Senior Counsel - Product

Kraken

3d • Remote

About The Position

Payward, the parent company behind Kraken and other financial infrastructure platforms, is seeking a Senior Counsel for its Product Legal team. This role is embedded with Kraken's Product, Design, and Engineering teams to develop and launch new products and experiences that promote crypto adoption and support global licensing initiatives. The team consists of experienced product lawyers with diverse backgrounds in traditional finance, fintech, and crypto. They operate quickly, remain curious, and provide commercially accountable advice. The Senior Counsel will focus on both product development and licensing efforts across various jurisdictions and cutting-edge products like tokenized equities, margin, institutional custody, prime brokerage, financing, and OTC. The ideal candidate is a hands-on lawyer with strong licensing experience, product development acumen, regulatory fluency, negotiation skills (preferably in regulated financial services), and a crypto-forward mindset. Curiosity, flexibility, and a proactive approach at the intersection of crypto and traditional global markets are essential. This is a fully remote role.

Requirements

• Qualified lawyer (Solicitor/Barrister of England & Wales, Irish Solicitor/Barrister, or equivalent admitted in an EU Member State).
• 10+ years’ PQE in financial services law within a regulated financial services institution (e.g., an exchange, central clearing counterparty, broker-dealer/asset manager, trading firm, bank, brokerage, or crypto services provider) or in a law firm/private practice supporting such clients (ideally with some in-house or direct product counseling experience).
• Experience with advising on regulated MiFID investment services and familiarity with relevant crypto-asset regimes, including MiCA, AMLD5, UK financial promotions, and/or e-money regulations.
• Demonstrated experience leading licensing or registration efforts, including planning, applications, regulator engagement, and operationalization.
• Outstanding analytical, drafting, and organisational skills with crisp, plain-English writing.
• Ability to efficiently and confidently distill complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyers and product stakeholders.
• Pragmatic, commercially accountable approach to legal and regulatory risk that prioritises providing stakeholders with a useful range of options and delivers clear recommendations to decision-makers.
• Demonstrates an authentic passion for crypto and familiarity with the features of both Kraken and its competitors’ apps and products.

Nice To Haves

• Expertise in MiCA framework applicable to CASPs including brokerage, custody and the operation of trading platforms.
• Expertise in EMIR including the clearing obligation, regulatory margin for non-centrally cleared derivatives and transaction reporting, desirable.
• Familiarity with using AI tools such as Enterprise GPTs to increase efficient provision of legal services, create custom GPTs allowing stakeholders to self-serve on commoditised legal and regulatory queries.

Responsibilities

• Own cross-functional product counseling across the build cycle (discovery → design → launch → iteration), delivering crisp, actionable guidance and risk-based options to product, engineering, compliance, and leadership.
• Translate complex regulatory frameworks (with a focus on MiFID, EMIR, derivatives, and market structure) into pragmatic controls and go-to-market guardrails.
• Draft and negotiate client terms and conditions with clear, business-aligned positions.
• Lead licensing/registration workstreams: scope requirements, map pathways, coordinate outside counsel, compile application materials, and manage regulator interactions.
• Support incident and supervisory responses with well-reasoned written submissions and evidence packages.
• Foster a culture of clarity, favoring plain-English communication, measurable risk tradeoffs, and decision-ready recommendations.

What This Job Offers

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