Senior Counsel - Product

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF OPEN FINANCE Payward - the parent company behind Kraken NinjaTrader Breakout xStocks Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry built to advance an open global financial system.

Before you apply we encourage you to explore our culture page https://www.kraken.com/culture to understand what drives us and how we work.

THE TEAM Founded in 2011 Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions across the globe.

It offers spot trading margin futures staking and OTC services with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.

Join our growing Product Legal team embedded with Kraken’s Product Design and Engineering teams to ship novel products and experiences that accelerate the global adoption of crypto and advance key global licensing initiatives.

We’re a tight experienced group of product lawyers from a diverse range of tradfi fintech and crypto backgrounds who move fast stay curious and take pride in the commercial accountability of our advice - partnering directly with product teams to chart clear defensible paths to launch.

The Senior Counsel role is based in the UK or EU partnering on licensing efforts in the UK EU and various other jurisdictions and cutting edge products including tokenized equities margin institutional custody prime brokerage financing OTC.

You will operate as a practical legal generalist with a dual focus: 1.

Product — partnering with cross‑functional teams on consumer institutional and market products (e.g. tokenized instruments margin institutional custody prime brokerage financing OTC) from ideation through launch and lifecycle; and 2.

Licensing — driving strategy scoping and execution of licensing/registration efforts across priority jurisdictions.

We’re looking for a hands-on lawyer with strong licensing experience product development instincts regulatory fluency and negotiation skills (ideally honed in the regulated financial sector) combined with a crypto-forward mindset.

Curiosity flexibility and a bias for action at the intersection of crypto and traditional global markets are essential.

This is a fully remote role THE OPPORTUNITY - 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 YOU'LL DO - 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.

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age date of birth or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

OUR COMMITMENT Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents backgrounds contributions and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table.

We hire based on merit seeking out people with the right abilities knowledge and skills for the job.

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.

These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions.

Results are considered alongside experience and interviews and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

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.

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