Shape the Employment Law Landscape of a Leading International Bank

Standard Chartered Bank AG (SCB AG) is seeking an experienced Senior Legal Counsel – Employment Law to lead and manage complex employment law matters across Germany and selected European jurisdictions. This is a senior, high-impact role offering strategic influence, deep stakeholder engagement, and exposure to a dynamic, regulated international banking environment.

You will act as the trusted legal advisor to HR, Employee Relations, senior leadership, ensuring robust, commercially sound and compliant employment law solutions that protect the Bank’s reputation, financial strength and regulatory standing.

Job Summary

In this role, you will advise on and manage all employment law matters arising in SCB AG, predominantly in Germany, while also coordinating cross-border matters in France, Poland and Sweden. You will provide expert judgment on complex individual and collective employment law issues, lead litigation and disputes, manage works council relationships, and ensure seamless implementation of legislative and case law developments aligned with SCB AG strategy.

You will also act as a key conduit between SCB AG and the wider Group on employment law topics, contributing to global initiatives, audits, investigations and transformation projects.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensuring compliance with the employment law elements of EU Regulations /Directives/ Legislative changes (such as Work time tracking, EU Pay Transparency, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Amendment of the German Documentation Act, etc.)
• Advice in navigating and complying with increased regulatory requirements resulting from growth
• Advise on the full spectrum of employment law matters, including contracts, remuneration, investigations, accountability reviews, disciplinaries, grievances, restructurings, redundancies, terminations and senior exits
• Provide clear, pragmatic and business-focused legal advice to HR, ER and senior stakeholders
• Support HR policy, strategy and transformation projects, coordinating input from Group colleagues and external counsel
• Advise on regulatory issues affecting staff, including remuneration frameworks, employee data protection and governance requirements
• Review and advise on Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs), identifying and managing legal risk in contentious scenarios
• Support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from an employment law perspective
• Provide employment law advice on geographical expansion, including opening new branches
• Support M&A integration activities, including consultation obligations, restructuring and TUPE-related matters
• Manage key relationships with SCB AG Germany employee representatives
• Support and lead negotiations with Works Councils, including drafting and structuring company agreements
• Ensure full compliance with the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) and co-determination requirements
• Shape and maintain a coherent and compliant landscape of operational and collective agreements
• Advise on and manage potential and actual employment litigation and disputes
• Liaise with and critically assess advice from external counsel, tailoring legal strategy to business needs
• Coordinate disclosure processes and witness statements
• Identify settlement opportunities and advise on settlement strategy
• Prepare, negotiate and conclude settlement agreements

Skills, Experience

Professional Experience

• Strong background in individual and collective employment law, ideally within:
• An international bank or financial institution, or
• A leading law firm with a focus on employment law

Proven experience advising on:

• Employment litigation and dispute management
• Works Council interaction and co-determination processes
• Drafting and negotiating employment contracts, policies and collective agreements
• Employee Relations matters including investigations, disciplinaries and restructurings

4. Solid understanding of financial services regulatory frameworks, such as: MaRisk, BAIT, Remuneration rules, Data privacy, Fit & Proper and governance requirements for significant institutions
5. Experience in a European or international employment law context
6. Exposure to advising on French, Polish and Swedish employment law is an advantage

Skills & Attributes

• Exceptional German drafting, advocacy and negotiation skills
• Fluent in English; French language skills are an advantage
• Commercial, solution-oriented mindset with strong judgment
• Confident advisor to senior leadership and key stakeholders
• Highly organised, resilient and comfortable managing complex, sensitive matters

Essential Qualifications

• Fully qualified German Lawyer (Volljurist) with both Staatsexamina successfully completed
• Admission to the German bar (Rechtsanwalt)
• Fachanwalt für Arbeitsrecht strongly preferred
• Minimum 5+ years’ professional experience in German employment law

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.