Senior Legal Counsel – Company Commercial

Job details

Location: Hybrid – 3 days at VHQ, Crawley
Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: Wednesday, 2^nd September 2026

At Virgin Atlantic Airways, we believe that everyone can take on the world, and it’s our vision to become the most loved travel company. As we embark on this next exciting stage of our journey, we’re harnessing our spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation to challenge the status quo.

In a nutshell

We’re looking for an experienced commercial aviation lawyer to join us as Senior Legal Counsel – Company Commercial, taking on an influential role at the heart of our Corporate Development & Legal Affairs team.

Reporting to our Head of Legal, you’ll be a trusted legal partner to senior leaders across Virgin Atlantic, helping us navigate some of our most important commercial relationships, partnerships and strategic opportunities.

There’s plenty of variety. You’ll work across complex commercial agreements, with a particular focus on joint ventures and airline partnerships, loyalty programmes, and brand, marketing and trade mark matters. You’ll bring together strong legal judgement and commercial thinking, helping us find the right way forward in a fast-moving and highly regulated industry.

And this isn’t just about providing great legal advice. You’ll have the opportunity to influence how we do things, develop junior lawyers and play an important part in shaping a collaborative, high-performing Legal team.

Day to day

As our Senior Legal Counsel – Company Commercial, you’ll:

• Lead strategic, commercially focused legal advice across our airline and holidays businesses.
• Structure, draft and negotiate complex, high-value commercial agreements, including Joint Ventures, airline partnerships and loyalty agreements.
• Advise on trade mark licensing, brand and marketing matters, alongside broader commercial and company law requirements.
• Establish trusted relationships and work closely with senior leaders, turning complex legal issues into clear, pragmatic advice that supports confident commercial decision-making.
• Help us navigate governance, risk and regulatory considerations while finding practical ways to unlock commercial opportunities.
• Build strong relationships with key external stakeholders, including regulators, shareholders and their legal teams.
• Manage our external legal advisers, making sure we get high-quality advice and great value from our partnerships.
• Support and develop junior lawyers while contributing to the continued development of our wider Legal team.
• Proactively identify and implement opportunities to improve processes, efficiencies and consistency of service delivery, including appropriate use of AI and technology.

About you

You’ll be an experienced commercial lawyer who knows the aviation industry and understands the opportunities, complexities and relationships that come with it.

You’re comfortable operating at senior level and won’t be fazed by complex, multi-party negotiations or competing priorities. Just as importantly, you’ll be able to cut through legal complexity, understand what the business is trying to achieve and provide clear, practical advice that helps us move forward.

We’re looking for:

• A qualified solicitor in the UK or equivalent jurisdiction, with a strong academic track record at 2:1 degree level or above.
• Experience gained within a Magic or Silver Circle law firm or high-performing in-house legal team, with a track record of advising on complex commercial matters.
• Strong aviation legal experience, with a track record of advising on complex commercial matters within the sector.
• Expertise across one or more of joint ventures and airline partnerships, loyalty programmes, and trade mark, brand and marketing matters.
• Strong experience of structuring, drafting and negotiating complex, high-value commercial agreements.
• Commercial judgement, communication and leadership skills to influence senior stakeholders, develop others and provide pragmatic advice in a fast-paced environment.
• An appetite for innovation and continuous improvement, including the development and implementation of playbooks and the ability to identify appropriate opportunities to use AI to improve legal processes and outcomes.

If you’re excited by the opportunity to combine your aviation expertise with some of Virgin Atlantic’s most important commercial relationships and strategic opportunities, we’d love to hear from you.

Be yourself – Our differences make us stronger

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do our colleagues. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds. At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world - no matter your age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We celebrate difference and everything that makes our colleagues unique by upholding an inclusive environment in which we can all thrive. So that everyone at Virgin Atlantic can be themselves and know they belong.

To make your journey with us accessible and individual to you, we encourage you to let us know if you’d like a little extra help with your application, or if you have any individual requirements at any stage along your recruitment journey. We are here to support you, so please reach out to our team at recruitment@fly.virgin.com feeling confident that we’ve got your individual considerations covered.