Senior Legal Officer and Chief P5, LEGA

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

17 November 2026
- 23:59 GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of extreme weather shocks. At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

WHY JOIN WFP?

WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment. WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

We offer
an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Legal Office (LEG) is organized into three branches: LEGA (employment and administrative law), LEGM (maritime and transport law), and LEGC (contracts and constitutional law). LEGC is organized into two teams—one dealing with matters of a public nature and the other with matters of a private nature within the portfolio—each headed by its own Chief at the P-5 level. Accordingly, there are four Chief of Branch positions at the P-5 level across the three branches, each responsible for a distinct area of legal specialization.

The knowledge, skills, competencies, and professional experience required for each position are tailored to its substantive legal discipline and are not interchangeable across the branches and teams, as each position operates in a fundamentally different legal discipline requiring different substantive expertise.

This position is based in WFP Global Headquarters (GHQ) and covers WFP’s employment and administrative law portfolio, including interpretation and application of the employment framework, policy advice on staff-related governance instruments, advice on disciplinary matters and more generally on employment related matters, and management of contentious matters and disputes in connection with appeals of administrative decisions before the Executive Director, the FAO Appeals Committee, and the ILO Administrative Tribunal.

The portfolio supports all WFP offices and divisions at GHQ and in the field. At this level, the job holder acts as leader of the branch, leading and managing a legal function, establishing strategic priorities and operational workplans, and is accountable for managing both people and resources to deliver results.

The job holder provides authoritative legal expertise and operates with a high degree of delegated authority on sensitive and complex personnel-related matters including, in particular, the handling of employment-related litigation.

As branch leader, the job holder typically directly supervises senior legal staff, while retaining overall supervisory responsibility across the branch and working with more junior colleagues on matters within the portfolio to deliver consistent, timely legal services across multiple workstreams, and will report, as appropriate, into the General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel.

The job holder serves as a knowledge focal point for personnel and employment legal matters, requiring deep subject-matter expertise to provide credible and robust guidance and to manage risk. Quality control is integral to the role, including reviewing and clearing key advice and written products, maintaining consistent legal positions, and supporting coherent guidance within the portfolio and coordination with other functions.

JOB PURPOSE

To serve as the Chief o