Deputy General Counsel - Global Head of Derivatives and Trading Legal

Kraken

1d • $232,100 - $517,000

About The Position

Payward, the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks, is seeking a Deputy General Counsel - Global Head of Derivatives and Trading Legal. 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. The role involves owning global derivatives structuring strategy, solving cross-entity problems, being the named senior legal owner for derivatives and trading product lines, leading and building the team, partnering with Global Policy and Government Relations for regulatory engagement, and supporting supervised estates that carry derivatives permissions. The DGC will bring structuring judgment in-house and direct external counsel when specialist input is required. Additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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

Benefits

• 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.
• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed