Head of Legal - Crypto (Remote)

**Head of Legal - Regulated Crypto & Payments (remote)** **The Company:** We are representing an established international fintech operating at the intersection of regulated digital assets and traditional payments. The company provides consumer and B2B infrastructure that enables businesses to integrate fiat and digital-asset services, including on- and off-ramp capabilities, accounts, payouts, custody, liquidity and embedded compliance support. Its B2B platform serves regulated financial institutions, payment companies, fintech platforms, digital-asset businesses and other international partners. The organisation operates across multiple regulatory jurisdictions and is entering its next phase of international expansion. The company is now appointing a Head of Legal to provide senior leadership across regulatory, commercial and corporate legal matters. **The Role:** Reporting directly to the CEO, the Head of Legal will lead the existing legal team and become the senior legal decision-maker for the business. This is a highly operational leadership role. The successful candidate will take ownership of regulatory licensing initiatives, manage senior-level interaction with regulators and external counsel, improve the speed and quality of commercial contracting, and establish a more scalable legal operating model. The role requires someone who can combine technical legal depth with commercial judgement. You should be comfortable making decisions, recommending a clear course of action and helping the business move forward within an appropriate risk framework. **Key Responsibilities:** Regulatory and Licensing: - Own the legal interpretation and ongoing obligations arising from the company’s digital-asset and payment-services licences. - Lead or materially own regulatory licence applications, extensions and renewals across European and selected international markets. - Manage legal correspondence and senior-level engagement with financial regulators. - Advise the leadership team on digital-asset regulation, payment-services regulation, custody, safeguarding, financial promotions, governance and cross-border regulatory requirements. - Work closely with Compliance while maintaining clear ownership of legal interpretation, licensing obligations and regulatory correspondence. - Appoint, brief and manage external regulatory counsel across multiple jurisdictions. - Translate complex regulatory requirements into practical actions for Product, Operations, Finance, Compliance and Commercial teams. Commercial and Contractual: - Take ownership of the company’s B2B contracting framework and legal negotiation process. - Draft and negotiate master services agreements, API and technology agreements, white-label agreements, referral arrangements and other strategic commercial contracts. - Support agreements with banks, payment institutions, card and payment partners, liquidity providers, custodians, technology vendors and digital-asset infrastructure providers. - Partner closely with Sales and Partnerships to ensure that legal negotiations support rather than unnecessarily delay commercial activity. - Develop and maintain scalable templates, fallback positions and approval processes. - Maintain consumer terms, privacy documentation and other customer-facing legal materials across relevant jurisdictions. Corporate, Data and General Legal: - Advise on corporate governance, group structure and entity management. - Support senior executive, contractor and cross-border employment arrangements. - Oversee data protection and privacy matters, including data-processing agreements and privacy-by-design considerations. - Advise on intellectual property, technology licensing and brand protection. - Support potential corporate transactions, investments or strategic partnerships where required. Leadership and Legal Operations: - Lead, develop and provide direction to an existing legal team. - Establish a transparent system for prioritising legal requests and managing the contract pipeline. - Build a stronger legal operations framework, including templates, workflows, reporting and contract-management processes. - Manage external counsel relationships and legal expenditure. - Represent Legal in leadership and cross-functional business reviews. - Act as a trusted adviser to the CEO and senior management team. - Convert legal risks into clear business options and provide a recommended position. **First-Year Priorities:** During the first three months, the Head of Legal will be expected to take control of the commercial contract queue, establish clear priorities, assume ownership of key regulatory applications and remove the CEO from routine legal decision-making. Over the following six to twelve months, success will be measured by improved contract turnaround times, consistent senior ownership of regulatory matters, stronger management of external counsel, progress across the licensing roadmap and a legal function that no longer depends on individual key-person knowledge. **Required Experience:** - **Qualified lawyer in an EU, EEA or UK** jurisdiction. - Significant **in-house legal experience** within a regulated cryptocurrency, digital-asset or blockchain business. - Experience gained within a **recognised and appropriately regulated** exchange, crypto infrastructure provider, custodian, on- or off-ramp provider, or comparable digital-asset organisation. - Strong knowledge of European digital-asset regulation, **including MiCA** , CASP or VASP regulatory frameworks. - Meaningful exposure to payment-services regulation, electronic-money regulation, PSD2 or regulated payment infrastructure. - Direct experience leading or materially contributing to regulatory licence applications. - Personal experience managing correspondence or representing a business before a financial regulator. - Strong B2B commercial-contracting capabilities, including the ability to independently draft and negotiate complex technology or financial-services agreements. - Demonstrable experience managing a legal team with direct reports. - Fluent professional and legal English. - **Existing residence and right to work within the EU, EEA or UK** . - Ability to satisfy applicable regulatory fit-and-proper or key-function-holder requirements. **Particularly Relevant Experience:** The following experience would be advantageous: - Previous responsibility as General Counsel, Head of Legal, Legal Director or an equivalent senior legal leader. - Experience with both crypto regulation and EMI or payment-institution licensing. - UK regulatory or cryptoasset authorisation experience. - Post-authorisation implementation of MiCA or equivalent regulatory obligations. - Travel Rule or Transfer of Funds Regulation implementation. - Legal experience involving custody, safeguarding, card schemes or international payment rails. - Experience building or restructuring a legal function within a high-growth fintech. - Experience working closely with Product, Engineering, Compliance and B2B commercial teams. **Personal Profile:** This role will suit a decisive and commercially minded legal leader who is comfortable operating in a fast-moving, owner-led organisation. You should be able to: - Give a clear recommendation rather than simply present legal risks. - Operate autonomously and take ownership of outcomes. - Balance regulatory protection with commercial progress. - Communicate directly and confidently with senior executives, regulators and counterparties. - Create structure in an environment where processes are still developing. - Remain composed and effective when challenged. - Work hands-on rather than relying extensively on external advisers or large support teams. **Location:** Remote within Europe. **Reporting to:** Chief Executive Officer. **Remuneration:** €80.000 to €120,000 gross base, plus bonus. **Contract:** Employment or B2B structure, depending on location. This is an opportunity to lead a strategically important legal function within an established international fintech and play a central role in its regulatory and commercial expansion.