Deputy General Counsel - Global Head of Derivatives and Trading Legal

As Deputy General Counsel and Global Head of Derivatives and Trading Legal at Payward (the parent company of Kraken, NinjaTrader, and other financial platforms), you own global derivatives structuring strategy across a complex, multi-jurisdictional regulated estate. You serve as the single senior legal owner for derivatives and trading product lines, partnering with Regulatory Legal to solve cross-entity architecture problems and leading engagement with regulators including the CFTC, NFA, FCA, BMA, and CySEC.

What you'll do

• Own global derivatives structuring strategy, including product structure, venue and entity architecture, clearing models, and how a coherent derivatives offering is delivered across multiple separately licensed entities.
• Work with Payward's Regulatory Legal team to solve cross-entity problems that span no single product, such as hub-and-spoke architecture, unified balances, cross-margining, and where risk and client relationships sit across the group.
• Be the named senior legal owner for derivatives and trading product lines, integrated into the product launch process from inception and serving as the single senior route into Legal for these businesses.
• Lead and build the team, hiring, levelling and developing senior derivatives counsel across jurisdictions and building depth and succession into the function.
• Partner with Global Policy and Government Relations as the senior legal counterpart for derivatives regulatory engagement, pre-socialising positions with regulators and internal leadership before they land.
• Support the supervised estates carrying derivatives permissions, working with Regulatory Legal on continuous supervisory relationships and on new permissions and variations tied to product launches.
• Bring structuring judgement in-house and direct external counsel where genuinely specialist input is required.

What you bring

• Attorney admitted to practice in the US, or qualified lawyer (Solicitor/Barrister of England and Wales, Irish Solicitor/Barrister, or equivalent admitted in an EU Member State).
• 18+ years post-qualification experience in financial services regulatory law gained at a regulated financial services institution, major liquidity provider, or law firm supporting such clients, with demonstrated ability to independently own business-as-usual regulatory workstreams.
• Experience supporting regulator engagement (CFTC, NFA, FCA, CySEC, or equivalent EU competent authority), including notifications, information requests, and supervisory correspondence.
• Substantial senior in-house or equivalent experience in derivatives legal, with demonstrated ownership of structuring strategy rather than transactional execution alone.
• Deep, expert-level command of at least one of the following derivatives regulatory regimes (US structures including FCM, DCM and DCO; UK FCA; EEA; or offshore regimes such as Bermuda), together with a high degree of fluency in at least one other.
• Direct experience with virtual asset markets.
• Experience structuring a product offering across multiple licensed entities in different jurisdictions, with a view on where activity, risk and the client relationship should sit.
• A track record of building or materially scaling a legal function or team, including hiring, levelling and succession.
• The range to operate at function level, setting strategy for the function as a whole, organising it to stay ahead of the regulatory perimeter, and holding senior lawyers accountable for results and behaviour.
• Credibility with regulators and the judgement to take positions in front of them.
• Comfort operating as the senior legal voice in a fast-moving, product-led business where the regulatory perimeter changes, and comfort staying close to the work rather than managing at a distance.

Nice to have

• Exposure to prediction markets, margin lending, or tokenized and structured products.
• Experience integrating acquired regulated entities and their legal teams into a group legal function.

About Payward

Payward is the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks. Over 15 years, Payward has built one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, serving to advance an open, global financial system.