Chief of Staff

Role profile

Osborne Clarke is preparing to launch its ambitious 2030 strategy. We are now looking for a Chief of Staff (CoS) to our Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer to drive the delivery of the strategy and guide operational excellence across the firm. This is a permanent position, based out of our Bristol office, offering hybrid working.

As a key member of the Executive Board and Operations Board, this role combines strategic planning, programme delivery, executive communications and stakeholder management and would suit either an existing CoS, or someone with a professional services, strategic programme or strategic leadership background who is equally adept at leading and rolling up their sleeves to get things done.

What You'll Do

Strategy and planning

• Translate strategic priorities into executable roadmaps with clear ownership, milestones and measures of success.
• Lead quarterly strategic performance reviews with the Executive Board and recommend course‑corrections.

Portfolio coherence and prioritisation

• Partner with the Director of Change & Transformation to ensure the delivery portfolio reflects strategic priorities, manages interdependencies and tracks outcomes and benefits.
• Surface cross‑firm trade‑offs and constraints for timely Executive Board decisions.

Governance design and rhythm of the business

• Design and own the executive governance architecture.
• Oversee follow‑through on strategic decisions; escalate systemic blockers and propose remedies.

Executive decision support and insight

• Provide analysis, options and recommendations on strategic choices, investments and change.
• Prepare briefing packs, business cases and board materials that synthesise financial, client, people and operational insight.

Data, MI and performance insight

• Own the KPI framework and run the performance dialogue with the EB; promote data‑informed decision‑making and continuous improvement.
• Strategic communications and stakeholder alignment.
• Own the leadership strategic narrative, communication principles and message cadence; working with the Director of Communications to ensure consistent, insight‑led messaging across partner groups and functions.
• Shape and support leadership events, town halls and roadshows; measure engagement, understanding and impact.

Risk, compliance and optimisation in change

• Embed proportionate risk, legal/compliance and security considerations into strategy and prioritisation.
• Identify firm‑wide opportunities to streamline processes, enhance profitability and improve client and people experience; sponsor targeted optimisation work with accountable owners.

International strategy alignment

• Establish mechanisms for cross‑jurisdiction strategy alignment, collaboration priorities, and benefits sharing.
• Coordinate with international leaders to surface synergies and manage interdependencies that impact coherence and performance.

People leadership and ways of working

• Role‑model inclusive, high‑performance behaviours and outcome‑focused ways of working; coach distributed teams to work effectively in a matrix.
• Model OC values and foster a culture of high performance, accountability, learning and innovation.

Experience

What we're looking for

• Significant experience in a senior Chief of Staff, Strategy, Transformation or Operations role ideally in a partnership or professional services environment.
• Proven track record of shaping and delivering multi‑workstream change across functions and geographies.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen; confident with management information, KPI frameworks, benefits tracking and realisation, and executive‑level performance reviews.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills, including concise executive writing and presentation; able to influence at Board/Partner level.
• Demonstrated ability to handle confidential and sensitive matters with discretion.
• Relevant accreditation (e.g. MSP, PRINCE2, Agile, PROSCI).

Skills and attributes

• Strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen and execution discipline; able to move from “big picture” to critical detail.
• Highly organised, resilient and calm under pressure; adept at prioritising and simplifying complexity and trade‑offs.
• Comfortable with ambiguity; resilient, pragmatic and solutions‑oriented.
• Influential collaborator who builds trust quickly across partners and business services; high EQ and inclusive leadership style.
• Data‑literate, insight‑driven and improvement‑minded; comfortable challenging the status quo and making evidence‑based recommendations.
• Client‑centred mindset with a focus on quality, timeliness and value.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and change leadership skills.

Salary And Benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.

We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations*. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality.

• Services in India are provided by a relationship firm