With the evolving landscape of digital threats and an increasing volume of sophisticated attacks by malicious actors, we have a security policy mandating all new hires complete an in-person onboarding process - no exceptions. Security is our foundation and we prioritize physical identity verification and secure IT setup. While our security and IT logistics require physical presence to protect our infrastructure from sophisticated global threats, this move is equally about our Village culture. We believe that a laptop can be shipped, but our culture cannot.
We are seeking a proactive Legal Counsel with a builder’s mindset to join our Trading Solutions team as an integral partner in bringing new products and features to the institutional market. You will be embedded directly from product discovery through launch, providing strategic legal guidance, conducting critical research, establishing policies, and ensuring full regulatory compliance across market infrastructure such as crypto trading venues, prime brokers, custodians, and payment rails.
In this role, you will lead the structuring, drafting, and negotiation of key counterparty agreements, including electronic trading, derivatives, and financing arrangements, while coordinating across internal teams and managing external counsel. Beyond transaction execution, you will serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, delivering strategic counsel on complex regulatory frameworks, reputational risks, and ongoing compliance obligations.
We have created the Factors of Growth & Impact to help Villagers better measure impact and articulate coaching, feedback, and the rich and rewarding learning that happens while exploring, developing, and mastering the capabilities and contributions within and outside of this role:
Technical Skills:
- Strong understanding of the laws and regulation applicable to spot, margin, derivatives, platform trading and prime brokerage for digital assets.
- Able to create, draft, negotiate a wide range of agreements, including digital asset trading agreements, prime brokerage agreements, collateral agreements, margin agreements, loan agreements, settlement terms, ISDAs, confirmations, master confirmations, disclosures, risk factors and more.
Complexity and Impact of Work:
- Work closely with the Associate General Counsel for trading solutions, business heads and their teams to grow the trading solutions business.
- Develop and manage contract templates, partner with Compliance to develop guidelines, policies and procedures playbooks and staff training.
- Drive work independently while leading medium-to-large projects and processes.
Organizational Knowledge:
- Strong understanding of various market infrastructure, including direct knowledge on crypto trading venues, prime brokers, custodians, and payments rails.
- Able to convey relevant legal issues to internal stakeholders to ensure that knowledge is shared across the appropriate teams.
- Able to prioritize work based on company’s goals and communicate the ‘why’ behind your work.
Communication and Influence:
- Build a close relationship with the trading solutions team, legal and compliance team to collaborate closely, resolve legal issues, structure complex agreements, and improve efficiency.
- Strong communication skills, both internally and externally.
- Ability to be client facing while working with cross-functional team on multiple projects internally.
You may be a fit for this role if:
- You are highly organized with a bias for action, meticulous attention to detail and ability to produce quality work in a fast paced, high volume work environment;
- You have an understanding of the regulatory frameworks, existing and proposed, that pertain to various digital assets business models. Ability to apply traditional financial legal concepts to the digital asset space to solution for institutional clients’ complex business needs
- You have 8+ years of transactional experience in reviewing various financial transaction agreements, primarily, lending agreements, prime brokerage agreements, ISDA/CSA and trade confirmations.
- You’re experienced working in a face paced start up / early stage company - Highly motivated, self starter who takes initiative, with a positive attitude and willingness to take on any task (nothing is too big or too small)
- You can think creatively and propose commercial and pragmatic solutions.
- JD preferred
Although not a requirement, bonus points if:
- You were emotionally moved by the soundtrack to Hamilton, which chronicles the founding of a new financial system. :)
