Legal Counsel International Projects (Ocean Health)

Van Oord Ocean Health offers nature enhancement solutions for stakeholders, partners, and clients as part of offshore energy, dredging, infrastructure, or standalone projects. The Ocean Health business line is accessing new markets and focusing on nature restoration and climate mitigation, further expanding Van Oord’s business portfolio.

Legal Counsel International Projects (Ocean Health)

The position

As Legal Counsel International Projects, you are a key business partner for Van Oord’s growing Ocean Health business. You provide practical and commercially sound legal advice across the full business cycle, from developing opportunities and tenders to project execution and new business models. You will spend approximately one third of your time collaborating in projects from the Offshore Energy Business Unit, one third with projects in the Dredging and Infrastructure Business Unit and one third supporting standalone Ocean Health business.

Because Ocean Health is a scale up, you will also help build the legal foundations that enable the business to grow. This means creating practical templates, standard contracts and guidance that help colleagues make sound decisions. You will also draft and negotiate a variety of contracts, ranging from R&D, NDA, Engineering to development or construction contracts and structuring partnerships.

You will work closely with many disciplines across Van Oord to make this happen. You also develop legally robust structures for emerging Ocean Health business models, including development of partnerships, restoration services, outcome-based agreements, potentially long-term monitoring arrangements, environmental attributes, insetting propositions and consortium delivery models.

Your impact

Your involvement will help Ocean Health move from promising ideas to projects that create lasting impact. You will combine legal expertise with a strong understanding of the business and the people involved. You will also turn lessons from completed projects and Van Oord’s expertise into practical ways of working. Your priorities will change with the business cycle, so you will know when to focus on a project and when to strengthen the wider business process. In all situations, you help colleagues move forward with confidence.

Your main areas of responsibility include:

• Support Ocean Health projects and tenders
  You provide legal advice on activities connected to Offshore Energy and Dredging and Infrastructure tenders. You help teams identify risks, make informed choices and develop practical solutions that support successful projects.
• Build the legal foundation for a growing business
  You develop and improve templates, standard contracts, guidance and rules for Ocean Health. You use lessons learned from completed projects and Van Oord’s wider expertise to make future work clearer, faster and more consistent.
• Connect legal expertise with the business
  You work closely with colleagues across Van Oord and bring the right expertise together when needed. You build trust, understand different perspectives and make complex legal topics clear and useful for the people who need to act on them.
• Regulatory and risks
  You carry out early legal and regulatory screening and assess whether restoration activities create ongoing regulatory obligations. You also incorporate regulatory considerations into bids, schedules and contracts, conduct initial legal risk screening for material opportunities and provide clear red flags.

About you

You are a qualified senior lawyer or legal counsel qualified in the EU or the UK, with a strong interest in working close to the business. You enjoy working with different disciplines and stakeholders and can build relationships based on trust. You bring structure when priorities change and remain practical when situations are complex. You listen carefully, ask the right questions and explain legal matters in a clear way. You are comfortable working in a growing business where not everything has been defined yet. You combine legal expertise with curiosity, ownership, proactivity and a collaborative approach.

You bring the following experience and skills:

• Strong legal and contractual expertise with environmental, infrastructure, nature-based related matters
  You have solid experience advising on commercial contracts and business activities in an international environment. The working language is English.
• Experience with projects and business development with complex multi-party projects
  You understand how legal advice can support projects, tenders and new business opportunities. Experience with project based work is essential.
• Strong stakeholder management
  You can work effectively with colleagues from different disciplines and with external stakeholders. You know how to build support for practical legal solutions.
• Commercial and pragmatic mindset
  You can balance legal risks with business objectives. You provide clear advice and help teams make decisions with confidence.
• Ability to build and improve processes
  You enjoy creating structure where it is needed. Experience with templates, standard contracts, guidance or similar legal frameworks is valuable.

We offer

This role gives you the opportunity to use your legal expertise to help shape a growing business with a clear purpose. You will have the space to make a real contribution to Ocean Health while working with experienced colleagues across Van Oord.

• Company car
• 32 holidays (of which a maximum of 7 are collective)
• Variable pay, partly dependent on company results
• Attractive pension scheme
• Option for collective health insurance (Van Oord pays for your supplementary package)
• Extensive development opportunities, including a comprehensive online academy via Goodhabitz
• Communities to join, such as Young Van Oord, Van Oord Women, and the Van Oord staff association
• Various events and sports activities, such as skiing, sailing weekends, cycling, and motorcycling

“Show what you can do and where your ambition lies, and you’ll get every opportunity to act on it. That’s something I’m proud of!”

Renske, Category Manager Engineering