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.
Before you apply, we encourage you to explore our culture page https://www.kraken.com/culture to understand what drives us and how we work.
THE TEAM
Derivatives and Trading products sit in one of the most heavily regulated and fastest-moving parts of Payward's regulatory perimeter, and the estate is still expanding across a US venue and clearing stack, a UK venue, EEA distribution and a Bermuda entity. Today that work is owned in fragments. This is a net-new, function-owning role created to put global derivatives structuring strategy to a single senior owner. This DGC will be responsible for the global suite of derivatives products as well as Payward’s trading products.
Products. Futures and options across the group, and margin in the US, and a set of trading products, including but not limited to leveraged and liquidity products, prediction markets, indices and market data, evaluation-based trading services and structured yield. The DGC will help define the delineation of these products between the new function and the existing Product Legal team.
Entities and regulators. A US venue and clearing stack (FCM/NFA, DCM, DCO), a UK FCA-authorised derivatives venue, EEA derivatives distribution under CySEC permissions, and a Bermuda DABA entity serving the rest of world and others. The general counsel of our acquired US futures brokerage (NinjaTrader) reports into this function.
Team. Senior derivatives and trading counsel across the US, UK and EEA, with the function set to grow, and the general counsel of the acquired US futures brokerage.
THE OPPORTUNITY
- Own global derivatives structuring strategy — product structure, venue and entity architecture, clearing models, and how a single coherent derivatives offering is delivered to clients across several separately licensed entities.
- Together with Payward’s Regulatory Legal team, solve the cross-entity problems that sit in no single product — hub-and-spoke architecture, unified balances, cross-margining, and where risk and client relationships actually sit across the group. These are the hardest questions we answer.
- Be the named senior legal owner for the derivatives and trading product lines, wired into the product launch process from the start rather than consulted at the end, and the single senior route into Legal for derivatives and trading.
- Lead and build the team — hire, level and develop senior derivatives counsel across jurisdictions, and build depth and succession into a function that is currently thin at the top.
- Partner with Global Policy and Government Relations as the senior legal counterpart for derivatives regulatory engagement with the CFTC, NFA, FCA, BMA, CySEC and others, pre-socialising positions with regulators and internal leadership before they land, not after.
- Support the supervised estates that carry derivatives permissions, working with Regulatory Legal on continuous supervisory relationships and on new permissions and variations tied to product launches.
- Bring structuring judgement in-house, and direct external counsel where genuinely specialist input is required.
- Additional duties and responsibilities as assigned
WHAT YOU BRING
- Attorney admitted to practice in the US, or qualified lawyer (Solicitor/Barrister of England & Wales, Irish Solicitor/Barrister, or equivalent admitted in an EU Member State).
- 18+ years’ post-qualification experience (PQE) in financial services regulatory law gained at a regulated financial services institution, major liquidity provider or in a law firm/private practice supporting such clients, with demonstrated ability to independently own BAU regulatory workstreams.
- Experience supporting regulator engagement (e.g., with the CFTC, NFA, FCA, Cysec, or an equivalent EU competent authority), including notifications, information requests, and supervisory correspondence.
- Substantial senior in-house or equivalent experience in derivatives legal, with demonstrated ownership of structuring strategy rather than transactional execution alone.
- Deep, expert-level command of at least one of the following derivatives regulatory regimes — US (CFTC, NFA; FCM, DCM and DCO structures), UK (FCA), EEA, or an offshore regime (e.g., Bermuda) — together with a high degree of fluency in at least one other. No single regime is treated as the required one; what matters is genuine mastery of one and strong working command of a second.
- Direct experience with virtual asset markets. This combination is scarce and it is the core of the role.
- Experience structuring a product offering across multiple licensed entities in different jurisdictions, and holding a view on where activity, risk and the client relationship should sit.
- A track record of building or materially scaling a legal function or team, including hiring, levelling and succession.
- The range to operate at function level, setting strategy for the function as a whole, organising it to stay ahead of the regulatory perimeter, and holding senior lawyers to account for results and behaviour, not only for output.
- Credibility with regulators and the judgement to take positions in front of them.
- Comfort operating as the senior legal voice in a fast-moving, product-led business where the regulatory perimeter changes underneath you, and comfort staying close to the work rather than managing at a distance.
NICE TO HAVES
- Exposure to prediction markets, margin lending, or tokenized and structured products.
- Experience integrating acquired regulated entities, and their legal teams, into a group legal function.
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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