Legal Counsel

At Melbourne Airport, we're on a bold growth journey. With major infrastructure projects shaping the future of aviation and travel across Melbourne and Launceston Airports, we’re looking for a Legal Counsel who’s ready to play a key role in supporting this transformation.

Reporting to the General Counsel & Company Secretary, this is an exciting and rare opportunity to join our Legal team and contribute to some of the largest capital projects in the country, including the M3R third runway project, Airport rail and various other significant airfield and terminal developments. 

This role will see you provide timely and practical legal support to our capital projects teams, ensuring we continue to deliver world-class infrastructure while managing risk and delivering smart, commercially sound outcomes. You’ll work closely with internal stakeholders and external legal providers to deliver advice and documentation across a variety of legal areas, with a strong focus on construction contracts and commercial agreements.

Explore how we are thinking big with exciting projects like the Third Runway, state-of-the-art terminals, and thriving business park developments. You can also learn more about life at Melbourne Airport – our culture, values, and what makes us unique at https://www.melbourneairport.com.au/corporate/our-culture-and-values. Join us in shaping the future of aviation as we propel Melbourne Airport towards becoming Australia's favourite Airport destination.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for:

• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a range of construction and commercial contracts, including consultancy agreements, supply and services contracts, and novation agreements
• Providing commercially focused legal advice to support project delivery and minimise risk
• Managing external legal providers and supporting the defence of third-party claims and litigation
• Delivering legal updates and presentations to internal stakeholders
• Contributing to legal precedent development, process improvement, and internal policy creation
• Supporting our broader compliance and risk management efforts across Melbourne and Launceston Airports

About you

You’re a confident and enthusiastic legal professional with 5–8 years of post-admission experience, either in-house or within private practice. You bring solid front-end construction contract experience and enjoy working closely with project and commercial teams to deliver results. Back-end or disputes experience will be viewed favourably, but isn’t essential.

You thrive in a fast-paced environment and are known for being pragmatic, collaborative, and solutions-oriented. You enjoy engaging with stakeholders, working across complex projects, and influencing positive legal and commercial outcomes. 

What you’ll bring to the team:

• Strong experience in construction and commercial contracts, ideally gained on large capital or infrastructure projects
• A collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement and legal problem-solving
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex legal concepts into clear guidance
• An interest in developing and improving legal processes, tools, and education across the business

We understand that not everyone will feel they meet all of these 100%. However, if you feel you have the attitude and aptitude to grow within our team, we invite you to apply and have a conversation with us about this position.

About the Company:

Melbourne Airport (Australia Pacific Airports Corporation) is proud to be one of Australia's premier transport hubs and Victoria's gateway to the world, connecting us to the global marketplace. We are committed to creating connections that matter and enhancing the traveller experience across every aspect of our organisation to deliver our vision of becoming Australia's favourite Airport destination. Currently, in an exciting phase of change, we are delivering rewarding career opportunities, making Melbourne Airport a dynamic and fast-paced place to work for our people.

APAC is a majority Australian-owned private company that also operates Launceston Airport, the tourism gateway to Tasmania and an industry multi-award-winning airport.

Culture and Values:

By joining the team at Melbourne Airport, you will work within a friendly, high-performance culture with a focus on our people and their development.

Our vision is to become Australia's favourite Airport destination and our people are paramount to achieving this success. We provide a supportive environment, with values that encourage all of our employees to Be You, Think Big, Own it and Work Together.

Benefits:

• Free access to Higher State, our state-of-the-art Fitness Club & Wellness Hub at Novotel & ibis Styles Airport hotel.
• Airport car parking 24 hours/365 days a year for both business and personal use
• Hybrid flexible working arrangements
• Airport Holiday, an additional day of leave
• Wellness Day, a further additional day of leave
• Discounted onsite childcare at Creative Garden Early Learning
• Mental health and well-being initiatives, including Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Long-term career and professional development opportunities
• Active social culture and participation in a range of social impact days and activities
• Signature Experiences including an airfield family day, and kids’ footy day 
• Access to an employee benefits scheme including access to corporate rates and airport retailer discounts (including SkyBus)

APAC is committed to weaving Diversity into our DNA. We believe that Diversity and Inclusion will help us realise our greatest potential as a company, and maximise the potential of all our team members. We strive to create a culture where our team members understand that each individual is unique and that embracing diversity makes us more flexible, productive, and creative.

APAC provides equal opportunity and advancement in employment regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, cultural background, caring responsibilities, disability or socioeconomic background. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds who share our workplace values of Being You, Thinking Big, Owning It and Working Together.