Chief Legal Officer

As Chief Legal Officer at United States Secured Exchange, you will build the legal department from the ground up at a compliance-first, privacy-centric blockchain platform that went live on Ethereum mainnet and Base in July 2026. You join as a founding executive and the company's senior legal authority, advising a securities issuer, social platform, digital marketplace, and payments-adjacent service simultaneously. The company is pre-revenue and pre-token sale, and every foundational legal milestone runs through your desk.

What you'll do

• Own securities and capital formation, including the planned private token offering and the company's equity financings.
• Manage financial regulation and compliance, including payments, licensing, KYC and AML, and sanctions.
• Lead platform, content, and privacy law matters, including community standards, content removal obligations, data protection, and consumer terms.
• Direct corporate governance and intellectual property, including board matters and protection of the company's brands.
• Build the legal function from scratch: contracts, policies, outside counsel relationships, and company representation with regulators, partners, and investors.

What you bring

• A J.D. and active bar admission in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 10+ years of practice with substantial hands-on experience in private securities offerings, including Regulation D, Form D, and venture financings.
• Working knowledge of how U.S. securities law applies to digital assets, including the Howey analysis and broker-dealer questions.
• Experience as the senior or sole lawyer at an early-stage company, or as outside counsel advising startups directly.
• A genuine willingness to accept early-stage risk in exchange for ownership.
• The ability to give clear answers rather than memos that avoid a conclusion, and to separate what is known from what is assumed.

Nice to have

• In-house experience at a fintech, digital asset, or online platform company.
• Experience with money transmission, AML, or payments regulation.
• Trust and safety, content moderation, or privacy law experience.
• Comfort working with engineers and understanding what a system does before signing off on it.

What we offer

• Cash compensation (negotiated, may be limited or deferred until funding is secured).
• Founding executive equity with standard vesting.
• Token-based compensation, where offered, subject to definitive agreements, vesting, lockups, and applicable securities laws.
• A real stake in what you help build, with upside through ownership.
• Hybrid to start in Hutchinson, Kansas, then in-person with timing agreed with the right candidate.

About United States Secured Exchange

USSE is a Delaware corporation building a compliance-first, privacy-centric blockchain platform where a user's wallet is their account and identity. The platform, live on Ethereum mainnet and Base since July 2026, includes TheWall social feed, DEEP Mail encrypted messaging, a Media Marketplace with creator royalties, Ticketing, Identity and organizations, gasless actions, and built-in compliance infrastructure with KYC and accreditation verification. More than 80 smart contracts are deployed and 7 billion USSE tokens were minted at launch.