Global Legal Contracts Manager

Global Legal Contracts Manager - Sidmouth, Devon

The Donkey Sanctuary is an international animal welfare organisation, offering care and protection to donkeys worldwide. Our vision is a world where every donkey has a good quality of life, and our mission is to improve the lives of donkeys every day. We will achieve this by transforming the lives of donkeys in need worldwide by fostering greater understanding, collaboration and support, and by promoting lasting, mutually life-enhancing relationships.

These are exciting times for the charity, and we have an outstanding opportunity for a commercially minded and detail-oriented individual with strong influencing and organisational skills to join our Governance and Compliance Team. As Global Legal Contracts Manager, you will lead the strategic control and optimisation of global legal services across The Donkey Sanctuary, driving improved financial discipline, governance, compliance and quality assurance.

Within this multifunctional and rewarding role, you will partner closely with Finance, Governance and senior stakeholders across the charity to ensure legal services are aligned with organisational risk, value, and strategic objectives.

• A qualified solicitor or legal executive in England & Wales, with substantial post qualification experience across a breadth of legal services, either in-house or with a reputable law firm.
• Significant experience in an in-house legal, contracts, or legal operations role within a global operation.
• A strong understanding of legal spend management, governance, and financial controls within a multi-jurisdictional international organisation.
• Experience of working with external legal panels and managing professional service providers.
• Proven ability to analyse cost data and develop practical, value-driven solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with experience influencing senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
• Extensive experience of supporting and advising at Board and Executive level on corporate and legal affairs, both in the UK and internationally.

Your principal duties and responsibilities will include –

• Working with key stakeholders to drive continuous improvement in the quality, consistency, and commerciality of legal services delivered across the organisation, advising on improvements and changes where necessary.
• Working with internal partners to support the review and optimisation of the charity’s legal function.
• Acting as the central point of control for organisational legal spend, ensuring consistency, transparency and value for money, and that legal costs are aligned with the organisation’s risk framework, complexity of matters, and business priorities.
• In partnership with key stakeholders track and analyse global legal casework in relation to legal risk and compliance.
• Working with Director Global Assurance and functional leads to support, develop and implement governance frameworks to improve oversight, approval processes and reporting of legal costs.
• Managing relationships with external legal providers, setting clear expectations on cost, service levels and outcomes, and monitor supplier performance, leading regular reviews to ensure value, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Leading, developing and performance managing the team, setting clear objectives aligned to the Charity’s strategic aims, ensuring accountability, capability building, and a clear understanding of the team’s contribution to organisational success.

Based in Sidmouth, Devon – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – this is a full-time, 12-month fixed term role starting as soon as possible, working 08:30-16:30, Monday-Friday. This is a hybrid working position, combining onsite and home working under our guiding principles for such roles. The working pattern and requirement for site attendance be agreed between the line manager and post-holder.

Please refer to the FAQs section regarding travelling to work on our Candidate Journey page: https://jo

Competitive pension.

Life assurance (4 x annual salary).

BUPA private health cover.

Sickness Income Protection (50% of salary)

31 days holiday…