Senior Manager Advisory Legal / Enforcement

The role

As Senior Manager Advisor Legal or as Senior Manager Enforcement, you will work alongside another Senior Manager to support and lead colleagues in their engagement with stakeholders, formulation of legal or enforcement strategy and expert advice, and the continued development and embedding of enforcement best practice within the team. The team is responsible for delivering on APRA’s enforcement mandate to prevent and address serious prudential risks and to hold entities and individuals to account.

Reporting into the General Counsel, you will have a number of direct reports, including Special Counsel and up to two Managers, who in turn are each responsible for the line management of a number of team members. As a people leader role, the development of colleagues and the ability to create a cohesive, dynamic, high-performing and collegiate team is of the utmost importance. You will engage with senior internal supervisors, supervised entities and their legal advisors, external law firms, and Counsel instructed by APRA.

The team

The Advisory Legal team is responsible for supporting APRA in the performance of its functions as a government agency and across the three industries that it is responsible for supervising. The Advisory Legal team also plays a key role in APRA’s internal governance and for the provision of corporate and commercial legal advice to the organisation.

The Enforcement team provides legal, resolution and enforcement advice across various aspects of financial services, corporate and administrative law, and prudential regulation, involving banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, private health insurance, friendly societies, and most of the superannuation industry. The Enforcement team also plays a key role in APRA’s co-administration of the Financial Accountability Regime.

Key stakeholders will primarily be from one or more of APRA’s frontline supervision and policy divisions and APRA senior executives. You will also have a key role in providing support to other APRA divisions and initiatives involving peer Commonwealth agencies. 

Key responsibilities

• As part of the Legal Leadership Team, lead the running of the business of the Legal function, including prioritisation, managing budgets appropriately, etc.;

• Ensure that people management skills are prioritised and fostered in Managers within the team;

• Focus on the career development of colleagues both bilaterally and via establishing and supporting training initiatives;

• Manage and support colleagues in the delivery of enforcement outcomes or high quality, practical legal advice;

• Directly engage with senior stakeholders in industry-aligned supervision teams and support members of the Enforcement and Legal teams in their engagement with these;

• Act as an independent and trusted adviser to key decision makers, establishing rapport and showing how APRA Enforcement can add value;

• Oversee and support the delivery of high quality, practical legal advice embodying APRA’s risk appetite to internal stakeholders, informed by a ‘one-APRA’ mindset;

• Role-model APRA values (Integrity, Respect, Collaboration, Excellence and Accountability), self-awareness and innovation; and

• Model inclusive leadership behaviours and encourage feedback and a ‘speak up’ culture to create an open culture, where staff can challenge and present diverse views and opinions to foster better outcomes.

About you

• Be legally qualified, holding a current practising certificate;

• Substantial team management and strong people leadership experience;

• Strong project management skills;

• Experience of complex legal problem-solving as part of a team;

• Strong track record of senior engagement with internal and external stakeholders;

• Knowledge and experience in advising in one or more of insurance, banking and corporate, whether this expertise has been obtained working in-house, in a Regulator or in private legal practice; and 

• For the Senior Manager Advisory Legal role, extensive knowledge and experience in either Corporate governance, commercial, and/or corporate work; 

• For the Senior Manager Enforcement role, extensive knowledge and experience of contentious regulatory engagements, litigation, resolution, investigations and/or enforcement.

To work with us, you must be an Australian citizen with eligibility to gain a Baseline Security clearance through the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency.

About APRA

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) was established in 1998 as an independent statutory authority that supervises almost 1,200 financial institutions that manage $8.6 trillion in assets for Australians across the banking, insurance and superannuation sectors.

In overseeing the safety, competitiveness and stability of the financial system, we seek to recruit, develop and retain highly skilled professionals, who want to help shape financial services and protect the financial wellbeing of the Australian community. Our employee base of almost 900 come predominantly from the commercial financial services industry or other government agencies; as such, we have the feel of a small corporate organisation that can work flexibly and with agility.

Why Work for APRA

We recognise the skills, experience and commitment that our staff bring to their professional lives, and we seek to reward them accordingly. We also recognise that for our staff to be able to perform at their best, we need to ensure that they are able to bring their best selves to work. Our commitment to wellbeing is having engaged people supported by resilient leaders within a values-aligned culture.

At APRA, we’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where everyone belongs, feels valued and respected. We aspire to attract and foster diversity of background, thought, and experience, recognising that a broad range of perspectives, approaches and ideas makes us stronger, and better enables us to meet our obligation to protect the financial wellbeing of the Australian community. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, please inform at application stage so we can do our best to accommodate your requirements.