Legal Counsel

About us:

BVNK provides modern payment infrastructure for businesses. We unify banks and blockchains in a single platform. With BVNK, businesses can send and receive stablecoin payments, convert between currencies, and add stablecoin payments to their checkout. Using our flexible platform, and robust global licensing and compliance expertise, innovators can launch new payment products quickly and compliantly.

We are a diverse team spread across the UK, Europe, South Africa, the US, and APAC, with a shared belief that all payment flows will interact with crypto in the coming decade, and BVNK will be at the forefront of this transformation of the financial system. We have raised $50M in Series B funding from top investors including Haun Ventures, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures, and we're looking for smart, ambitious people to help us build the next generation of payments. 

We're incredibly honored to have made Newsweek's list of The Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces 2 years running (2023 and 2024) and to have been recognized by LinkedIn as one of the Top 20 Startups in the UK in 2024.

About this role in the team:

We’re looking for a fast-learning and well-rounded Lawyer, based out of our Cape Town office, with familiarity in payments and financial services law to help us continue to drive innovation and accelerate our hyper growth. In this role, you’ll be a deeply embedded and strategic advisor to all of the teams across BVNK, including Product, Engineering, Compliance, Regulatory, Banking, Marketing, Finance and HR. In addition, you’ll help shape and build new products and work on exciting market leading partnerships and embedded propositions by providing strategic advice and taking the lead on the drafting and negotiations that follow.

Key Areas of Responsibilities:

• Partner closely with all global teams (e.g. compliance, finance, and product) across BVNK, including UK, EU, South Africa, Singapore and San Francisco, to advise on a range of issues including financial services requirements, payments, outsourcing, data privacy, intellectual property, employment laws, BAU financial crime matters, disputes and litigation and corporate governance.
• Assist in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements, including service contracts, outsourcing agreements, SaaS agreements, and other documentation involving complex transactions.
• Reviewing of marketing materials to ensure they are accurate, compliant with legal and regulatory standards, protect intellectual property, include necessary disclosures, mitigate risks, and align with company policies.
• Assess and advise on legal risks, propose innovative and effective legal solutions to problems, ability to constructively challenge business decisions from a legal perspective.
• Work closely with other members of the Legal Team to support BVNK’s global BAU activities and legal operations function.
• Work closely with the General Counsel to manage the legal function, assist on any future M&A activity and funding activities, and to help build scalable and effective processes for general legal activities and for the review and launch of new products and services. 
• Conduct legal research and stay up-to-date on applicable laws and regulations dealing with cryptocurrency, payments, and other relevant areas, anticipating legal and commercial risks and advising and assisting the business to prepare for them.
• Good understanding of cryptocurrency and fintech legal frameworks, or a strong interest in learning about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

What we need from you:

• You’ll have 3+ years of experience as a qualified lawyer in an in-house legal team, top law firm and/or government agency. 
• You’ll have familiarity with UK and/or EU payments and financial services laws and regulations (such as the Payment Services Regulation or the Second Payment Services Directive). 
• You’ll have strong and extensive experience in negotiating and drafting agreements with customers, partners and suppliers, including payment services related agreements.
• You’ll have experience in intra-group matters such as intra-group outsourcing and advising on corporate law matters. Experience with corporate governance, employment matters and disputes and litigation is ideal but not mandatory.
• You’re highly collaborative, inquisitive, and solutions-oriented, ideally with prior experience advising on product development at fast-moving technology companies. 
• You’re biased towards action and impact, and no task is too big or too small for you; you can roll up your sleeves and get things done. 
• You have exceptional verbal and interpersonal communication skills, can build strong relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, and can simplify legal concepts and communicate them in easy-to-understand language. 
• You exhibit genuine curiosity, are passionate about your work, and enjoy a fast-paced working environment. 
• You’re humble with low-ego, have a strong desire to grow and learn, and have a deep commitment to your teammates. 

What you can expect from us:

• Fair and competitive salary at every stage of your growth
• Meaningful ownership in the business through our employee option scheme
• Flexible working hours, with hybrid working at its heart
• A culture built on passionate growth-minded people
• A flexible approach to holiday
• Opportunities to travel to our offices around the world
• An open and creative environment where you can help us define the future of BVNK, its culture, and its opportunity sets

At BVNK, we are focused on building a diverse and inclusive team. While you may not meet all of our requirements, we’d encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of our expectations. You may be a great fit for this role or another role in our team.