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

About the role

Circle is seeking a highly proactive, accountable, and team-oriented individual to join our Assistant General Counsel - Transactions team. This position plays a critical role in supporting our Enterprise, Payments, and Ecosystem business segments globally, particularly in relation to the Arc network.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Aid 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.

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.
• 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.