Senior Director, Legal, Global Payments

The GoFundMe team is seeking an exceptional Sr Director, Legal, Global Payments to lead the legal strategy supporting our global payments ecosystem and serve as the company's foremost legal advisor on payments, financial services, and fintech matters.

About the role

• Lead Payments Legal Strategy
• Define the legal strategy supporting GoFundMe's global payments platform, partnering closely with executive leadership to enable continued product innovation, business growth, and international expansion.
• Partner with executive leadership to design scalable legal and regulatory operating models that support global expansion, enterprise risk management, and long-term platform strategy.
• Build governance and legal infrastructure to support GoFundMe's Platform Excellence strategy and global marketplace expansion.
• Enable Product Innovation
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Design, Compliance, Risk, and Business teams throughout the product lifecycle, from concept through launch and ongoing iteration.
• Provide practical legal guidance on new payment methods, payment service providers, financial services offerings, platform capabilities, and strategic initiatives.
• Translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into clear, actionable guidance for cross-functional stakeholders.
• Advise on Global Payments & Financial Services
• Serve as the company's subject matter expert on payments law, money transmission, financial services regulation, AML/BSA, sanctions, fraud prevention, KYC/KYB, card network and ACH rules, and related legal frameworks.
• Advises on U.S. federal and state regulatory requirements, as well as international legal frameworks governing payments and financial services, including FINTRAC, TRACFIN, AMLR, and other evolving global regulatory regimes.
• Lead legal strategy for regulatory engagement, licensing initiatives, supervisory examinations, audits, and interactions with regulators, banking partners, payment networks, and financial institutions.
• Partner closely with the Chief Compliance Officer to ensure legal and compliance strategies remain aligned while maintaining clear first- and second-line responsibilities.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, and executive leadership to identify, assess, and manage enterprise legal and regulatory risk across GoFundMe's payments ecosystem.
• Lead Strategic Commercial Partnerships
• Structure, negotiate, and advise on strategic commercial partnerships with payment processors, financial institutions, banking partners, card networks, and fintech providers.
• Advise on legal considerations related to payment infrastructure, financial services partnerships, strategic commercial relationships, and emerging business models.
• Review customer-facing terms, disclosures, marketing materials, and communications related to payments products and financial services offerings.
• Develop scalable legal standards, templates, governance processes, and commercial frameworks that enable efficient execution as the business scales.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of legal experience with significant expertise in payments, fintech, or financial services.
• Experience serving as the senior legal advisor supporting payments products, regulated financial services, or complex payments infrastructure.
• Deep expertise in payments law, money transmission, financial services regulation, regulatory examinations, licensing, audits, AML/BSA, sanctions, fraud prevention, KYC/KYB, card network rules, ACH rules, and the legal infrastructure supporting regulated payments businesses.
• Proven success designing scalable legal operating models, governance frameworks, and regulatory strategies while advising executive leadership on product innovation, enterprise risk, and long-term business growth.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to translate legal complexity into practical, business-oriented guidance that enables responsible innovation.
• Proven ability to build scalable legal processes, governance models, and commercial frameworks that support a rapidly evolving global payments organization.

Additional Experience

• Experience advising on international regulatory regimes, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Latin America.
• Experience supporting digital assets or emerging payment technologies.
• Experience within global marketplace platforms, Trust & Safety, consumer technology companies, or other highly regulated technology businesses.
• Experience supporting organizations through licensing strategies, new regulated activities, or evolving payments operating models.

Pay

The annual U.S. salary range for this full-time position is $194,000 - $291,500. The company also offers equity and other benefits to employees, including healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance and 401(k) saving program. In addition to this wage, there are geolocation differentials that will increase pay depending on the work location. Additionally pay may vary depending on other factors including skills, experience, education, or training.