General Counsel

Zodia Markets is a regulated institutional digital-asset brokerage backed by SC Ventures (the innovation and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, our majority shareholder). We provide institutional clients with stablecoin FX execution, liquidity and near-instant cross-border settlement across multiple stablecoins and 20+ fiat currencies.
Having found strong product-market fit for corporate stablecoin payments, we are now scaling that into our core focus area, underpinned by a scalable technology platform built to run it at institutional scale. As financial markets move toward always-on, programmable infrastructure, we believe institutions should be able to move capital globally with the same speed and ease as information — and we are building the regulated infrastructure to make that possible.
Today we serve banks, asset managers, hedge funds, payment providers, corporates and digital-asset institutions globally — institutional counterparties only, never retail. The team is 60 people: a mid-sized regulated financial institution, not an early-stage startup.
The Opportunity
This is the General Counsel role for a business scaling something that's already working, not a caretaker legal seat on a static book of business. Zodia is looking for a pragmatic, commercially minded lawyer who comes to the table with options, not just objections, and who wants to be closely involved in scaling our stablecoin payments strategy and the licensing, partnership and product work that goes with it.
It is a hands-on role: the successful candidate will work directly with product, engineering and commercial teams as well as the CEO and board, will be comfortable trading off legal risk against commercial outcomes rather than defaulting to the most cautious position, and will be judged on outcomes delivered — licences obtained, deals signed, structures stood up — not just advice given. The role can be based in London or Abu Dhabi, reflecting our UK and ADGM-regulated entities, or split across both.
Job requirements

• This is a senior appointment, and we are hiring for judgement and character at least as much as years qualified. In practice, that means candidates who have already operated at General Counsel, deputy General Counsel, or senior partner/in-house counsel level — but we'd rather meet someone with the right instincts and a slightly shorter CV than a longer CV without them.
• Qualified lawyer (solicitor or equivalent) in England & Wales, or in another relevant common-law jurisdiction with strong England & Wales-equivalent experience; an additional qualification or working fluency relevant to a UAE jurisdiction, the EU, or US/Canadian financial services law is a strong advantage given our footprint.
• A track record of having personally owned (not just supported) outcomes: at least one full regulatory licensing process taken end-to-end, significant commercial/technology or banking-partner agreements negotiated to signature, and direct experience advising a board. In-house experience in fintech, payments, digital assets or financial markets is essential.
• Direct experience leading a UK regulatory authorisation process (e.g. FCA) is highly desirable; experience with ADGM FSRA, EU MiCA/payment institution authorisation, or US/Canadian money-transmission/AML regimes is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience structuring and negotiating commercial and technology agreements, ideally including payment, custody, trading or banking-partner arrangements.
• Experience operating across multiple legal entities and jurisdictions, and coordinating with local counsel.
• Some exposure to general corporate practice — employment, data protection, corporate governance or M&A/investment — in addition to regulatory and payments work; we need a generalist who can also cover the regulatory and payments ground deeply, not a pure regulatory specialist.
• A genuine interest in, and ideally direct experience with, digital assets, stablecoins and payments infrastructure.

Skills & Personal Attributes

• Pragmatic, commercially minded and solutions-oriented — comfortable presenting options with their associated risk and reward, rather than defaulting to ‘no’.
• A demonstrated bias to action: judged by licences obtained, deals closed and structures stood up, not just risk memos issued.
• Confident operating with a good degree of autonomy in a smaller, fast-moving organisation, while exercising sound judgement about when to escalate.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills, with an eye for the commercial substance behind the legal detail.
• A clear, persuasive communicator able to explain legal and regulatory issues to non-lawyers and help the leadership team reach decisions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, and able to build processes and frameworks where none yet exist.
• Able to manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality work to tight deadlines.
• A collaborative team player who will, over time, become an effective people leader as the legal function is built out.

