Senior Legal Risk Specialist

🏗 We're Hiring: Senior Legal Risk Specialist
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a construction-focused organization committed to delivering complex projects through effective legal risk management, disciplined contract administration, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence. Our distributed teams collaborate across Project Management, Construction, Engineering, Procurement, Commercial, Legal, Finance, Human Resources, Design, Quality, HSE, Consultants, Contractors, Suppliers, Logistics, Administration, Information Technology, and Executive Leadership to protect organizational interests, manage contractual exposure, and support sustainable business operations.
We recognize that proactive legal risk management is essential to protecting business continuity, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and achieving successful project outcomes. Through structured risk assessments, effective legal controls, sound contractual practices, and cross-functional collaboration, we aim to identify potential legal challenges early, minimize disputes, and ensure that business decisions are aligned with applicable United Arab Emirates laws and regulations.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Senior Legal Risk Specialist to identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate legal risks across construction projects, commercial transactions, contractual relationships, and corporate operations. The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise in legal risk assessment, contract risk analysis, regulatory compliance, dispute prevention, corporate governance, claims management, and legal risk reporting.
This role will focus on developing effective legal risk management frameworks, reviewing contractual obligations, evaluating potential liabilities, and providing practical recommendations to support informed business decisions. The Senior Legal Risk Specialist will collaborate with Legal, Commercial, Procurement, Finance, Project Management, Engineering, Construction, Human Resources, and Executive Leadership to strengthen legal controls, reduce exposure to disputes, and protect the organization's commercial and operational interests in accordance with applicable United Arab Emirates laws and regulations.
Key Responsibilities
Develop, implement, and maintain legal risk management frameworks, procedures, and assessment methodologies aligned with organizational objectives.
Identify and evaluate legal risks arising from construction projects, commercial agreements, procurement activities, employment matters, and business operations.
Conduct legal risk assessments for new projects, contractual commitments, business initiatives, partnerships, and material commercial transactions.
Analyze potential legal exposure arising from contractual disputes, regulatory breaches, negligence, non-performance, and other business-related liabilities.
Maintain a centralized legal risk register documenting identified risks, potential impacts, mitigation measures, accountable owners, and review dates.
Establish risk classification criteria to assess legal exposure based on likelihood, severity, financial impact, operational disruption, and reputational consequences.
Recommend proportionate mitigation strategies for significant legal and contractual risks.
Monitor emerging legal issues and communicate material risks to relevant stakeholders through established governance channels.
Review contracts, tender documents, purchase agreements, subcontracting arrangements, consultancy agreements, and supplier terms to identify legal and commercial exposure.
Analyze contractual provisions relating to indemnities, limitations of liability, warranties, insurance, termination, liquidated damages, and dispute resolution.
Identify unfavorable or ambiguous contractual language and recommend appropriate amendments or alternative risk allocation mechanisms.
Assess the legal implications of contractual deviations, special conditions, amendments, extensions, and variations.
Collaborate with Legal and Commercial teams to establish appropriate contract review thresholds and escalation procedures.
Review proposed contractual commitments against approved risk tolerances, internal policies, and delegated authority requirements.
Support the negotiation of contract terms by preparing risk assessments, reviewing proposed amendments, and identifying acceptable mitigation options.
Evaluate legal exposure associated with payment obligations, performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees, retention provisions, and other financial commitments.
Monitor contractual obligations and deadlines that could create legal exposure if missed or inadequately managed.
Support the development of contract risk matrices for major construction projects and strategic commercial arrangements.
Assess risks arising from project delays, cost overruns, scope changes, design deficiencies, defects, and failure to meet contractual performance requirements.
Work with Project Management and Construction teams to identify legal implications associated with schedule changes, site conditions, technical disputes, and project delivery challenges.
Review contractual notice requirements, claims procedures, time bars, and notification deadlines to reduce the risk of losing contractual rights.
Support the evaluation of extension-of-time claims, delay-related liabilities, variations, and other project claims from a legal risk perspective.
Identify potential disputes at an early stage and recommend practical measures to prevent escalation.
Coordinate with Legal Counsel and external legal advisers on litigation, arbitration, adjudication, mediation, and other dispute resolution matters.
Prepare factual chronologies, contract summaries, risk assessments, and supporting documentation for dispute evaluation.
Maintain records of actual and potential claims, disputed obligations, settlement discussions, and associated financial exposure.
Assess settlement proposals in collaboration with authorized legal and commercial stakeholders, considering financial, operational, and reputational implications.
Monitor dispute trends and recommend preventive controls to address recurring contractual or project management issues.
Support the development of dispute avoidance procedures, escalation protocols, and contract administration guidance.
Monitor applicable UAE legal and regulatory developments affecting construction, commercial transactions, employment, procurement, and corporate operations.
Evaluate the potential impact of new or amended legal requirements on organizational policies, contractual arrangements, and project activities.
Coordinate with Legal and Compliance teams to translate regulatory developments into practical risk mitigation measures.
Support compliance reviews by identifying legal obligations, control gaps, reporting requirements, and potential consequences of non-compliance.
Maintain a structured inventory of material legal and regulatory obligations relevant to the organization's activities.
Review business processes for potential exposure relating to licensing, permits, approvals, contractual commitments, and regulatory filings.
Support the assessment of legal risks associated with third-party relationships, including suppliers, subcontractors, consultants, agents, and joint venture partners.
Evaluate contractual protections and due diligence requirements for high-risk vendors and business partners.
Identify risks involving conflicts of interest, bribery, corruption, fraud allegations, sanctions restrictions, and other potential legal concerns within the scope of applicable requirements.
Collaborate with Procurement and Compliance teams to strengthen supplier due diligence and contractual compliance controls.
Assess risks associated with subcontractor performance, unauthorized subcontracting, inadequate insurance, and failure to meet contractual obligations.
Review supplier and contractor agreements for appropriate provisions addressing confidentiality, intellectual property, liability, compliance, and termination rights.
Support legal risk reviews for proposed mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and other significant business arrangements where applicable.
Evaluate corporate governance risks relating to delegated authority, approval processes, recordkeeping, and decision-making accountability.
Support the development and review of internal policies designed to reduce legal exposure and improve governance standards.
Assess potential legal risks arising from employment contracts, workplace conduct, disciplinary matters, confidentiality obligations, and termination procedures.
Collaborate with Human Resources and Legal teams on employment-related risk assessments and policy implementation.
Identify risks associated with personal data handling, confidentiality, information security incidents, and unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.

Work arrangement
Yes