Senior Counsel - Major Projects & Commercial

About the role

A major national player in energy infrastructure, central to Australia's energy transition, is looking for a Projects and Commercial Counsel with 10+ years of experience. The role sits within the legal team and offers pragmatic, strategic legal advice to support the delivery of major projects. The preferred locations are Brisbane, with Sydney, Melbourne or Perth also available.

Key responsibilities

• Provide legal advice and services covering the whole of project delivery for energy projects (electricity, gas, renewables, hydrogen).
• Prepare project documentation for brownfield and greenfield developments, including development, revenue and offtake agreements (PPAs, ESAs), transport, sale and storage, O&M and connection agreements, plus upstream documents.
• Handle joint venture and bidding agreements, and early-stage documents such as HOAs, MOUs, LOIs and term sheets.
• Cover general commercial contracts and provide high-level regulatory advice.
• Focus on legal governance: manage legal risk on major projects and help design and implement precedent contracts and templates.
• Manage the legal budget by managing external counsel stakeholders throughout delivery.
• Support compliance and training programmes and research and report on new or proposed legislation affecting the business.

Required profile

• 10+ years of experience on major projects, from front end to back end, across a wide range of project documents, including regulatory experience and exposure to construction law and construction contracts.
• Ideally a mix of private practice and in-house experience.
• Strong stakeholder management, acting as a trusted advisor and driving change where needed.

Required skills

• Strong contract interpretation and drafting.
• Dispute resolution.