Senior Counsel - Product (UK & EU)

As a Senior Counsel in the Product Legal team at Ink Foundation (Payward), you'll partner with Kraken's Product, Design, and Engineering teams to shape and ship novel consumer products. You'll advise on cutting-edge consumer offerings including crypto trading, earn, payments, on-chain integrations, equities, and tokenised equities, working directly with non-legal stakeholders to chart clear, defensible paths to launch. This is a fully remote role for a qualified solicitor in the UK or admitted in an EU jurisdiction, reporting to the Head of Consumer Legal.

What you'll do

• Partner shoulder-to-shoulder with Product, Design, and Engineering teams to advise on novel consumer products and experiences from concept through launch
• Distil complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyers and product stakeholders
• Advise on regulated financial services including MiFID investment services, crypto-asset regimes (MiCA, AMLD5), UK financial promotions, and e-money regulations
• Provide pragmatic, commercially accountable risk assessment with a useful range of options and clear recommendations for decision-makers
• Negotiate with internal and external partners to advance product launches

What you bring

• Qualified lawyer: Solicitor of England and Wales, Irish Solicitor, or equivalent admitted in an EU Member State
• 5+ years' Post Qualification Experience (PQE) in financial services law gained at a regulated financial services firm, crypto services provider, or in private practice, ideally with direct product counselling experience
• Experience advising on regulated MiFID investment services and familiarity with relevant crypto-asset regimes including MiCA, AMLD5, UK financial promotions, and/or e-money regulations
• Outstanding analytical, drafting, and organisational skills with clear, plain-English writing
• Ability to efficiently translate complex legal and regulatory issues into actionable guidance for non-lawyers
• Pragmatic, commercially accountable approach to legal and regulatory risk that prioritises delivering useful options and clear recommendations
• Authentic passion for crypto and familiarity with Kraken and competitor apps and products

Nice to have

• Expertise in the MiCA framework applicable to CASPs (cryptocurrency asset service providers) including brokerage, custody, and the operation of trading platforms
• Expertise in the UK crypto-asset financial promotions regime and proposals for incoming authorisation regimes for regulating crypto asset service providers
• Expertise in MiFID frameworks applicable to investment services including derivatives, equities, funds, and emerging tokenised financial instruments
• Familiarity with using AI tools such as Enterprise GPTs to increase efficient provision of legal services and create self-serve resources for stakeholders on commoditised legal and regulatory queries

About Ink Foundation

Ink Foundation is part of Payward, the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks. Kraken, founded in 2011, is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally, offering spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services.