Job Title: Personal Care Middle East & Turkey - General Counsel

Function: Legal

Location: Dubai, UAE

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people \xe2\x80\x93 we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don\xe2\x80\x99t believe in the \xe2\x80\x98one size fits all\xe2\x80\x99 approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

ABOUT THE BUSINESS

Personal Care is a \xe2\x82\xac15bn business globally and is the home of outstanding brands that deliver personal hygiene, self-care, and confidence to billions of people. We hold some of Unilever\xe2\x80\x99s strongest market positions.

We aim for market-beating growth supported by increased investment on the core brands, funded via gross margin recovery.

Where we will play: We focus on our core categories and top brands to win with our key channels and top customers.

How we will win: (1) We Make it Premium \xe2\x80\x93 leading category value growth via core innovation delivering Holistic Product Superiority. (2) We Make it Profitable \xe2\x80\x93 unlocking structural margin challenges via premiumisation & technology & radical simplification. (3) We Make it Positive \xe2\x80\x93 leveraging our scale and brands for impact, delivering on our commitments for people and for planet. (4) We Make it Personal - leadership through service, humility, and care for all our stakeholders.

MET is an important business unit in Personal Care with circa \xe2\x82\xac500m turnover, or which more than half is in Arabia.

JOB PURPOSE

This role is a key commercial legal role where you can be part of delivering the PC vision. We will assert our leadership by delighting our consumers and customers more than anyone else so the global

Reporting to the Group General Counsel Personal Care with particular responsibility for business partnering the MET Business Unit leadership and also working with the wider BG legal team on broader PC initiatives.

The MET BU GC role requires comprehensive leadership across end to end PC risk/opportunities within the geography.

The role assumes accountability for all MET Personal Care legal matters, including the negotiating of key strategic contracts, legal advice on marketing and advertising law, intellectual property law, regulatory and compliance matters, distribution channels, pricing, privacy, e-commerce, data protection and competition law working in conjunction with global Power of One expertise teams and with teams across the MET geography.

The role requires solid relationships with the Global Marketing GCs for Skin Cleansing, Deos and Oral Care, Brand IP Counsel, Patent attorneys and our PC Business Unit lawyers globally, both in house and from external panel law firms in order to provide a full service to PC. It requires strong leadership of a small team within the MET geography.

LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTE

Thrives on the Assert, Disaggregate, Simplify vision of PC, with determination to make a personal difference.

Ability to maintain a passion for high performance, with a Future Fit mindset to identify the need for change and not be daunted by leading strategic initiatives into unknown territory.

Strong organisational and prioritisation skills required in a role that has a high degree of autonomy, a flexible remit, requiring broad-based business acumen.

Must be able to quickly and agilely prioritise competing demands and be prepared to flex timetables and perspectives on a daily basis.

Must be able to quickly assimilate information, scoping out legal risks and provide pragmatic, commercial advice to the business, with a solution orientated approach.

Must be able to lead senior decision makers, including coordinating input from a number of global and local business partners, such as Legal, R&D and Regulatory Affairs.

Excellent communication skills both written and oral: ability to communicate with global business partners in different time zones and with countries where English is often not the first language. Must consistently bring their best self to a role of strategic importance. Arabic language would be a role requirement given the importance of the business in the region.

Deep curiosity to build understanding of the brands that make up the MET PC portfolio and the competitor landscape.

A focussed solution orientated mindset on the issues related to MET while maintaining a global mindset on the wider PC business and obsession with the consumer and customer.

Talent catalyst \xe2\x80\x93 team leadership with willingness to put people first, empowering and developing them to their full potential both in the line and in the wider legal team.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

Membership of Leadership Team(s) / Business Partnering

Valued business partner to the PC MET General Manager, being a key member of and partner to the PC MET leadership team, and the Arabia LT for end to end engagement and principal point of contact for legal issues across the MET PC business and all its functions.

Contributes in relevant Investor Boards for MET projects and Global Investor Board inputs through global marketing GC coordination.

Liaises with Power of One teams, Brand IP, Patents, R&D (in particular CTI and Regulatory Affairs), Finance, Supply Chain, External Affairs, CMI, Human Resources, Competitor Intelligence and other relevant internal functions in relation to all PC MET issues, and global issues that have a key MET centre of gravity.

Member of PC Global Legal Leadership team and the Personal Care legal network across the world including each of the Business Units individually and collectively for mutual support and benefit across PC.

Support relevant Issue Management teams, and various cross-category / divisional groups and initiatives.

Drive brand strategies and product launches in MET with support of a network of global, regional and local PC lawyers.

Legal Advice and accountability

Accountable for delivery of the following:

Developing and evolving the PC MET legal strategy and priorities.

Managing legal input to responsible business from sourcing to selling.

Advice and co-ordinated risk analysis and assessment to the relevant cross-functional teams on innovation and renovation brand projects, including the legality of and support for all MET PC product claims, product positioning, input into preparation of support packages and relevant mitigation etc and proactive actions.

Leading for good governance in risk decision making in accordance with all relevant legal and regulatory laws and guidelines and the Code of Business Principles and Code Policies, and maintaining the governance framework to drive compliance across areas including sanctions, product and contacts compliance.

Legal advice and partnering on all key negotiations, litigation activity (in co-ordination with the Litigation expertise team) and other major projects related to the MET PC business.

Conduct of competitive challenges in and out in respect of competitor product claims in MET, influencing to ensure alignment with the Brand challenges strategy.

Collaborative relationship with the PC Brand IP and Patents teams in order to advise and inform MET leadership of intellectual property matters as necessary.

Category and brand relevant advice to M&A and Power of One which would likely be focussed on disposals but in the event of acquisition during due diligence and during integration.

Drafting, advice on, and negotiation of, contracts entered into by the PC business and its Brands, for appropriate risk management, including agency agreements, sponsorship agreements, distribution agreements, endorsement agreements, website agreements, licence agreements, designer services agreements, event agreements, artist collaborations and talent agreements, JVs, partnerships and sustainability ventures.

Supporting creative route to market models for PC MET.

Managing creating and collecting knowledge, best practices, precedents and know-how for Personal Care MET.

Legal advice and assistance for the rolling out of corporate policies and guidelines.

Legal advice to Issues Management Teams and to the Business Unit teams on global legal trends that may impact or help shape the strategy.

Identification and addressing of competition risks, privacy risks and the championing of Business Integrity.

Core Skills

Within the legal group at Unilever we drive a career approach to developing core functional and business supporting skills. These range from specific focus expertise areas within particular role and broader commercial skills. As the BU General Counsel is a comprehensive business unit role with end to end responsibility the skillset is a broad range. We would expect candidates to need skills in the following areas:

Legal Strategy.

Legal Acumen, Competition Law.

IP.

Regulatory.

Commercial Law.

M&A.

Compliance.

Contract Negotiation and Drafting.

Crisis Management.

Litigation and Dispute Resolution.

Corporate Governance, Advocacy and External Communication.

Digital commerce and Tech literacy.

These legal cores would be complemented by general skills in:

Stakeholder Management.

Collaboration.

English & Arabic Speaker.

Change Management.

Business Partnering.

Budget Management and Controls.

Together with strengths in Ethics and integrity.

Cultural Sensitivity and Emotional Intelligence.

Relationship Building.

Communication.

Analytical Thinking.

Risk Assessment.

Project management.

Leadership and Influence.

Experience

Candidates should be a qualified lawyer and have around 8-10 years post-qualification experience. Experience in the FMCG sector and in a multinational setting would be an advantage.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life! This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their \xe2\x80\x98Whole Self\xe2\x80\x99 to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.

Unilever