Senior Counsel, Transactions, (Enterprise, Payments, and Ecosystem)

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com.

What you’ll be part of:

Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do. As we grow as an organization, we're expanding into some of the world's strongest jurisdictions. Speed and efficiency are motivators for our success and our employees live by our company values: High Integrity, Future Forward, Multistakeholder, Mindful, and Driven by Excellence. We have built a flexible work environment where new ideas are encouraged and everyone is a stakeholder.

Under the direction of the Assistant General Counsel - Transactions, you will play an immediate and direct role in complex commercial transactional work, supporting our Enterprise Sales, Payments, and Ecosystem business segments globally as we offer new products and grow in new markets, including Circle's Arc network, a purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin finance. We are looking for someone who is highly proactive, accountable, team-oriented, capable of managing multiple competing priorities, and who is excited to join a lean team that executes on a variety of novel and complex legal issues.

What you'll work on:

• Be a trusted partner to Circle's Enterprise, Payments, and Ecosystem teams, working collaboratively and building strong lines of communication across global business teams, supporting enterprise sales, product partnerships and growth, and ecosystem business development functions globally, including commercial transactions in support of Arc.

• Structure, negotiate, and draft complex fintech, payments, crypto, and tech transactions across global markets, addressing legal risk in business-centric ways with the goal of strengthening commercial partnerships and advancing revenue opportunities, including partner, validator, and ecosystem agreements supporting the Arc network.

• Support the creation and expansion of contract templates and terms of use to reflect new and existing products and services, including Circle's stablecoin infrastructure, payments rails, Arc network integrations, and ecosystem partnerships.

• Aid in the development and implementation of processes, procedures, and metrics (including efficient contracting workflows) to increase the overall effectiveness of legal services provided to global business teams.

• Assist business leaders with contract interpretation and management as they execute deals with enterprise platforms, marketplaces, PSPs, and payments-native companies globally.

• Remain current on developments in finance, payments, stablecoins, digital assets, and blockchain infrastructure, including Arc's role as a settlement layer for global finance, to provide sound, practical transactional advice across Circle's global go-to-market motion.

What you’ll bring to Circle: 

You are passionate about financial technology and the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchains — a team player with a sense of humor who enjoys both learning and mentoring. Commercially minded, you keep the business objective front and center and communicate complex ideas clearly, both verbally and in writing, in a way that allows clients to act on them. You thrive in evolving, fast-moving environments, manage multiple priorities with ease, and exercise sound judgment under pressure — equally comfortable working autonomously and collaborating as part of a team. You are obsessively organized, energetic, and deeply accountable, with a strong sense of ownership over your actions and decisions.
 

Core Requirements: 

• 10+ years of hands-on legal experience in global commercial transactions, including in-house legal department and/or top-tier law firm experience.

• Extensive experience drafting and negotiating complex fintech, financial services, and technology agreements, including enterprise platform, payments, and ecosystem partnership transactions.

• Proven ability to support international business teams across multiple regions and markets, including willingness to participate in negotiation calls across global time zones.

• Experience advising Enterprise, Payments, Ecosystem, and other cross-functional teams on strategic partnerships and complex commercial initiatives.

• Strong understanding of legal and regulatory issues affecting payments, stablecoins, blockchain, digital assets, and technology product platforms; Americas and/or APAC exposure preferred.

• Ability to identify and manage legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, and operational implications, and to quarterback deals across stakeholders to drive alignment.

• Practical, business-oriented judgment with the ability to balance legal risk, commercial objectives, and Circle’s strategic goals in time-sensitive or high-pressure situations.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to distill complex legal, regulatory, and technical issues into clear, actionable guidance.

• Highly accountable, organized, collaborative, and comfortable working independently in a fast-moving, evolving environment while managing multiple projects simultaneously.

• J.D. or foreign equivalent, active membership in at least one U.S. State Bar, at least three years of prior top-tier law firm experience, and comfort using tools such as Slack, MacOS, GSuite, ChatGPT, and other AI-enabled workflows.

Circle is on a mission to create an inclusive financial future, with transparency at our core. We consider a wide variety of elements when crafting our compensation ranges and total compensation packages.

Starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to: relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Please note that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where we hire. Additionally, Circle participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law.

Should you require accommodations or assistance in our interview process because of a disability, please reach out to [email protected] for support. We respect your privacy and will connect with you separately from our interview process to accommodate your needs.

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