Job responsibilities
Strategy & Commercial Leadership

• Act as chief legal adviser to the CEO, board and leadership team, giving pragmatic, commercially minded advice that supports business objectives — presenting options and trade-offs rather than defaulting to risk-averse positions.
• Own Zodia Markets' overall legal strategy, including entity structuring, the licensing roadmap for corporate stablecoin payments, and the legal risk appetite appropriate for a fintech business that moves client money.
• Build and lead the in-house legal function as the business scales, including recruiting, developing and managing legal team members over time.
• Act as a trusted partner to the CEO, COO, CCO, CTO/Product and Finance functions, embedding legal input early in product design and commercial negotiations rather than at the end.
• Represent Zodia Markets' legal positions with regulators, industry bodies and trade associations as required, and build the firm's thought leadership in digital-asset, payments and fintech law.

Regulatory & Licensing

• Lead Zodia Markets' licence applications and ongoing regulatory engagement, coordinating internal workstreams (Compliance, Risk, Finance, Technology) and external counsel across our regulatory footprint — UK FCA (cryptoasset registration), ADGM FSRA (Abu Dhabi), and FinCEN/FinTRAC registrations (US/Canada) — and lead the forthcoming EU expansion, including MiCA authorisation and a Payment Institution licence, as part of scaling the stablecoin payments strategy.
• Maintain a working command of the laws and regulations relevant to a multi-entity digital-asset and money-movement business, including (as applicable) FSMA, the Money Laundering Regulations, the Payment Services/E-Money Regulations, UK market conduct rules and the UK's evolving cryptoasset regime, together with the equivalent regimes in ADGM, the EU (MiCA and the Payment Services framework) and the US/Canada AML and money-transmission frameworks.
• Own the legal aspects of Zodia's multi-entity group structure, including intra-group agreements, governance documentation, and coordination with local counsel across jurisdictions.
• Monitor the external legal and regulatory environment for developments affecting digital assets, payments and financial markets, and translate them into practical guidance for the business.

Product, Commercial & Transactional

• Partner with product and engineering teams from the earliest stages of new product development — including the build-out of the scalable payments platform — understanding the technology and money-movement flows involved (custody, settlement, payment rails, trading infrastructure) and structuring products so they are both legally sound and commercially deliverable.
• Draft and negotiate commercial agreements with institutional clients, banking and payment partners, liquidity providers, custodians, and technology vendors, including IP ownership and licensing terms on platform-build contracts.
• Draft and maintain client-facing legal documentation (terms of business, account agreements, trading agreements) and intra-group services agreements.
• Select, brief and manage external counsel efficiently, balancing quality of advice against cost.
• Maintain the firm's contract repository and ensure agreements are properly executed, stored and tracked.

General Corporate, Governance & Risk

• Own company secretarial and board governance for Zodia's legal entities directly — board and committee papers, minutes, resolutions and statutory filings — rather than delegating this wholesale to external providers.
• Manage shareholder-related legal matters, including shareholder agreements, board reporting obligations and related-party arrangements arising from Zodia's ownership structure.
• Support corporate simplification activity as the group's footprint evolves, including entity disposals and licence surrenders or transfers.
• Provide or coordinate employment law support for a 60-person regulated business (contracts, policy, disciplinary and exit matters), working with HR and external employment counsel as needed.
• Own data protection and privacy compliance across jurisdictions (UK GDPR and equivalents), including cross-border data transfer arrangements suited to a multi-entity international platform.
• Manage disputes, claims and pre-litigation matters, escalating and instructing external litigation counsel where required.
• Act as an effective second-line legal risk control — providing independent, proportionate challenge on legal risk without becoming a blocker, and escalating clearly where risk appetite is exceeded, together with recommended remediation.
• Ensure appropriate legal templates, protections and remedies are in place for third-party dealings, and that Zodia's contracts are valid and enforceable under the relevant governing law.
• Provide legal input to risk and governance forums, with particular focus on product, regulatory and reputational risk.