The posting
BUILDING THE FUTURE OF OPEN FINANCE
Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.
THE TEAM
Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions across the globe. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.
Join our Product and Regulatory Legal team, embedded with Kraken's Product, Design and Engineering teams to ship novel products and experiences that accelerate the global adoption of crypto. We are a tight, experienced group of lawyers from a diverse range of tradfi, fintech and crypto backgrounds who move fast, stay curious and take pride in the commercial accountability of our advice, partnering directly with Product, senior leadership and Compliance to chart clear, defensible paths to launch and to keep our licensed entities running smoothly.
This is a senior product-facing legal role for the European Union. You will be the lawyer the business trusts on questions that cut across several regimes at once: for example, a single product such as a tokenised equity, a card, or an institutional custody and prime brokerage service can touch the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive ("MiFID II"), the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation ("MiCA"), the Payment Services Directive ("PSD2"), the Electronic Money Directive ("EMD2") and banking rules at the same time. You will bring clarity on which regime applies, what it requires, and how to launch within it.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Reporting to the Head of Product Legal, you will act as a senior legal adviser to European leadership on new products, licensing structure and regulatory strategy.
- Own cross-functional product counselling for European Union launches from discovery to design, launch and iteration, giving Product, Engineering, Compliance and leadership decision-ready advice with clear options and risk trade-offs
- Advise on the regulatory perimeter and classification of new offerings across MiFID II and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation ("MiFIR"), MiCA, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation ("EMIR"), payment services and electronic money rules, and banking regulation, including where an instrument or service falls between regimes (for example tokenised securities, crypto-asset derivatives, margin and financing, and stablecoin-linked products)
- Advise on payments and electronic money offerings, including the Krak card and account propositions, safeguarding, open banking and account-access obligations, and the developing Payment Services Directive 3 and Payment Services Regulation framework
- Advise on banking-related questions that arise in the European Union, including bank partnerships and sponsor-bank arrangements, deposit-taking and lending perimeter questions, the Capital Requirements Regulation and Directive, and the interaction of these rules with our custody, prime brokerage and financing products
- Monitor and interpret European Union legislative and supervisory developments, take part in consultations and industry association work where appropriate, and translate their significance for the business proactively
- Draft and negotiate client-facing terms and conditions, taking clear, business-aligned positions
- Act as gatekeeper for European Union outside counsel engagements: scope the work, estimate and manage cost, and sign off before matters go externally
- Mentor and develop more junior lawyers in the team, set quality standards for plain-English, risk-based advice, and act as a senior sounding board for colleagues across the Regulatory Legal team
- Use AI-assisted tools (for example Enterprise GPTs) to speed up regulatory analysis, first drafts and matter tracking, and to build self-service tools that let stakeholders answer commoditised legal and regulatory questions themselves
- Advise on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements affecting products, including the Transfer of Funds Regulation ("Travel Rule") and the new European Union anti-money laundering package, and on market abuse, conduct, outsourcing and operational resilience obligations, including the Digital Operational Resilience Act ("DORA")
- Lead or oversee licensing, authorisation and variation workstreams in the European Union, including scoping requirements, mapping pathways, supervising outside counsel, preparing application materials and managing regulator interactions
WHAT YOU BRING
- Qualified lawyer admitted in Ireland, England and Wales, or another European Union Member State
- 15 or more years' post-qualification experience ("PQE") in financial services regulatory law, gained at a regulated financial services institution (for example a bank, payment institution, broker-dealer, exchange, central counterparty or crypto services provider) or at a leading law firm supporting such clients, ideally with in-house or direct product counselling experience
- Deep, current knowledge of several of the following, with real depth in at least two: MiFID II and MiFIR (investment services, market structure, derivatives and conduct), MiCA (crypto-asset services, custody, trading platforms and stablecoins), European Union payment services and electronic money regulation, and European Union banking regulation
- Demonstrated ability to analyse novel products against overlapping regimes and give a clear view on classification and perimeter, including in areas where the rules are unsettled or supervisors have not yet spoken
- Direct experience managing senior regulator relationships, including notifications, information requests, supervisory correspondence and examinations
- Working knowledge of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, outsourcing and operational resilience obligations, including DORA
- Proven ability to instruct, supervise and manage the cost of outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions
- Outstanding analytical, drafting and organisational skills, with crisp, plain-English writing
- Ability to distill complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyer stakeholders and for senior leadership
- A pragmatic, commercially accountable approach to legal and regulatory risk that gives stakeholders a useful range of options and a clear recommendation
- Experience mentoring or managing lawyers, and the judgement to know when to escalate
- Comfort operating with a high degree of autonomy in a fast-moving, remote environment
- Familiarity with using AI tools such as Enterprise GPTs to increase the efficiency of legal services
NICE TO HAVES
- Experience advising on tokenised securities and the European Union Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime
- Experience with EMIR, including the clearing obligation, margin for non-centrally cleared derivatives and transaction reporting
- Experience with prime brokerage, securities financing, margin lending or institutional custody
- Experience advising on the United Kingdom cryptoasset regime or other non-European Union frameworks that intersect with European Union operations
- Experience supporting regulatory aspects of corporate transactions, such as change-of-control notifications and entity migrations
- Experience with European Union data protection and consumer protection rules as they apply to financial products
- Fluency in a second European language
- An authentic interest in crypto and digital assets, and familiarity with Payward's and competitors' products
Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.
Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.
We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
OUR COMMITMENT
Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.
We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.
As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.
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