Major Projects Legal Director

Description

• Align project governance with corporate risk appetite, standards, and commercial priorities.
• Provide training and coaching to legal and commercial teams in areas of expertise to build capability and alignment to risk appetite.
• Act as legal lead in global Major Project governance forums and project reviews.
• Contribute legal expertise to internal governance, approvals, and project risk reviews.
• Lead high-stakes negotiations on client contracts, consortium agreements, and partnering structures where needed.
• Provide strategic input on disputes and claims where appropriate.
• Use project data and legal insights to inform strategy, identify trends, and improve decision-making and commercial outcomes.
• Advise on procurement models (e.g. D&B, PDB, PPP, Alliancing), JV arrangements, and risk allocation.
• Coordinate global business area legal directors and local legal teams to maintain consistent legal positioning across jurisdictions.
• Review and develop bespoke terms, deviation strategies, and negotiation frameworks.
• Ensure contractual positions are commercially sound and aligned to enterprise legal risk appetite and reward outcomes.
• Set and oversee legal risk thresholds for major project delivery.
• Lead the legal strategy for Arcadis’ portfolio of major projects which include large-scale, complex, or strategically significant projects and programs - typically exceeding €20 million in revenue, involving substantial risk, and requiring extensive global collaboration across sectors such as rail, road, aviation, buildings, water, and energy.
• Institutionalize legal best practices in areas of expertise through playbooks, templates, and knowledge-sharing.

Requirements

• Strategic thinker with deep expertise in major, cross-border infrastructure projects in rail, road, buildings, aviation, water and energy.
• Extensive experience advising in infrastructure, construction, or engineering sectors.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills across a range of alternative delivery models and international standard construction contracts (e.g. FIDIC, NEC, JCT).
• Comfortable operating under pressure and in the spotlight; resilient, pragmatic, and steady.
• Skilled at navigating matrixed environments and leading through influence.
• Demonstrated autonomy in leading complex matters with high commercial and reputational stakes.
• Commercially focused; understands when to push and when to partner to get the right outcome.
• Trusted strategic business partner to commercial, project, and legal leaders; brings clarity in high-stakes environments.
• Strong interpersonal skills and cultural fluency; able to work across time zones with stakeholders in North America, Australia, and Central Europe.
• Law degree and license to practice in a common law jurisdiction (US strongly preferred); must be US-based with valid work authorisation.
• Minimum 15 years’ post-qualification experience, ideally including both top-tier law firm training and senior in-house roles. If you have the capabilities and mindset to succeed, we encourage you to apply - regardless of years of practice.
• Deep knowledge of alternative delivery models (e.g. Alliance, Progressive D&B, PPP) and international contracting.
• Embed legal insight early in project pursuit and structuring, partnering with commercial, technical, and legal leaders.

Benefits

Training + Development

Interview process

Visa Sponsorship

Security clearance