Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Partnerships

OKX•New York, NY

2h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Legal team at OKX provides strategic legal counsel across all coverage areas and jurisdictions, building legal frameworks for responsible scaling and advising on regulatory, contractual, and policy matters globally. OKX's 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 landscape. This leadership position, reporting to the Global Head of Commercial and Marketing Legal, involves leading a global team and overseeing legal coverage for a significant deal pipeline with strategic and institutional counterparties. The Deputy General Counsel will be the primary legal authority for institutional clients and strategic counterparties, managing legal relationships from initial engagement through executed agreements and ongoing compliance. The role requires leading a team, advising senior executives, and collaborating with product and business teams to launch complex, multi-jurisdictional offerings efficiently. It is a proactive, commercially-minded role focused on shaping strategy and taking ownership in a fast-paced 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.