutions for defeating cyberattacks. The company acquired Secureworks in February 2025, bringing together two pioneers that have redefined the cybersecurity industry with their innovative, native AI-optimized services, technologies and products. Sophos is now the largest pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, supporting more than 28,000 organizations. In addition to MDR and other services, Sophos’ complete portfolio includes industry-leading endpoint, network, email, and cloud security that interoperate and adapt to defend through the Sophos Central platform. Secureworks provides the innovative, market-leading Taegis XDR/MDR, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM capabilities, managed risk, and a comprehensive set of advisory services. Sophos sells all these solutions through reseller partners, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) worldwide, defending more than 600,000 organizations from phishing, ransomware, data theft, and other cybercrimes. The solutions are powered by historical and real-time threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and the newly added Counter Threat Unit (CTU). Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Role Summary

As Senior Legal Counsel in the commercial legal team at Sophos, you will provide expert and timely legal guidance to the business on a wide range of commercial matters. The day to day will involve negotiating, drafting, and reviewing commercial contracts including those arising from our supplier, channel, and customer streams, as well as dealing with queries and novel scenarios from the business as they arise. You will be keen to dive in, find out more about our solutions and work with the business and will work closely with internal departments at Sophos to forge good working relationships and ensure legal risks are managed effectively. This role demands a proactive, solution-driven expert with business acumen who can think through a problem and advise in clear and succinct language.

What You Will Do

• Form a key part of a dynamic global commercial legal team providing legal support and advice to a growing cyber security business.
• Negotiate a wide variety of supplier, customer, and channel agreements (including DPAs) in jurisdictions globally, leveraging your legal knowledge and bringing an astute commercial approach.
• Advise on legal risk on new and ongoing business projects and go-to-market offerings.
• Manage a wide variety of internal customer queries using our Jira ticket system, prioritizing according to business need.
• Draft bespoke contracts to deal with commercial issues pragmatically.
• Establish and maintain relationships with different parts of the business to understand Sophos’ business needs to allow your negotiations to focus on relevant risks and enable you to provide practical solutions.
• Identify areas for business improvement and work to improve processes, looking for efficiencies in systems to improve our reach and help manage the company’s overall risk.
• Engage in team meetings, thriving on healthy debate in an atmosphere where we all strive to learn from each other as key contributors.

What You Will Bring

• You will be a qualified solicitor in England and Wales with a clean, current, practicing certificate.
• You will have a minimum of 8 years of commercial legal experience, with at least 5 years in an in-house counsel role, ideally in an IT environment.
• You will be a team player with an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Expertise in contract law and commercial transactions with attention to detail and a business mindset.
• Strong negotiation and communication skills coupled with a risk-based, pragmatic approach.
• An ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities effectively, keeping calm whilst under pressure.
• Strong analytical skills and solution-oriented.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Also Desirable

• German language skills.
• Experience dealing with public sector contracts and tender processes.
• Data privacy experience.

Ready to Join Us?

At Sophos, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives to fuel innovation. Research shows that candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don't check every box in a job description. We challenge that notion. Your unique experiences and skills might be exactly what we need to enhance our team. Don't let a checklist hold you back – we encourage you to apply.

What's Great About Sophos?

Sophos operates a remote-first working model, making remote work the primary option for most employees. However, some roles may necessitate a hybrid approach. Please refer to the location details in our job postings for further information.

Our people – we innovate and create, all of which are accompanied by a great sense of fun and team spirit.

Employee-led diversity and inclusion networks that build community and provide education and advocacy.

Annual charity and fundraising initiatives and volunteer days for employees to support local communities.

Global employee sustainability initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint.

Global fitness and trivia competitions to keep our bodies and minds sharp.

Global wellbeing days for employees to relax and recharge.

Monthly wellbeing webinars and training to support employee health and wellbeing.

Our Commitment To You

We’re proud of the diverse and inclusive environment we have at Sophos, and we’re committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. We believe that diversity, combined with excellence, builds a better Sophos, so we encourage applicants who can contribute to the diversity of our team. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, religion or belief, color, age, military veteran status, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sexual orientation. We want to give you every opportunity to show us your best self, so if there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know.

Data Protection

If you choose to explore an opportunity, and subsequently share your CV or other personal details with Sophos, these details will be held by Sophos for 12 months in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used by our recruitment team to contact you regarding this or other relevant opportunities at Sophos. If you would like Sophos to delete or update your details at any time, please follow the steps set out in the Privacy Policy describing your individual rights. For more information on Sophos’ data protection practices, please consult our Privacy Policy Cybersecurity as a Service Delivered | Sophos.