We are seeking a dynamic and visionary General Counsel to lead and inspire our legal professionals. In this pivotal role, you will lead a small team of legal professionals, provide strategic legal advice and services, ensuring high-quality and timely guidance on legal and regulatory compliance. Your leadership will be crucial in navigating complexity, mitigating risk, and supporting the RBA’s strategic objectives, projects, and legal obligations.

About the role-

• Lead with Vision: Provide independent legal advice to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, guiding the Bank through complex legal landscapes
• Inspire Excellence: Lead and inspire a team of legal professionals, driving the Bank’s strategic objectives through effective performance and cross-department collaboration
• Strategic Support: Offer legal advice to departments and projects, helping them understand, evaluate, and manage legal risks
• External Expertise: Source high-quality, timely, and cost-effective external legal services when needed
• Culture Champion: Foster an open and dynamic culture aligned with the Bank’s values, promoting collaboration and high levels of staff engagement
• Innovate and Improve: Drive continuous improvement and simplification through enhanced strategies and improved systems and processes
• Communicate Proactively: Provide clear, concise, and effective communication, encouraging feedback and fostering a culture of openness and trust
• Build Relationships: Cultivate strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Contract Mastery: Negotiate, draft, and review commercial agreements and contracts
• Maintain Independence: Uphold the independence of the legal function and the roles within it
• Governance and Accountability: Ensure strong governance and accountability, effectively delivering responsibilities outlined in the Executive Accountability Framework

About you-

• Central Bank Insight: Strong understanding of the central bank’s purpose and operations, and the context in which all functional areas contribute to the strategic goals.
• Leadership: Considerable experience leading, guiding, coaching, mobilising teams, and influencing peers
• Analytical Excellence: Substantial experience providing timely and considered legal advice on novel or complex legal issues
• Strategic Planning: Experience in developing and implementing strategic plans at a department/business unit level
• Legal Autonomy: Recognition of autonomy and duty as a legal practitioner, and independence from non-legal staff
• Risk Management: Experience in anticipating and managing complex legal risks and issues, and leading the implementation of policies and procedures to manage legal risk
• Wellbeing Initiatives: Demonstrated ability to support initiatives addressing health, safety, and holistic wellbeing
• Confidentiality: Substantial experience handling sensitive and confidential information
• Commercial Acumen: Advanced knowledge of general commercial legal arrangements, safeguarding the Bank’s interests
• Senior Representation: Experience representing the Bank (or a comparable organisation) at senior levels with other organisations.
• in a reputable law firm and/or through experience in a senior in-house legal position.

Qualifications-

• Relevant professional legal qualifications
• NSW practising certificate (current or entitlement to hold)
• Minimum of 12 years post-qualification experience gained
• Substantial experience in banking and finance law

If you are a strategic thinker with a passion for legal excellence and leadership, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity. Join us in shaping the future of the Bank’s legal landscape.
Be More
Working for an organisation that truly makes a difference to the people of Australia, we can offer development and career opportunities in a collaborative environment that supports your growth, wellbeing and promotes flexibility. Your individual growth and success drives the RBA forward as an organisation. Be more means you can do more, for yourself and for Australia.
Why RBA?
The RBA makes an important contribution to the Australian economy through the pursuit of national economic policy objectives and associated activities in financial markets and banking. We also issue Australia’s banknotes and operate infrastructure critical to the payments system, all of which contribute to the welfare of the Australian people. Made up of specialists across a wide range of fields, our people, values, and culture play a critical role in achieving our objectives. Striving to be Open & Dynamic, we consider and incorporate different perspectives, work across teams and are transparent with each other, whilst delivering quality together effectively and focusing on outcomes by prioritising, testing, learning, and refining as we go. Our people conduct themselves with a high degree of integrity, while striving for excellence in the work they perform and the outcomes they achieve. We encourage intelligent inquiry and we treat one another with respect while promoting the public interest through our efforts. We know it is the growth and success of our people that drives the RBA forward. Come and make a bigger contribution while you build and develop your own skills too, because being more means you can do more, for yourself and for Australia.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion through key initiatives. We welcome and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse background, those living with a disability and from the LGBTQ+ community. We are committed to making the recruitment process fair and equitable for all our candidates.
Application Close :
May 12, 2025

• Lead with Vision: Provide independent legal advice to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, guiding the Bank through complex legal landscapes
• Inspire Excellence: Lead and inspire a team of legal professionals, driving the Bank’s strategic objectives through effective performance and cross-department collaboration
• Strategic Support: Offer legal advice to departments and projects, helping them understand, evaluate, and manage legal risks
• External Expertise: Source high-quality, timely, and cost-effective external legal services when needed
• Culture Champion: Foster an open and dynamic culture aligned with the Bank’s values, promoting collaboration and high levels of staff engagement
• Innovate and Improve: Drive continuous improvement and simplification through enhanced strategies and improved systems and processes
• Communicate Proactively: Provide clear, concise, and effective communication, encouraging feedback and fostering a culture of openness and trust
• Build Relationships: Cultivate strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Contract Mastery: Negotiate, draft, and review commercial agreements and contracts
• Maintain Independence: Uphold the independence of the legal function and the roles within it
• Governance and Accountability: Ensure strong governance and accountability, effectively delivering responsibilities outlined in the Executive Accountability Framewor