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

About the role

Circle is expanding into new markets and jurisdictions, offering new products and growing in new markets, including Circle's Arc network, a purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin finance. The Assistant General Counsel - Transactions will play a key role in supporting the Enterprise, Payments, and Ecosystem business segments globally.

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.
• 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.

Qualifications

• 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.

Skills

• Commercially minded, able to 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.
• Passionate about financial technology and the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchains.
• Team player with a sense of humor who enjoys both learning and mentoring.
• Thrives in evolving, fast-moving environments, manages multiple priorities with ease, and exercises sound judgment under pressure — equally comfortable working autonomously and collaborating as part of a team.

Benefits

• Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do.

Pay

• Base Pay Range: $230,000 - $297,500

Schedule

• Full-time