About us:

Mantel is an Australian-owned IT Professional Services consultancy, focused on emerging technology to help advance our clients by leveraging AI, Digital, Cloud, Data & Security. We are a fully AI-enabled technology consultancy and the partner that bridges the gap between blue-sky ambition and practical steps to deliver value. Since our inception in November 2017, we have experienced remarkable growth across Australia & New Zealand and are honoured to be recognised as a Great Place to Work for 6 years in a row!

We hire smart and talented people and get out of their way. As a principle-based organisation, we have a flat structure with no hierarchy. By focusing on our five principles and not getting caught up in red tape, we trust you to get the job done.

About the role:

• Newly created full-time role, established to bring legal capability in-house, replacing the current arrangement where legal support is delivered via secondment from an external law firm and various specialist law firms.

• Provide strategic and commercial legal leadership across the business, with a primary focus on managing, drafting, and negotiating customer service agreements (such as Master Services Agreements (MSAs)) across public and private sectors (including energy, banking and finance, and health), across small to large-scale projects.

• Support sales and pre-sales activities, including reviewing and assisting in the response to Government and private sector tenders, reselling and subcontracting agreements with technology partners (major hyperscalers, data platform providers, and Frontier AI model providers), and other key suppliers.

• Build strong relationships with all sales and operational stakeholders to closely align with service offerings and provide contractual guidance.
  Build and mature the company's legal function, including developing and implementing legal policies, uplifting and establishing contract templates, training programs, commercial playbooks, and escalation processes aligned to our five principles.

• Manage external legal counsel and outside law firms for specialist advice, litigation, or matters outside the role's day-to-day scope, ensuring cost-effective and timely engagement.

• Support the business in scaling commercial operations across a growing professional services portfolio (~800 employees across Australia, New Zealand, and Vietnam), with the opportunity to build and expand internal support for the legal function in line with business growth.
  

Your day-to-day:

• Review, draft, and negotiate customer-facing supply agreements (e.g. Master Services Agreements, Panel Agreements, complex Statements of Work), and associated commercial terms with clients and partners.

• Partner with sales and delivery teams throughout the sales lifecycle, advising on contractual risk, liability positions, IP ownership, data handling, and commercial terms.

• Manage a pipeline of concurrent contract negotiations, balancing commercial pragmatism with risk mitigation.

• Develop and maintain standard contract templates, clause libraries, and negotiation playbooks to improve consistency and turnaround times.

• Review and advise on supplier, reseller, subcontractor, and vendor agreements, including panel arrangements with government and enterprise clients.

• Monitor and advise on relevant legislative and regulatory changes affecting the business (e.g. privacy and industry-specific compliance).

• Support tender, RFP, and procurement responses with legal review of contracts and input in formulating tender responses.

• Liaise with and instruct external legal counsel on specialist matters, litigation, disputes, or high-risk issues.

• Contribute to governance, risk, and compliance initiatives, including policy development and internal training.

• Manage overall end-to-end contract lifecycle and document management processes by maintaining and refining our contract register and legal dashboards hosted in Salesforce.

• Reporting to the COO on contract management processes and status.

What you’ll need to be successful:

• Admitted lawyer in Australia, holding a current practising certificate.

• Significant post-admission experience, ideally with a mix of private practice and in-house experience, preferably within the technology sector.

• Demonstrated experience managing, drafting, and negotiating MSAs, panel agreements, and complex commercial contracts, ideally within the IT, technology, professional services, and managed services sectors.

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance legal risk against business objectives.

• Experience with, or a strong desire to leverage AI tools to optimise contract reviews and initial departure positions.

• Experience operating as a sole or lead in-house counsel, comfortable acting as a trusted legal partner, and building processes and frameworks without extensive existing infrastructure.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and advise senior leaders and non-legal stakeholders in a timely manner.

• Strong understanding of relevant Australian law, including contract law, privacy (Privacy Act/APPs), and IP.

• Experience managing outside counsel relationships and legal spend.

• A high level of autonomy, pragmatism, and sound judgement.

• Excellent drafting, negotiation, and communication skills, with the ability to simultaneously manage multiple high-priority matters.

• Experience within the IT/technology services sector or working with government/enterprise panel arrangements is highly regarded.

What you can expect from us:

• We believe in unique experiences for all. Our My Deal program allows you to tailor your yearly plan, with the support of your Leader, to decide on what’s most important to you. That might be extra professional development, extra annual leave, time to work on your side hustle, or something else completely different! One size does not fit all.

• You’ll get all the tools you need to hit the ground running, including a new phone, laptop & swag.

• A true investment in your AI-first career. We are a fully AI-enabled consultancy and provide you with the tools to lead. This includes access to the Mantel AI Gateway, our secure, centralised platform with multiple AI models, plus a dedicated monthly budget and a safe environment to experiment and innovate.

• You’ll be genuinely supported by an organisation that cares about not only you but your family as well. Mantel offers Flexible Personal Leave options for those unplanned moments in life.

• We support a flexible, hybrid approach to working guided by our principles; we trust each other to “make good choices” about the best workplace locations for the requirements of the project, role, and client. This can change based on our client needs.

• We know you won’t have one job for life. At Mantel, we believe in supporting our team to take their career in a direction that aligns with their passions.

• Our elite partnerships are a direct result of our deep platform mastery. For you, this means you'll be working alongside teams with the highest levels of technical expertise and tackling the most complex, high-profile projects on the market. Check out our partner awards and recognitions here.

• Mantel is a certified Family Inclusive Workplace, which means we are committed to improving your wellbeing at work through leading practices on flexible work, parental leave, family care and family wellbeing.
  

We value a diverse workplace and strongly encourage people from all backgrounds and minority groups to apply.