Senior Legal Counsel - Front End Projects and Operations

Worldwide, energy asset owners choose CB&I Asset Solutions as their asset management partner, confident in our ability to deliver tailored, value driven asset management solutions. Our commitment is simple but powerful: to deliver value to our customers through safe, effective and efficient operations, maintenance, wells and decommissioning solutions, specializing in late life energy assets. We're committed to investing in our people, and to building exceptional teams who deliver. Our people are trusted by our customers to safely operate their energy assets, improve performance and extend asset life through innovative solutions. We support flexible working requests and have adopted a hybrid approach for most of our office-based roles. We ask employees to be present in the office at least three days per week. Think smarter. Move faster. Deliver value.

Job Title

SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL - FRONT END PROJECTS AND OPERATIONS

Key Responsibilities

• This is a critical senior legal position, responsible for providing strategic commercial and operational legal support across all activities. It adds value by shaping strong, competitive bids; securing contracts that balance opportunity with disciplined risk allocation; and ensuring the business enters each project with clarity, protection and commercial advantage. In execution, the role safeguards value through proactive claims management, early dispute avoidance, and tight control of contractual obligations, variations, and entitlements.
• This position is an individual contributor role within CB&I's dynamic legal group located across the USA, UK, and the UAE. It will serve as a strategic partner to various functions across our global organization (e.g., Operations, Engineering, Commercial, Supply Chain, BD, Compliance, Legal, HR, IT, etc.) and will have significant responsibilities and exposure to leadership.
• Legal support for bids and tenders.
• Business partner with BD and Commercial to structure competitive, compliant commercial positions.
• Attend project kick off and monthly contract review meetings.
• Coordinate with Finance, Tax, HSE, Operations, and Engineering to ensure contract terms reflect operational reality.
• Advise on contractual rights, remedies, notices, termination options, and enforcement strategies.
• Support commercial teams with interpretation, analysis and drafting of qualifications for clients, subcontractors and suppliers.
• Ensure project teams understand contractual obligations, deliverables, milestones and risk positions.
• Ensure all agreements reflect mandatory local legal requirements, regulatory constraints and market specific terms.
• Advise on governing law, dispute resolution mechanisms and enforceability challenges in high risk or low predictability legal systems.
• Manage contract approval workflows to ensure compliance with internal policies, delegation of authority and escalation protocols.
• Maintain and update contracting templates, fallback positions and negotiation playbooks.
• Partner with Finance, Tax, HR, Commercial and Business Development to ensure contracts reflect end to end operational and compliance realities.
• Together with Disputes Counsel, manage early stage contract disputes, notices, escalation pathways and settlement strategies.
• Draft and negotiate subcontracts, ensure flow down of obligations and manage subcontractor claims.
• Manage bank guarantees, bonds, retention and security releases in line with contract terms.
• Adapt global templates for local use while maintaining core protections and global standards.
• Select, instruct and manage external counsel, ensuring efficient case handling, cost control and alignment with business priorities.
• Support consistent implementation of corporate behaviours and standards.
• Train commercial and operational teams on contracting and litigation risks, red flags and required controls specific to high risk jurisdictions.
• Track, interpret and communicate changes in local laws and regulations, translating them into clear, actionable operational guidance.
• Work with Legal and Compliance to update and align policies, procedures and controls with evolving regulatory requirements and industry standards.
• Provide oversight and collaboration on legal matters intersecting with compliance, regulatory obligations and operational risk.
• Help lead and coordinate responses to regulatory exams, audits and inquiries, including submissions, remediation planning and cross functional preparation.
• Report to senior leadership on regulatory developments, emerging risks, trends and key compliance metrics across high risk jurisdictions.
• Optimise external legal spend by negotiating best rates, capped fee regimes and monitoring and recording external legal performance and spend in accordance with the department's best practice.
• Progress internal billing approvals with relevant stakeholders.
• Help with financial and audit requests on law firm appointments and billing information.
• Distinguish between nice to have versus essential and critical legal solutions.
• Exercise sound legal and commercial judgement for any of the accountabilities and tasks above.
• Identify material legal risks and ensure that contract qualifications are optimised accordingly.
• Interpret opaque, rapidly changing or inconsistently enforced local laws and translate them into practical compliance controls.
• Identify high risk issues early and elevate to Legal Director/GC with clear options.

Essential Qualifications and Skills

• Legally qualified with extensive experience managing drafting and negotiating complex project agreements.
• Strong command of liability frameworks, indemnities, warranties, LDs, insurance structures and performance security.
• Experience advising on multi jurisdictional matters, local law constraints and country entry requirements.
• Demonstrated experience working in a senior position in a multinational organisation.
• Good communicator with a pragmatic, methodical, detail oriented, flexible and dynamic approach.
• Realistic negotiator.
• Experience driving intellectually complex issues to a firm, practical conclusion.
• Highly developed interpersonal skills to build and maintain complex, sensitive and influential relationships across a wide group of stakeholders.
• Awareness of the bigger picture and ability to consider advice in the context of wider organisational goals and policies.
• Capability to self initiate and perform tasks with minimal supervision and to prioritise conflicting demands.
• Confidence and ability to interface with senior management and partner with all parts of the business including BD, Commercial, Operations, Project delivery teams, Treasury, Tax, Finance, Co Sec, Compliance, Legal and SCM.
• Risk based, practical approach to regulatory compliance in high risk operational environments.