Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Partnerships

OKX•San Jose, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Legal team is a world-class function that provides strategic legal counsel to OKX and its affiliated entities across every coverage area and jurisdiction. We are architects of the legal frameworks that enable OKX to scale responsibly, advising on the regulatory, contractual, and policy dimensions of everything we do. Our attorneys are embedded across the globe, handling matters across hundreds of markets, from established financial centers to emerging crypto-forward jurisdictions. OKX's institutional business is one of the fastest-growing segments of our global platform, serving hundreds of the world's most sophisticated trading firms, funds, and financial institutions. As crypto enters its next phase of institutional adoption, we're looking for a senior legal leader to architect the legal frameworks that will underpin this growth — across custody, trading, prime services, and strategic partnerships — in a regulatory environment that is still being defined. In this role, you will report to OKX's Global Head of Commercial and Marketing Legal, lead a small but mighty global team and own legal coverage for a deal pipeline that spans hundreds of strategic and institutional counterparties and billions in annual notional flow. You will work directly with OKX's executive leadership and have visibility into the company's most strategically significant initiatives. This is a defining leadership role within OKX’s Global Legal function. As Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Institutional Partnerships, you will serve as the senior legal architect for one of OKX’s most strategically important business lines: our institutional trading, custody, and partnership ecosystem. You will be the primary legal authority on all matters touching institutional clients and strategic counterparties, owning the legal relationship from first engagement to executed agreements and ongoing compliance. You will lead a team of talented attorneys and legal operations professionals, serve as a trusted board-level counsellor to senior executives, and partner with product and business teams to bring complex, multi-jurisdictional offerings to market with speed and precision. This is not a reactive, gatekeeping role. We are looking for a commercially-minded lawyer who leans in, shapes strategy, takes ownership, and thrives in a fast-moving environment where legal frameworks are still taking shape alongside the industry itself.

Requirements

Active membership with a U.S. state bar, or equivalent.
10+ years of post-qualification legal experience, with a demonstrable track record at a top-tier law firm and/or in an in-house role at a leading financial institution.
Substantial hands-on expertise in cryptocurrency and digital assets law, including token classification, custody structures, exchange regulation, and DeFi.
Meaningful, deal-level exposure to strategic institutional trading, prime brokerage, custody, or structured products.
Demonstrated experience building, managing, and developing legal teams in a high-velocity, growth-oriented environment.
Exceptional negotiation, written, and oral communication skills, with the judgment and gravitas to advise at the C-suite level.

Nice To Haves

Working knowledge of multiple regulatory regimes most relevant to our business (MiCA, SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, FCA, VARA, FSRA, or equivalent).
Experience closing cross-border institutional agreements under time pressure.
Prior experience designing scalable legal processes, playbooks, and fallback frameworks.

Responsibilities

Serve as the lead legal authority on all strategic institutional partnerships and trading arrangements, including custody, exchange integrations, prime brokerage, staking, co-investments, and alliances.
Advise on complex cross-border transactions, crypto product structuring, and multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance, including token classification and securities law.
Architect the contracting infrastructure, templates, playbooks, and fallback positions, that enables high-volume, high-consistency institutional deal execution.
Own end-to-end legal due diligence on institutional counterparties, and build senior-level relationships with clients, counterparties, and external counsel across the deal lifecycle.
Translate complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, commercially actionable guidance for product, engineering, and executive teams.
Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing, multi-disciplinary legal team while fostering a rigorous, pragmatic, and collaborative culture.