Job Description
Hello Future Legal Head II
Welcome to FNB Personal Customer Segments, the home of the #Changeables. We design for the shapeshifters and deliver products and services that make us incredibly proud with people who make it happen.
As a Legal Head, you will join a team where experts come together to ignite effective change. We call these #changeables our nav-igators – people who want to use tech to help others nav-igate their lives and businesses. As nav-igators, we are made up of unique talents, diverse minds, adaptability, and we live up to the promise of staying curious.
Join a dynamic, fast-paced in-house legal team supporting PCS and PSS within the Personal Segment. As Legal Head, you are the senior legal business partner to the Business Unit Stratco/Exco/ManCo and functional leadership, providing expert legal advice, hands-on contracting and negotiation support, and strong leadership of legal risk management. The role is accountable for formulating and implementing a Legal Risk strategy and framework aligned to business strategy, regulatory obligations and Group governance standards.
Role purpose
Provide pragmatic, business-enabling legal advice to PCS and PSS, while proactively identifying, managing and reporting legal risk. Drive a high-performing legal service culture, strengthen third-party and outsourcing legal oversight, and embed privacy, data, and AI governance controls appropriate.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic leadership & stakeholder partnering
- Act as a trusted legal advisor to PCS and PSS leadership; provide clear, commercially sound guidance aligned to strategy and risk appetite.
- Build and manage objective working relationships with external attorneys, Group Legal Services and FRG Legal Services to obtain specialist opinions where needed.
- Establish, align and manage targets and budgets for the legal function, ensuring effective cost control and value delivery.
- Translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into clear business actions, playbooks, and decision-ready advice.
- Proactively identify emerging legal issues affecting products, channels, partnerships, and customer outcomes;
Legal risk management & governance
- Formulate and maintain the Legal Risk strategy and operating model for PCS and PSS, including governance forums, escalation pathways and decision rights.
- Benchmark current practices against the legal risk management framework; identify and communicate current and emerging legal risks; recommend and implement mitigations.
- harmonising legal risk with operational risk, conduct and regulatory compliance reporting for Exco/board-ready decisioning.
- Own legal risk reporting: monthly risk reporting, quarterly audit/risk/compliance reporting, and ad-hoc executive and regulator-ready reporting.
Contracting, third-party & outsourcing oversight
- Draft, review, update and negotiate agreements (customer-facing, supplier, technology, and strategic partnerships) to manage legal risk.
- Ensure contracts align with procurement and outsourcing governance (including SLAs, performance measures, audit rights, confidentiality, and data processing terms).
- Implement contract standards, clause libraries, playbooks, and approval matrices to reduce cycle time and manage risk consistently.
- Conduct spot audits of key supplier contracts and SLAs, and drive remediation where contract or SLA performance issues arise.
Privacy, data, conduct & AI governance
- Provide privacy law guidance (POPIA, GDPR where applicable) and practical privacy risk management support to PCS and PSS teams.
- Partner with business stakeholders to manage legal risk from AI-enabled capabilities (e.g., knowledge tools, speech analytics, automated QA), including data protection, IP, vendor risk and documentation obligations.
People leadership & capability building
- Plan and manage performance, skills development, talent and culture within the legal team to deliver high-quality outcomes and continuous improvement.
- Embed a service culture that builds rewarding relationships, encourages innovation and enables teams to deliver exceptional client service.
- Lead, coach and develop the legal team; drive performance management, skills development, and talent retention.
- Ensure effective resourcing and succession planning, and support transformation, equity, and inclusion objectives.
You'll be an ideal candidate if you have:
Experience & Qualifications
You Will Have Access To
- Opportunities to network, collaborate and work across Segments and teams
- Challenging work environment
- Opportunities to innovate and add value to team, leadership and business effectiveness.
We Can Be a Match If You Are
- Curious & courageous - you're driven by always wanting to know more and learn more and you're brave enough.
- Obsessed with mastery - you know what it takes to become good at what you do and are constantly pushing yourself to do it
- You are open to ongoing personal mastery & development.
Are you interested to take the step? We look forward to engaging with you further. Apply now!
#Post
#FNB
#LI-LM8
Job Details
Take note that applications will not be accepted on the below date and onwards, kindly submit applications ahead of the closing date indicated below.
12/03/26
All appointments will be made in line with FirstRand Group’s Employment Equity plan. The Bank supports the recruitment and advancement of individuals with disabilities. In order for us to fulfill this purpose, candidates can disclose their disability information on a voluntary basis. The Bank will keep this information confidential unless we are required by law to disclose this information to other parties.