Head Of Legal Affairs (AfSA)

AU Values

• Respect for Diversity and Team Work
• Think Africa Above all

• Transparency and Accountability
• Integrity and Impartiality

• Efficiency and Professionalism
• Information and Knowledge Sharing

Organization Information

Reports to: Director General, AfSA
Directorate/Department/Organ: Director General
Division: Legal Affairs Division
Number of Direct Reports: 4
Number of Indirect Reports: 0
Job Grade: P5
Number of Positions: 1
Contract Type: Regular
Location: Cairo, Egypt

Purpose of Job

To provide strategic, technical and legal leadership for the Legal Affairs function of the African Space Agency (AfSA), safeguarding the Agency’s legal interests and ensuring its compliance with the AU legal framework and with international and African space law.

Main Functions

• Provides technical and legal support for the work of the Agency to ensure its effectiveness.
• Develops new and existing legal instruments as components of AfSA’s strategies and policies.
• Engages stakeholders within Member States, RECs and national and international space agencies in designing and implementing strategies.
• Devise mechanisms of managing legal and institutional risk within the Agency’s area of operation and recommend mitigation strategies
• Represents AfSA as appropriate and explains the position of the Agency at conferences and treaty negotiations.

Specific Responsibilities

• Advises the Director General on legal matters related to institutional and general legal affairs of AfSA, including its Statute and Headquarters/Host Agreement with the Arab Republic of Egypt.
• Leads and manages the overall activities of the Legal Affairs Division, including its planning, work programmes and the supervision of staff.
• Undertakes all such work and duties as may be necessary for the effective execution of the functions and objectives of the Legal Affairs Division within the framework of AfSA’s mandate.
• Ensures the effective coordination of legal affairs across AfSA.
• Coordinates the mainstreaming of legal risk management into AfSA’s technical programmes and ensures linkages, synergies and opportunities for joint programming. Builds and manages appropriate legal knowledge and information assets, precedents, opinions and templates, to enable continuous learning and knowledge creation in the area of institutional, space-law and general legal matters.
• Liaises with Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), national and international space agencies and other stakeholders on institutional and legal affairs.
• Coordinates the preparation and development of legal inputs to reports, budget and work programmes related to the functioning of AfSA.
• Supervises the activities of staff under his/her supervision, liaising with staff members in handling their performance evaluations promptly and in accordance with the AU performance management policy
• Advises on a wide range of international public, AU institutional and international space law issues, including the AU Constitutive Act, Policy Organs decisions, AU Regulations and Rules, the AfSA Statute, the UN space treaties and the African Space Policy and Strategy, involving, inter alia, issues relating to privileges and immunities, institutional questions, procedural issues arising during meetings of AfSA’s Governing Board, and constitutional law of the Agency.
• Drafts complex contracts, cooperation agreements, satellite and data-sharing agreements, project documents, and institutional and operational modalities
• Drafts responses to reports from AU Organs and institutions, and assists in the coordination of Legal Officers across AU Organs, institutions and entities for compliance with relevant decisions
• Performs any other related duties as may be assigned by the Director General.

Academic Requirements and Relevant Experience

• Master’s degree in Law, Public International Law, Air and Space Law or a related legal field with twelve (12) years of work experience in legal practice, preferably in public international law or the institutional law of international organisations, of which a minimum of seven (7) years must be served at a managerial level and five (5) years at supervisory level.
• Admission to the bar or membership of a recognised professional legal body will be an added advantage.

Required Skills

• Conscientious in observing deadlines and achieving results.
• Analytical and report writing skills.
• Negotiation and facilitation skills.
• Communication ability both orally and in writing.
• Knowledge in international and regional policy processes and policy analysis.
• Managerial skills, political tactfulness and supervisory skills to achieve documented objectives.
• Ability to draft policy, review, and clear legal instrument
• Proficiency in one of the AU official working languages (French, English, Portuguese, Arabic and Spanish); fluency in another AU language(s) is an added advantage. Working knowledge of Arabic is a further asset given the Cairo duty station.

Leadership Competencies

Core Competencies

Functional Competencies

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TENURE OF APPOINTMENT:

The appointment will be made on a regular term contract for a period of three (3) years, of which the first twelve months shall be considered as a probationary period. Thereafter, the contract will be for a period of three years renewable, subject to satisfactory performance and deliverables.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING:

The AU Commission is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

LANGUAGES:

Proficiency in one of the AU working languages (Arabic, English, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, and Spanish) is mandatory and fluency in another AU language is an added advantage

REMUNERATION:

Indicative basic salary of US$ 50,746.00 (P5 Step1) per annum plus other related entitlements e.g. Post adjustment (48% of basic salary), Housing allowance US$ 21,832.68 (per annum), and education allowance (100% of tuition and other education-related expenses for every eligible dependent up to a maximum of US$ 10,000.00 per child per annum), for internationally recruited staff and a maximum of $3,300 per child per annum for locally recruited staff.

Applications must be submitted no later than 10 December 2026 11h59 p.m. EAT.

-Only candidates who meet all job requirements and are selected for interviews will be contacted.
-Consideration will be given only to those candidates who have submitted a fully completed online application with a curriculum vitae (CV), an African passport, and the required academic qualifications, such as Diplomas (Bac+2), Bachelor's degrees (Bac+3), Master's degrees (Bac+5) and any relevant certificate in line with the area of expertise.
-The African Union is an equal opportunity employer, and female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
-Candidates from least represented and underrepresented countries within the African Union are strongly encouraged to apply for positions that fit their profiles.

Least represented countries: Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles, Somalia and Western Sahara.

Under represented countries: Mozambique, Niger, South Africa, South Sudan and Tunisia.