Team and Job Purpose

The Legal Compliance Team protects SCI and enables it to reach the world’s most vulnerable children in complex operating environments by providing practical legal advice and setting clear control frameworks. The Team is responsible for advising on key legal compliance aspects including n particular, sanctions, anti-terrorism, anti-bribery, modern slavery, data protection and regulatory reporting.

We are looking for a paralegal to join our dynamic team, where you will have the opportunity to be involved in challenging and meaningful work as part of an innovative and ambitious organisation whose mission is to inspire breakthoughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. 

Role purpose

The role holder will be supporting a tight-knit team of five lawyers and one existing Paralegal, who lead the management of regulatory and other legal compliance matters in relation to SCI’s operations in over 50 countries worldwide. 

The position will primarily involve: 

Working with the senior lawyers in the team on reporting of serious incidents to our key regulator, the Charity Commission;

Reporting on serious incidents to the Board, Board Committees, auditors and law enforcement authorities, where required;

Assisting senior lawyers in relation to  export controls, sanctions, terrorist financing and other aid diversion and compliance risks across the various SCI country offices; 

Providing paralegal support on other compliance projects led by the Legal Compliance team, including developing and updating policies.

Further key areas of accountability, below. 

The role requires the candidate to regularly communicate with internal stakeholders across the organisation and undertake fast-paced and accurate legal analysis. 

This vacancy offers an exciting opportunity for a motivated individual to work in the growing area of compliance in the context of a global charity, while honing critical skills in assessing reporting requirements, drafting, and working with a variety of stakeholders in a number of different country offices and across a number of functions such as Safeguarding, Fraud and Safety & Security, all of whom work with the joint mission to ensure that SCI continues to deliver aid to children around the world.

Grade: P2

Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers

Time Zone (that the role holder must be available to work in): UTC

Right to Work: The successful candidate must possess the unrestricted right to work in their current or preferred location for the duration of employment. 

Language Requirements: English

Principal Accountabilities

Serious Incident Reporting (‘SIR’)

The Charity Commission, the UK regulator of charities, requires charities to provide prompt, full and frank disclosure of serious incidents that arise in connection with their work.  As a major UK charity with international operations in the parts of the world where children most need assistance, SCI regularly deals with incidents arising in its operations, and where appropriate, reports those identified as serious incidents to the Commission as well as to its Board and Board Committees, SCI’s auditors and law enforcement authorities.  In managing this important and fast-paced work, the role holder will: 

Review reports in the organisation’s secure reporting platform and assess the seriousness of an incident against the Charity Commission’s reporting guidelines and SCI’s internal guidelines;

Liaise with internal stakeholders in making the determination around reporting, as well as on details to be provided to the Commission in any reporting;

Draft serious incident reports for review by Legal Counsel;

Draft reports/disclosures to Board Committees and the Board and manage the Board reporting process to ensure timely delivery of accurate and informative reports;

Draft reports/disclosures to external stakeholders (including but not limited to the Charity Commission, the Met Police and/or the Crown Prosecution Service); and

Provide updates to such bodies as required and/or upon the closure of the relevant incident;

Support Legal Counsel in activities to improve and streamline SCI’s serious incident reporting process;

Conduct trend analysis of serious incidents and draft and deliver presentations on such to SCI stakeholders. 

Support Legal Counsel in advising on export controls, sanctions, terrorist financing and other aid diversion and compliance risks

A key responsibility of the SCI Legal Compliance Team is to provide advice and support on managing SCI’s risks on export controls, sanctions, terrorist financing and other aid diversion and compliance matters. 

As a paralegal in the team, the role holder will support senior lawyers in advising country offices on the export controls, sanctions and/or terrorist financing restrictions which apply and on applying those restrictions to the activities of the country offices.

Compliance Projects and Other Paralegal Support

The SCI Legal Compliance Team provides advice and support on a diverse range of issues that affect our international operations.  As a paralegal in the team, the role holder will, from time to time:

Support various Legal Compliance projects on areas of fraud, terrorism financing, bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering, sanctions, export controls, modern slavery, data protection and other applicable regulatory regimes;

Update key legal and regulatory compliance policies, under supervision; 

Conduct ad-hoc paralegal tasks such as legal research, drafting, and filing; and

Carry out any other paralegal duties either additional to or instead of those outlined above which may be reasonably required.

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Experience and Skills

Essential

Sound legal judgment;

Good legal research and legal analysis skills;

Understanding of risk appetite and profile in a global charity.;

Advanced skills in critical analysis including an ability to review and assimilate a large volume of information, see the bigger picture and draw out most relevant and important information;

Understanding of the need for confidentiality when dealing with sensitive information and correspondence;

Highly developed organisational skills with the ability to effectively prioritise and to work calmly and proactively when under pressure to achieve deadlines;

High level communication skills: Proven ability to liaise and communicate effectively with a broad range of people at all levels, across different cultures and to act with credibility, discretion, tact and diplomacy;

Strong attention to detail;

Strong written and oral communication skills, fluent in English;

Highly competent in use of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Desirable

NGO experience or experience in another international organisation 

Education and Qualifications

Essential

Graduate level education.

Deadline:9 Sep 2025