Deliveroo Careers – Deputy Head

About the job

Role / Introduction

We are looking for a ‘ Deputy Head of Employment – People ’ to strengthen our Employment Legal Team in the UK, reporting to our Head of Employment in our London HQ.

Deliveroo’s Employment Legal Team is currently made up of 12 individuals globally and continues to grow. The team provides employment law support to the business across all of its operating and hub markets globally. The team works closely with the business, as well as data protection, finance, tax, data management, people team, payroll, comms, policy, and public affairs to ensure advice is strategic and holistic. The team works on people matters and high profile issues such as those relating to rider status which are integral to Deliveroo’s operations and often of Board level importance. The work is exciting and highly variable, covering employment and tax status issues relating to riders globally, as well as projects and initiatives such as launching in a new market, market exits, rolling out a new people process to the business, advising on the employment law impact of business initiatives such as changes to algorithms or new business initiatives such as Hop, Editions and advertising revenues, as well as classic HR/ER related issues. In a hyper-growth company, the environment is fast paced. The work in the Employment Team is in many cases cutting edge, enabling its members an opportunity to grow and excel to become truly great employment lawyers.

This role is a unique opportunity to work in an exciting global business, headquartered in the UK, and play a critical role in defining employment law. We’ve already successfully defended the status of our riders in various markets and we continue to do so in others. We are also working with Governments, regulators and others to end the trade off between flexibility and security – allowing Deliveroo to lead the way in protecting individuals working in the on-demand economy.

This is an exceptional role providing exceptional opportunities – and we are looking for an exceptional candidate.

Objectives of the Role

• Work closely with the Employment Team, the wider Legal team, the People Team and other teams in Deliveroo such as Data Protection, Finance, Tax, Data Management, Payroll, Comms, Policy and Public Affairs, in both the UK and across our markets, to assist on employment law, litigation, regulatory and policy matters across our global business;
• Understand, interpret and apply current laws applicable to Deliveroo’s ever expanding business (such as Hop and Editions), as well as identifying what’s coming around the corner and mitigating legal risks;
• Shape the future of employment law by working with Governments and other stakeholders;
• Be an effective business partner to the business – in particular the management team in our London HQ, country general managers, operations teams, product teams, and the people team, on key initiatives; and
• Effectively and efficiently manage outside counsel.

Daily And Monthly Responsibilities

• Providing employment input on employment law, litigation, regulatory and policy matters across our global business;
• Working closely with other teams to provide holistic legal and strategic advice on employment law, litigation, regulatory and policy matters across our global business;
• Working with external counsel, including advice, cost and budget management;
• Communicating to more senior members of the Legal Team and the wider Deliveroo Executive Team on the developments, risks and implications of issues;
• Delegating to and supervising more junior members of the Employment Law Team; and
• Training the business on employment law issues and developments.

Requirements

We need you to:

• Have a passion for the company and the gig economy.
• Have an excellent academic background, or equivalent experience and training;
• Have a strong private practice law firm background – this is a senior role and we need you to have at least 8 to 10 years’ post qualification or equivalent experience (In-house secondment and/or gig economy experience might assist, but is not a prerequisite);
• Have leadership skills both for the Employment Team and for the wider business;
• Be enthusiastic and able to work in a rapidly growing, fast-changing environment dealing with complex matters, with the ability to remain calm and multi-task under pressure;
• Be comfortable dealing with ambiguity;
• Be a great communicator with strong interpersonal skills;
• Have the ability to give succinct, clear, commercial advice, using exceptional business judgement and creativity;
• Drive forward projects to find commercial and holistic solutions for the business;
• Be highly organised, including with significant project management experience;
• Be motivated and willing to get stuck in and involved;
• Have great attention to detail;
• Have a good, positive, can-do attitude; and
• Be a team player, able to work collaboratively and on a cross-functional basis.

Who We Are

The scale of the opportunity ahead of us is immense. The global food market is valued at £7.7 trillion but only 1% of it is currently online. Contrast that with the digital disruption of countless other industries – from banking and travel to retail and communications – it’s clear that our journey in the food sector has only just begun.

At Deliveroo we’re striving to build London’s best engineering organisation, our ambition is to be the definitive food company, feeding people three times a day with great food from the World’s best-loved restaurants, all with an unparalleled level of convenience.

From distributed computing to large-scale system design, complex algorithms to beautiful user interfaces, we have teams working on every step of the journey, in real-time, to ensure we continue to offer our customers a growing selection of choice at the best price with a fantastic level of service.

We work with thousands of restaurants worldwide, from renowned local gems to your favourite chains, allowing them to open up a new revenue stream and reach new customers. Our restaurant partners, riders and customers are as passionate about food as we are, and if you want to make an impact on millions of users by solving some of the biggest technical challenges at great scale, come on board and join the ride.

We believe a great workplace is one that represents the world we live in and how beautifully diverse it can be. That means we have no judgement when it comes to any one of the things that make you who you are – your race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexuality, disability, age, marital, parental or veteran status, or a secret aversion to coriander. All you need is a passion for (most) food and a desire to be part of one of the fastest growing startups around.