Senior Legal Counsel

Our client is a high-growth fintech company building the next generation of payment infrastructure across Africa. Their mission is to make money movement seamless inclusive and scalable across borders. They operate at the intersection of financial innovation and real-world impact empowering businesses and consumers with tools to thrive in a rapidly digitizing economy.

Role Overview

The Senior Legal Counsel will support the companys legal and regulatory functions across multiple jurisdictions including payments crypto assets and financial services. The role involves drafting and negotiating contracts assisting with new licence applications managing regulatory and banking relationships and maintaining corporate governance and entity compliance. This is an intermediate-level position that offers exposure to diverse legal environments and evolving fintech regulation across Africa and internationally.

Job Type: Full

Workplace: Hybrid

Location: Cape Town

Requirements

• LLB degree.
• Admitted attorney.
• Minimum of 5-8 years post-qualification experience (PQE) gained in a law firm or in-house legal department.
• PQE must be in financial services (FX/ TOC crypto assets); banking & payments (TPPP/ PSP and cross-border); contract & commercial.
• Ability to work independently in a structured and unstructured environment.
• Meticulous attention to detail and organisational abilities.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Comfortable with performing administrative tasks.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Licensing & Regulatory Applications: Support new licence applications across jurisdictions liaising with regulators and external counsel where necessary. Track and maintain ongoing licence renewals and regulatory obligations.
• Contract Drafting & Negotiation: Draft review and negotiate commercial vendor and technology agreements critical to business operations. Maintain contract templates and ensure alignment with company standards.
• Corporate & Secretarial Governance: Support the formation and maintenance of corporate entities including statutory filings annual returns and company registers. Prepare board resolutions and other company secretarial documents.
• Banking & Counterparty Relationships: Support onboarding documentation for banking payment and trading counterparties. Assist in managing ongoing legal relationships with payment service providers and liquidity partners.
• Regulatory Research & Engagement: Conduct legal research into new or evolving financial crypto and payments regulations. Support engagement with regulators and financial partners on compliance and policy matters.
• General Legal Support: Provide day-to-day support to the senior legal function on operational regulatory and strategic projects. Assist in preparing legal documents filings and correspondence as needed.

Benefits

• Mission-Driven Work: The opportunity to work on solving cross-boarder payments in Africa. Connecting us to the world and the world to us.
• A startup environment with massive growth: High pace high growth where your work directly shapes and impacts the company.
• Competitive Compensation: A salary package that matches your expertise and the market rate.