Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Partnerships

OKX•San Jose, CA

2h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Legal team at OKX provides strategic legal counsel across every coverage area and jurisdiction, building legal frameworks for responsible scaling and advising on regulatory, contractual, and policy matters globally. The institutional business is a rapidly growing segment, and this role seeks a senior legal leader to develop legal frameworks for its growth in custody, trading, prime services, and strategic partnerships within an evolving regulatory environment. In this leadership role, the Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Institutional Partnerships, will report to OKX's Global Head of Commercial and Marketing Legal and lead a global team. This position involves owning legal coverage for a deal pipeline involving hundreds of strategic and institutional counterparties and billions in annual notional flow. The successful candidate will work directly with executive leadership, have visibility into strategically significant initiatives, and serve as the senior legal architect for OKX’s institutional trading, custody, and partnership ecosystem. This role requires being the primary legal authority on institutional client and strategic counterparty matters, from engagement to executed agreements and ongoing compliance. The Deputy General Counsel will lead a team, advise senior executives, and collaborate with product and business teams to launch complex, multi-jurisdictional offerings. This is a proactive, commercially-minded role that requires shaping strategy, taking ownership, and thriving in a fast-moving environment where legal frameworks are still developing.

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.