Job Description

About the PSR
How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money. Payments underpin our economy.

Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition and drive innovation. This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid.

We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well.

This is where the PSR plays an important role \xe2\x80\x93 we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems. We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support.

Our work is high-profile and fast-moving, within a dynamic environment. You, with your team, will support the whole organisation to deliver our work effectively. In particular, by advising on how best to use our formal legal powers to improve outcomes for people and businesses and helping us to understand and manage the legal risks we take, including through robust and proportionate decision-making.

In the last two years we have concluded a major competition enforcement case, a number of sectoral enforcement cases, and have issued a wide range of directions that place additional obligations on most payment firms in the UK (including remedies to make it easier for businesses to switch supplier and to make payments safer for customers).

The legal team also supports provides advice on a wide range of the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s policy and strategy initiatives. We have a bold vision for the future of payments in the UK. We are looking for people who can help us to achieve our strategic priorities, which are set out in our five-year
Strategy .

The PSR is an independent economic regulator led by Managing Director, Chris Hemsley. We are directly accountable to Parliament and funded by the payments industry. We work closely with other regulators involved in this sector, notably the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Competition and Markets Authority. Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Purpose of the role
This is a senior role, and part of the legal leadership team. It is ideal for a highly experienced competition / markets specialist, with excellent team-work, emotional intelligence and extremely strong communication skills.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives from working across different tools and applying their knowledge and skills in a flexible, creative way to differing contexts, in a constructive and multi-disciplinary environment.

Working closely with another legal manager, the role will cover both competition/markets, remedies and enforcement/compliance portfolio.

We welcome applicants from private practice, Government or regulator backgrounds, and from in-house practitioners.

We would welcome applications from part-time applications and as part of a job-share request.

This is an exciting time to join the PSR as we work to deliver our strategy and outcomes through an ambitious work programme. The legal team in particular has grown in scale and depth of expertise. We are seeking an experienced competition lawyer, to take on the important, senior role of competition specialist legal manager.

You may have a background in a broad portfolio, antitrust or you may have specialised in mergers and markets work.

The focus of the role is the delivery of high-quality legal advice and analysis, ensuring that the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s processes are fair and lawful, and ensuring the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s decisions are robust, reasoned, and underpinned by sound analysis and evidence. The work spans market reviews, antitrust and cartels, enforcement, and remedies design - all the way through to CAT appeals and JRs.

The manager works in collaboration with the policy, strategy, supervision and compliance monitoring, and communications teams to deliver a variety of work at pace.

The manager will be leading a team of Senior Associates and potentially more junior staff as well as collaborating closely with a Competition Specialist Deputy General Counsel and General Counsel.

The Manager will be responsible for thought leadership, inter-agency leadership and people leadership and will enjoy a strong collaboration with three other legal Managers.

The Manager will play an important, strategic role as part of the senior leadership of the Legal division, in collaboration with the General Counsel, Deputy General Counsels and Legal Managers.

The successful candidate will thrive on fostering a positive culture, nurturing talent, effectively managing resources and prioritising workflow.

Allocating work equitably and efficiently, and through hands-on contribution as well as quality assurance of colleagues\xe2\x80\x99 work, maintaining the strong reputation of the PSR legal team (and PSR more widely), harnessing knowhow and expertise, and setting direction and establishing best practice.
The Manager will bring his or her experience and skills to maintain and build professional excellence, and support the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s values and commitments, including wellbeing, ongoing learning and development, diversity, equity and inclusion, and respect.

This role also involves representing the PSR externally, and confidently and responsibly managing a variety of stakeholder engagement.

