Deputy General Counsel, Strategic Partnerships

San Jose, California, United States•San Jose, United States (US)

Remote

Senior

Full Time

6 days ago

💰$240,000 - $360,000

cryptolegalseniorleadershipinstitutionalstrategic partnerships

Requirements

•Active membership with a U.S. state bar, or equivalent.
•10+ years of post-qualification legal experience, with a demonstrable track record at a top-tier law firm and/or in an in-house role at a leading financial institution.
•Substantial hands-on expertise in cryptocurrency and digital assets law, including token classification, custody structures, exchange regulation, and DeFi.
•Meaningful, deal-level exposure to strategic institutional trading, prime brokerage, custody, or structured products.
•Demonstrated experience building, managing, and developing legal teams in a high-velocity, growth-oriented environment.
•Exceptional negotiation, written, and oral communication skills, with the judgment and gravitas to advise at the C-suite level.

•Serve as the lead legal authority on all strategic institutional partnerships and trading arrangements, including custody, exchange integrations, prime brokerage, staking, co-investments, and alliances.
•Advise on complex cross-border transactions, crypto product structuring, and multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance, including token classification and securities law.
•Architect the contracting infrastructure, templates, playbooks, and fallback positions, that enables high-volume, high-consistency institutional deal execution.
•Own end-to-end legal due diligence on institutional counterparties, and build senior-level relationships with clients, counterparties, and external counsel across the deal lifecycle.
•Translate complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, commercially actionable guidance for product, engineering, and executive teams.
•Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing, multi-disciplinary legal team while fostering a rigorous, pragmatic, and collaborative culture.

•Working knowledge of multiple regulatory regimes most relevant to our business (MiCA, SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, FCA, VARA, FSRA, or equivalent).
•Experience closing cross-border institutional agreements under time pressure.
•Prior experience designing scalable legal processes, playbooks, and fallback frameworks.