Legal & Procurement Business Partner

EIT Climate-KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) is Europe’s foremost climate innovation initiative, entrusted by the European Commission to catalyse transformation through innovation. Headquartered in Amsterdam, with circa 160 people distributed all over the EU, EIT Climate-KIC leads and orchestrates innovation with a community of more than 400. Together we conduct activities in 39 countries. We partner with cities, regions, governments and communities with the highest climate action ambition; providing the framework and expert support to holistically manage the complexity of climate change and deliver accelerated climate action.

EIT Climate-KIC operates as a not-for-profit platform working through public-private partnership, wielding both public and private funding. We consist of 3 Legal entities: a Dutch BV Holding company (for profit) with 14 branches in European jurisdictions, providing grant management, innovation orchestration services, and impact investment advisory owned by a Dutch-based foundation with charity status – Climate-KIC International Foundation – with subsidiaries in the UK.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Legal & Procurement Officer/ Business Partner supports the General Counsel, other Team members and Climate-KIC partner organisations with the wider Climate-KIC team on the complete range of EIT Climate-KIC’s compliance, legal, procurement and non-profit matters to manage and mitigate risk.

The colleague will lean into complex and uncertain environments (multijurisdictional) to develop and maintain a strong and coherent legal and procurement organizational framework, compliant and ethical business affairs, dynamic risk management, effective and transparent governance, well-structured non-profit matters as well as robust contracting, policies and procedures.

• Support the General Counsel and working with the Legal team on a wide range of EIT Climate-KIC’s compliance requirements and obligations (funders compliance, data protection, IP, employment, corporate governance, non-profit, procurement, etc.)
• Advise on corporate and commercial law, EU grant management framework, employment law, contracts, data protection, procurement, conflicts of interest, ethics, anti-fraud, non-profit requirements and operations.
• Draft, negotiate and review Climate-KIC policies, agreements with third parties across multiple jurisdictions (grant agreements, consortium agreements, commercial agreements, NDAs, MoUs, service agreements, etc.), training materials for Climate-KIC and helping develop standard templates and streamlining processes.
• Support special projects by providing risk analysis and regulatory compliance mapping (assessing new jurisdictions, new funding opportunities, internal initiatives, etc.).
• Help develop and maintain Climate-KIC processes and internal resources including Legal SharePoint webpage, administrative support to Legal Team internal budgeting and processes (invoice management, budget tracking, etc.).
• Liaise with colleagues across all EIT Climate-KIC offices and building relationships and best practice.
• Coordinate extensive law firm panel across multiple jurisdictions with external advisors.
  

Key Working Relationships

The Legal & Procurement Officer/ Business Partner collaborates with the Legal & Procurement Team and the General Counsel, as well as the People Team (HR), Finance, Business Operations/ Grant Management, Fundraising, Marketing & Communications and Policy & EU Affairs.

You thrive in complex frameworks of (public) funding requirements, a multi-country and multi-stakeholder environment, and a highly collaborative approach to work. You show initiative and have a “getting things done” mindset while being detail oriented, proactive as well as delivery and solutions focused.

Education/Qualifications

• A University law degree (LLM or equivalent)
  

Experience

• At least 1-2/2-3 years’ relevant post-qualification experience, preferably including multicultural organisation.
• Not for profit/charity sector experience is desirable but not essential.
  

Skills

• Ability to build and maintain relationships at all levels in a complex, multi-country, multi-stakeholder, multi-entity organisation.
• Problem-solving attitude, organisational skills and ability to drive compliance, legal, procurement and/or non-profit strategy implementation steps and tangible outcomes.
• Communication, cross cultural understanding and empathy, planning and budgeting.
• Excellent command of English, fluency in another European language is preferred.
• Experience with collaborative IT applications (we use Office365 and Microsoft Teams, as well as Miro, Zoom, etc.).
  

Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach

• Openness and ability to be innovative and think outside the box.
• Flexibility and willingness to undertake a range of tasks to meet business needs.
• Enjoyment of operating in complexity and uncertainty.
• Collaborative approach to work.
• Experience or interest in climate change is desirable.
• Comfortable in a non-hierarchical work structure.
  

Location

Candidates must have the right to work in the countries mentioned prior to applying for the position. Ideally, the successful candidate will be based close to a EIT Climate-KIC office, but we support full remote or hybrid forms of working and offer a high degree of flexibility.

At EIT Climate-KIC we are wholeheartedly committed to building a diverse and representative team and an inclusive workplace that values different life experiences and perspectives, and encourages personal development, learning and growth.

When recruiting we look to achieve diversity in the candidate pool. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to that will foster success in potential employees from diverse backgrounds and life situations. And because our team has differing needs and personal circumstances, we offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate all working patterns.