Senior Contracts Counsel – Web3

As Senior Contracts Counsel at Zama, you will be the go-to expert for reviewing, redlining, and negotiating the contracts that power the Zama Protocol. Reporting directly to the General Counsel and working alongside the Senior Legal Counsel, you will partner daily with business development, ecosystem, engineering, finance, and operations teams across Zama SAS (France), Zama Switzerland, and Vesting Labs UK. This role is ideal for a sharp, business-minded contract lawyer who loves negotiating, moves fast without losing rigor, and is excited to shape the market standards of a still-emerging industry.

What you'll do

• Review, redline, and negotiate a high volume of DeFi, web3, and commercial agreements, including custody, vault and wallet agreements, market maker agreements, listing agreements, Infrastructure Services Agreements, protocol integration and services agreements, master services agreements, loan agreements, partnership and collaboration agreements, incentive and grant programs, node operator agreements, MoUs, letters of intent, NDAs and side letters
• Draft and maintain product-facing legal documentation, including bug bounty terms, general terms and conditions for apps and products, and privacy notices
• Lead negotiations directly with counterparties and their counsel, translate legal risk into clear pragmatic options for the business team, and close deals within tight timelines
• Design creative, innovative structures for commercial deals and draft bespoke agreements under Swiss law, English law, and New York law, where market standards are not yet established
• Understand the compliance constraints arising from the decentralized nature of the Zama Protocol and ensure this is accurately reflected in agreements with partners, including clarity on Zama's role versus the protocol, control, liability, and representations
• Embed compliance into contracts: KYC/KYB, AML/CFT, sanctions, counterparty due diligence, MiCA and Swiss regulatory (FINMA/AMLA) considerations, export control, and token-related risks
• Manage several files in parallel, triage incoming requests, and keep stakeholders aligned on priorities, status, and risk positions
• Build and maintain contract templates, negotiation playbooks, standard and fallback positions, clause libraries, and a register of key commitments and renewal dates
• Leverage AI-assisted review and legal tech tools to accelerate turnaround while keeping a rigorous human-in-the-loop approach
• Collaborate with external counsel across jurisdictions when needed and support the General Counsel on strategic transactions
• Stay abreast of the latest legal, regulatory, and market developments in DeFi, web3, digital asset custody, and privacy technologies

What you bring

• Master's degree in law and admission to practice in a European jurisdiction or in Switzerland, or equivalent senior legal experience
• 8+ years of confirmed experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial agreements in a leading law firm and/or in-house
• Proven, hands-on experience with web3 and DeFi contracts (e.g. custody and wallet, market making, listings, infrastructure services, protocol integrations, token loans, token incentive or grant programs) at a crypto company, custodian, exchange, foundation, or a law firm advising them
• Knowledge of cryptocurrency and digital asset markets
• Strong command of Anglo-Saxon contract drafting and negotiation, including English law and New York law-style agreements
• Full professional fluency in written and spoken English (the company's working language)
• Confirmed experience working in a deeply international, fast-changing, high-growth environment
• Creativity and a proven ability to propose innovative solutions to structure commercial deals
• A proactive, entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to juggle multiple negotiations in parallel and thrive where priorities shift quickly and there is often no precedent to lean on
• An opportunity-making attitude: you use the law to expand the company's options, not to narrow them

Nice to have

• Fluency in French (headquarters are in Paris); bilingual French-English profiles are highly appreciated
• Admission to practice in the United States (e.g. New York)
• Experience at a crypto custodian, exchange, infrastructure provider, or foundation, and familiarity with token documentation (token warrants, SAFTs, grants, market making)
• Knowledge and practice of Swiss contract law
• Practical knowledge of compliance topics as they apply to contracts: KYC/KYB, AML/CFT, sanctions, MiCA and Swiss financial regulation, including a solid understanding of the legal and compliance implications of decentralized protocols
• Hands-on use of AI-assisted contract review and other legal tech tools
• Knowledge of European and Swiss data protection law (GDPR, Swiss FADP) and experience with data processing terms (DPAs) and privacy notices
• Technical curiosity for smart contracts and familiarity with open-source licensing
• Track record of building contract templates and negotiation matrices from scratch
• Rigorous and detail-oriented approach while remaining pragmatic, solution-focused, and comfortable with calculated risk
• Confident negotiator with excellent judgment and the ability to say yes and here's how rather than simply no
• Autonomous and highly organized, able to get up to speed quickly and deliver under pressure in a fast-moving environment
• Clear and concise communicator, able to explain complex legal points to non-lawyers with clarity and brevity
• Strong discretion in handling confidential and sensitive information
• Genuine interest in web3, privacy technologies, and the deep tech start-up ecosystem

About Zama

Zama is an open-source cryptography company building state-of-the-art FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption) solutions for blockchain. By enabling efficient, developer-friendly FHE, Zama unlocks secure, compliant, and verifiable dApps for AI, crypto, and cloud. The company is remote-friendly with headquarters in Paris.