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Kraken, one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms founded in 2011, is seeking an Assistant General Counsel to join its Product and Regulatory Legal team embedded with Product, Design, and Engineering. This is a senior product-facing legal role focused on the European Union, reporting to the Head of Product Legal.
You will act as a senior legal adviser to European leadership on new products, licensing structures, and regulatory strategy. Key responsibilities include:
- Own cross-functional product counselling for EU launches from discovery through design, launch, and iteration, providing decision-ready advice with clear options and risk trade-offs to Product, Engineering, Compliance, and leadership
- Advise on regulatory classification and perimeter of new offerings across MiFID II/MiFIR, MiCA, EMIR, payment services, electronic money rules, and banking regulation, including complex cross-regime scenarios (e.g., tokenised securities, crypto-asset derivatives, margin financing, stablecoin products)
- Counsel on payments and electronic money offerings, including the Kraken card, account propositions, safeguarding, open banking, and emerging PSD3/PSR frameworks
- Address banking-related questions including bank partnerships, sponsor-bank arrangements, deposit-taking, lending perimeter, CRR/CRD interactions, and custody/prime brokerage/financing products
- Monitor and interpret EU legislative and supervisory developments, participate in consultations and industry association work, and proactively translate significance for the business
- Draft and negotiate client-facing terms and conditions with clear, business-aligned positions
- Act as gatekeeper for EU outside counsel engagements: scope work, estimate and manage costs, and approve before external engagement
- Mentor and develop junior lawyers, set quality standards for plain-English risk-based advice, and serve as senior sounding board for Regulatory Legal colleagues
- Leverage AI-assisted tools (e.g., Enterprise GPTs) to accelerate regulatory analysis, drafting, and matter tracking; build self-service tools for stakeholders
- Advise on AML/CFT requirements affecting products, including Travel Rule and the new EU AML package; address market abuse, conduct, outsourcing, and operational resilience obligations including DORA
- Lead or oversee EU licensing, authorisation, and variation workstreams, including scoping, pathway mapping, outside counsel supervision, application materials preparation, and regulator interactions
The team is described as tight, experienced, and diverse—lawyers from tradfi, fintech, and crypto backgrounds who move fast, stay curious, and take commercial accountability for their advice. You'll partner directly with Product, senior leadership, and Compliance to chart clear, defensible paths to launch and maintain licensed entities.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Qualified lawyer admitted in Ireland, England and Wales, or another EU Member State
- 15+ years post-qualification experience (PQE) in financial services regulatory law, gained at a regulated financial services institution (bank, payment institution, broker-dealer, exchange, central counterparty, or crypto services provider) or leading law firm supporting such clients; in-house or direct product counselling experience preferred
- Deep, current knowledge of several of the following, with real depth in at least two: MiFID II and MiFIR (investment services, market structure, derivatives, conduct); MiCA (crypto-asset services, custody, trading platforms, stablecoins); EU payment services and electronic money regulation; EU banking regulation
- Demonstrated ability to analyse novel products against overlapping regimes and give clear views on classification and perimeter, including in unsettled areas or where supervisors have not yet spoken
- Direct experience managing senior regulator relationships, including notifications, information requests, supervisory correspondence, and examinations
- Working knowledge of AML/CFT, outsourcing, and operational resilience obligations including DORA
- Proven ability to instruct, supervise, and manage outside counsel costs across multiple jurisdictions
- Outstanding analytical, drafting, and organisational skills with crisp, plain-English writing
- Ability to distil complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyers and senior leadership
- Pragmatic, commercially accountable approach to legal and regulatory risk that provides stakeholders useful options and clear recommendations
- Experience mentoring or managing lawyers with good escalation judgement
- Comfort operating with high autonomy in fast-moving, remote environments
- Familiarity with AI tools such as Enterprise GPTs to increase legal services efficiency
NICE TO HAVES:
- Experience advising on tokenised securities and the EU Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime
- Experience with EMIR, including clearing obligations, margin for non-centrally cleared derivatives, and transaction reporting
- Experience with prime brokerage, securities financing, margin lending, or institutional custody
- Experience advising on UK cryptoasset regime or other non-EU frameworks intersecting with EU operations
- Experience supporting regulatory aspects of corporate transactions (change-of-control notifications, entity migrations)
- Experience with EU data protection and consumer protection rules as applied to financial products
- Fluency in a second European language
- Authentic interest in crypto and digital assets; familiarity with Payward and competitors' products
