Legal Manager

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. Further information is provided below but please note that, if you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

About us

Established in 2021, Opportunity Green is a fast-growing not-for-profit organisation that helps to identify and unlock opportunities to tackle climate change. We build ambitious coalitions, support climate vulnerable countries in international negotiations and find innovative legal pathways to fight climate change.

Our legal team works on climate legal actions relating to the aviation, shipping, agriculture, finance and steel sectors in the UK, EU, and internationally. We provide strategic legal analysis to support decarbonisation in these sectors; undertake legal interventions, including legal challenges and litigation; and engage in legal advocacy, including submissions to international courts, states, and the United Nations.

We are now looking for a Legal Manager to expand our transport-focussed legal work, scoping the potential to drive decarbonisation in the medium to heavy-duty vehicles sector. You may also support our work across other sectors and themes.

What’s the role?

Reporting to Opportunity Green’s Legal Director, you will be responsible for leading our new legal work on medium to heavy-duty vehicles, including strategic legal analysis and interventions. The aim is to identify and use legal levers to promote the transition to zero-emission vehicles in the sector and tackle the climate change consequences of the continued reliance on diesel.

You will be undertaking initial legal research to identify and develop legal strategies for driving decarbonisation in the sector. You will then use your legal skills to lead the implementation of such strategies, with the support of the wider legal team. You will be working at the cutting edge of climate law in new and emerging areas, and will help identify and develop strategic legal action ideas that aim to drive system change in this sector. You will use your legal skills to think outside of the box and develop innovative legal pathways, with a view to taking forward the most promising actions.

You will work closely with a wide range of organisations to obtain technical and policy insight on your ideas to help you develop them into actionable concepts.

Our legal team is already achieving outsized impact with a great team spirit. We are looking for someone who is analytical and organised, but who is also a people person with great communication skills, a collaborative approach and a passion for fighting climate change. Opportunity Green is a growing organisation so you will also be involved in supporting other aspects of work, such as contributing to funding proposals, developing campaign strategy, providing legal input into communications, and taking part in our committees.

About the candidate

We are looking for a candidate with:

• A passion for using their legal skills to tackle climate change.

Desirable skills and experience:

We do not expect any candidate to have all the skills listed below but rather we look for transferable skills and potential as well as past experience.

• A law degree or equivalent experience, with post-qualification experience in litigation desirable but not essential.

• A high level of self-motivation and commitment to Opportunity Green’s values, ethos and purpose.

• An ability to see solutions to complex problems through a creative legal lens.

• Experience of writing high-quality legal analysis.

• Excellent attention to detail and an ability to work with technical and legal material.

• An ability to think strategically and not get bogged down in detail when that is unhelpful.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively and interact with lawyers and non-lawyers from around the world with kindness and respect.

• Excellent time management, and the ability to meet deadlines, logically tackle problems, and set and communicate priorities.

Diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are important principles at Opportunity Green. We believe that diversity and inclusion make teams stronger and more effective. We are committed to fair and equitable employment practices, and we are striving to ensure that a variety of voices and experiences are included in our organisation. Our commitment to diversity and our parental leave policy are available to view on our website, here.

We will consider all applicants who meet most or all of the essential competencies regardless of their identity or background. That said, we know that diverse candidates may be reluctant to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the criteria outlined in the job description. We encourage anyone to apply who can demonstrate the variety of skills and experiences relevant to meeting the requirements of this role.

We recognise that many diverse experiences and perspectives are not represented in our current workforce, and are seriously underrepresented across the non-profit sector in general, and as such, we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, non-white people, people from marginalised backgrounds, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these groups if two candidates are equally qualified.

To learn more about our application process and receive advice on how to prepare in such a way as to showcase your full potential, please find our Application Guide here.

What we offer

The successful candidate will be offered an annual salary of £50,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities.

We take our team’s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

• A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours.

• A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year’s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off).

• A market-leading pension of 10%.

• A progressive family leave policy, including 26 weeks’ paid leave for both parents, as well as other support.

• Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team.

• Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events.

  However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards.

How to apply

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. If you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

• Photos

• Name – if needed, please use ‘Applicant’

• Age

• Email and/or phone number

We also reserve the right to withdraw your application from review if you use AI tools such as Chat GPT to complete the sift questions / write your CV.

Unfortunately, if you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship to continue working in the UK, Opportunity Green will not be able to consider your application at this time.

The closing date for applications is 9 June 2025 at 9am BST.  

We actively encourage applicants to reach out if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to help them demonstrate their full potential in the hiring process. 

Please get in touch at recruitment@opportunitygreen.org and we can discuss how to best make the recruitment process as accessible and comfortable for you as possible.

You can read our application guide here.

What happens next?

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview to discuss their experience and suitability for the role. After this, candidates that are most suitable for the vacancy will be invited for an in-person interview in our London office, for which there may also be a short task. Travel will be reimbursed for non-London-based applicants (within the UK).

Online interviews are likely to take place w/c 23 June. In person interviews will likely be shortly after this (w/c 30 June).

We reserve the right to ask for references during the recruitment process.

If you have any questions, or you need any reasonable adjustments at the application stage, please contact recruitment@opportunitygreen.org.