Senior Legal Counsel - Product & Commercial

As Senior Legal Counsel for Product & Commercial at BVNK, you'll be a strategic advisor embedded across all teams at a next-generation payments platform bridging traditional and digital finance. You'll help shape new products, advise on legal risks, and lead negotiations on market-leading partnerships while working with teams across the UK, EU, South Africa, and APAC. Based in the UK or Malta office, you'll combine financial services law expertise (payments, blockchain, and digital assets) with strong commercial contracting skills to support BVNK's hyper-growth phase.

What you'll do

• Partner with global teams across BVNK and Mastercard to advise on financial services requirements, payments, outsourcing, data privacy, intellectual property, employment law, financial crime matters, disputes, litigation, and corporate governance.
• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements including service contracts, outsourcing agreements, SaaS agreements, and complex transaction documentation.
• Review marketing materials to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory standards, protect intellectual property, include necessary disclosures, mitigate risks, and align with company policies.
• Assess legal risks and propose innovative solutions; constructively challenge business decisions from a legal perspective.
• Work with the Legal Team and Mastercard legal team to support BVNK's global business-as-usual activities and legal operations.
• Conduct legal research and stay current on laws and regulations covering cryptocurrency, payments, and related areas, anticipating legal and commercial risks to advise the business accordingly.
• Develop and apply understanding of cryptocurrency and fintech legal frameworks, with a strong interest in learning about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

What you bring

• 7+ years of experience as a qualified lawyer in an in-house legal team, top law firm, or government agency.
• Familiarity with UK and EU financial services laws and regulations, including payments and ideally blockchain and digital assets.
• Strong experience negotiating and drafting agreements with customers, partners, and suppliers, including complex payment services-related agreements.
• Experience with intra-group matters such as intra-group outsourcing and corporate law advice; experience with corporate governance, employment matters, disputes, and litigation is ideal but not mandatory.
• A highly collaborative, inquisitive, and solutions-oriented approach, ideally with prior experience advising on product development at fast-moving technology companies.
• Bias towards action and impact; you can roll up your sleeves and get things done regardless of task size.
• Exceptional verbal and interpersonal communication skills; you build strong relationships with colleagues and stakeholders and can simplify legal concepts into easy-to-understand language.
• Genuine curiosity and passion for your work; you thrive in a dynamic working environment.
• Humility with low ego; you have a strong desire to grow, learn, and support your teammates.

What we offer

• Competitive salary at every stage of your growth
• Meaningful ownership in the business through an employee option scheme
• Flexible working hours with hybrid working at its heart
• A culture built on growth-minded people
• Flexible approach to holiday
• Opportunities to travel to offices around the world, including London and Cape Town, to collaborate with colleagues
• An open and creative environment where you can help define the future of BVNK, its culture, and its opportunity sets

About BVNK

BVNK is a next-generation payments platform that bridges traditional and digital finance to make payments borderless, instant, and secure. Businesses use the platform to send and receive payments on all major schemes and blockchain networks, incorporate stablecoins into payment flows, and settle funds in over 30 markets. The diverse team spans the UK, Europe, South Africa, and APAC, backed by a recent Series A funding round, and has been recognised on Newsweek's list of the top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024).