Subject to the successful applicant\xe2\x80\x99s career development goals, there is considerable scope for the Manager to learn new skills and explore new areas of law and policy, spanning the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s existing portfolio of work, and its forward looking strategy and intelligence function.
Key accountabilities

• 
  Leading on the provision of legal advice and wider legal support in relation to key competition, markets and enforcement projects and other ad hoc work/requests for advice
• 
  Ensuring effective management and mitigation of legal risk, including through others
• 
  Ensuring effective escalation and communication of legal risk within the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s leadership structures
• 
  Ensuring efficient use of resources, the provision of timely and accurate legal advice, and the delivery of high-quality drafting/practical legal support
• 
  Ensuring the maintenance and promotion of knowhow, L&D and systems that underpin the legal team\xe2\x80\x99s success

The competition manager may support the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s work in relation to the following over time:

• 
  Concurrent competition law powers
• 
  CA98/EA02 pipeline review
• 
  Liaising with the CMA / ECN
• 
  Market reviews using regulatory powers (FSBRA)
• 
  Market studies under EA02
• 
  Principles of public law
• 
  Remedies design/evaluation
• 
  Advice in relation to mergers affecting the payments sector
• 
  Ad hoc support in relation to non-competition law enforcement work (eg non compliance with Directions and remedies)
• 
  Ad hoc competition advice to support other policy projects, such as account-to-account in retail payments
• 
  Support on Digital Markets Unit work
• 
  Support on AI related work
• 
  Represent the PSR at conferences and regulatory forums
• 
  Support the ongoing learning and development of the team, and knowhow of the organisation
• 
  Supervision of more junior staff
• 
  Build the reputation of the PSR\xe2\x80\x99s legal function internally and externally

Knowledge & experience
We\xe2\x80\x99re a signatory to the Government\xe2\x80\x99s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Minimum requirements

• 
  Direct experience of providing high quality advice on competition legal advice in a cross-functional / team-based environment
• 
  Proven knowledge of public law principles
• 
  Experience of people and/or team management
• 
  Fully qualified lawyer entitled to practise in the UK

Essential requirements

• 
  Sound knowledge of public law principles
• 
  A working knowledge of economic concepts
• 
  Excellent analytical and problem-solving legal skills
• 
  Flexible attitude to work and the range of tools that the PSR deploys to achieve its strategic goals
• 
  Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to distil complex issues into succinct messages and present confidently to a variety of internal and external stakeholders at all levels
• 
  The ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines on a diverse set of projects and work streams
• 
  Excellent drafting skills evidenced
• 
  A pro-active working style, with a focus on prioritising and deploying legal resource effectively to contribute to the delivery of required outcomes
• 
  Ability to work effectively in close collaboration with other teams across the PSR
• 
  Ability to role model strong leadership and management behaviours in line with the PSR values, commitments, and capabilities in support of the delivery of the PSR strategy and work programme. This includes wellbeing and diversity, equity, and inclusion
• 
  Evidence of being a wellbeing-confident leader with the ability to support own resilience and that of others

PSR Values
All members of PSR are expected to demonstrate the PSR Values of Integrity, Unity, Engagement, Knowledge & Purpose.

In order to represent the people and organisations that we serve, we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and gender identity, mental health, and social mobility issues.

As an inclusive employer, we have adopted a hybrid way of working, so we are happy to discuss how this will work for you.

We are proud signatories of the
Women in Finance Charter , we hold the
Level 2 Carer Confident accreditation from Carers UK and we signed the
Social Mobility Pledge in June 2020.

As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements. Please contact our recruiter if you wish to apply for this role on a flexible, part time or job share basis.

Useful information

• 
  This role is graded Manager \xe2\x80\x93 Practising Legal \xe2\x80\x93 Level 5
• 
  The role is based in London
• 
  The role offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package
• 
  Please note, applications must be submitted through our online portal - we are unable to accept applications sent via email
• 
  Please provide a CV and cover letter with your application
• 
  Applications for this role close on the 17th December 2023, first round interviews will be conducted week commencing 8th January and the Manager Assessment (second stage process) week commencing 15th January.
• 
  If you are interested learning more about the role, please contact Katie Ayling on katie.ayling@fca.org.uk

Want to know what it is like to work at the PSR? Check out this short video
PSR recruitment video 2022 - YouTube