Legal and Contracts Manager (EE) - Cape Town at Thales

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

Legal Support to GTS SA Business

• Responsible for drafting, negotiating, preparing and managing the contracts to be executed from proposal to completion of projects, including partnerships and supply chain.
• Work closely with operational functions and help in elaborating relevant contractual solutions and identifying contractual, legal and compliance stakes so that risks are detected, measured and mitigated.
• In compliance with the relevant Group policies, the Job Holder will interface with external counsels and law firms for analysis and management of specific legal issues in the framework of complex contractual and/or legal arrangements. 
• Provide legal guidance, advise and promote legal awareness.
• Manage Resolution of Disputes and Litigation relying on local law firms.

Corporate Secretariat, Governance & Board Office

• Provide expertise in local legal and contractual systems related to GTS business activities in South Africa.
• Draft, update, Implement and monitor the Governance rules and delegations of authority/signature in line with Thales rules and local laws.
• Perform secretarial responsibilities for corporate bodies (Board(s), General Meeting(s) and Management Meetings including related preparation and documentation.
• Responsible for addressing corporate law, governance and compliance aspects for GTS SA.
• Draft and sign on behalf of shareholders the statutory resolutions required for the compliance of companies with local company laws/regulations.
• Secure the legal sustainability and continuity of GTS SA, particularly to adapt to changes in laws, regulations and succession of management.

Legal Accreditations and Documentation

• Manage, update, renew and archive legal and contractual documents.
• Monitor the timely updating and renewal of local administrative documents. 
• Manage the legal qualification and local legal accreditations of GTS SA to be qualified to perform business and commercial activities in compliance with local regulations (including B-BBEE regulations requirements).

Compliance

• Be the GTS SA Compliance Officer as defined in applicable instructions.
• Manage trade compliance incl. export control.
• Responsible of the deployment / management of RGPD rules at GTS SA and provide trainings whenever requested.
• Contribute to the implementation of Thales Group / GTS ethics & compliance standards, and as such participate notably to the deployment of an ethics & compliance communication and training plan.
• The Job Holder will assist the GTS SA Country Captain in addressing audit reviews (internal and external), corporate law, governance and compliance aspects for the Companies.
• Ensuring GTS SA`s compliance with the Group’s / GTS` directives as well as with applicable laws and regulations, including Trade compliance, Competition Laws Compliance, Data Protection Compliance, Anticorruption Compliance.

Litigation management

• Review, in coordination with relevant GTS / Corporate stakeholders, progress of outstanding litigation and liaise with and manage external lawyers whenever requested.

Legal & Contracts related support of GTS SA activities (support bids, projects and procurement)

Support to Bids

• Identify, analyze, manage and reduce the main contractual risks while optimizing contractual opportunities in bids and projects, support contractual analysis, Interpretation, documentation, claims, disputes on both sales side and supply side
• Ensure GTS SA`s rights are protected and the undertaken obligations are adhered to all throughout the performance of the contractual commitments by involvement in bids/projects, coherent methodology, proper staffing and adequate skilling.
• Manage formal clarification process related to T&Cs with bid teams to update and reflect them in the Legal analysis and memos.
• Prepare input for bid/no bids meetings (Gates) and check the exhaustiveness and the validity of the documents for contract signature by the authorized management
• Manage contract management activities for transition between bid and project phase with particular focus on conditions for contract to come into force (Site take over, Advance Payment, Work Permits, Guarantees etc...)
• Provide country legal intelligence and knowledge to the Legal Units exporting to the country.
• Supporting the bid team in negotiations with the customer
• Ensure contractual consistency with co-contractor(s) if relevant

Support to Projects

• Ensuring members of the project teams are fully briefed on all material elements of the contract
• Monitoring and interpretation of contractual obligations during the project
• Managing changes to the contract baseline
• Management of contractual disagreements arising
• Ensuring all contractual obligations are completed before project closure
• Identification and evaluation of the risks and opportunities related to the various contractual obligations, including recommending the appropriate level of contractual contingencies
• Management of the risks throughout the project life cycle
• Identification and management of amendment opportunities throughout the project life cycle.
• Establish the official templates and correspondence flow
• Responsible for all legal & contractual aspects in correspondence (in/out)
• Coordinate all the claims towards the customer, Partners and subcontractors
• Build and follow up of GTSA SA`s claims and defend GTS SA against all claims

Support to Procurement

• Provide pre-contractual agreements (NDAs, MoUs, etc.) upon request
• Provide information regarding the terms of the main contract which need to be flowed down
• Support to check coherence of Suppliers' offers and ensure their T&C are consistent with T&C of the bid
• Support negotiations with Suppliers if requested
• Support preparation of draft contracts with adequate flow down of T&C
• Check binding status of commitments from subcontractors and key suppliers
• Draft signature versions of subcontracts and contracts with key suppliers, if requested
• Support Purchasing to monitor performance of Suppliers against contract
• Manage contractual relationships and communications with Suppliers
• Review of Suppliers' obligations and liabilities before project close-out

Leadership

• Establish, guide, direct and oversee that departmental objectives are aligned with the overall strategy and organizational objectives provided by the managers
• Identify and timeously address legal and compliance problems and seize opportunities that are central to business success.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Qualifications

• LLB, A Master’s degree will be added advantage

Experience

• 2/3+ years of relevant experience in In-house Legal, contracts and commercial management in local and international environment with exposure to Public Procurement contracts, Corporate Laws and Trade compliance.
• Experience in working in a multi-national company
• Experience in Company secretarial works
• Experience in bids and projects in South Africa
• Practice of BBBEE regulations

Skills/Knowledge

• Job Holder shall have a perfect command of English language.
• The Job Holder shall also be proficient with the use of software tools (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
• Ability to interact with Senior Management and getting consensus