Deputy General Counsel - Global Head of Derivatives and Trading Legal

About Payward (Kraken)

Payward — the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks — has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.

The Team

Derivatives and Trading products sit in one of the most heavily regulated and fastest-moving parts of Payward's regulatory perimeter. The estate is expanding across a US venue and clearing stack, a UK venue, EEA distribution, and a Bermuda entity. This is a net-new, function-owning role created to put global derivatives structuring strategy to a single senior owner. This Deputy General Counsel (DGC) will be responsible for the global suite of derivatives products as well as Payward’s trading products.

• Products: Futures and options across the group, margin in the US, and trading products (including leveraged and liquidity products, prediction markets, indices, market data, evaluation-based trading services, and structured yield).
• Entities and Regulators: A US venue and clearing stack (FCM/NFA, DCM, DCO), a UK FCA-authorised derivatives venue, EEA derivatives distribution under CySEC permissions, and a Bermuda DABA entity. The general counsel of NinjaTrader reports into this function.
• Team: Senior derivatives and trading counsel across the US, UK, and EEA, with the function set to grow.

The Opportunity

• Own global derivatives structuring strategy: Product structure, venue and entity architecture, clearing models, and how a single coherent derivatives offering is delivered to clients across several separately licensed entities.
• Solve cross-entity problems: Partner with Payward’s Regulatory Legal team to address hub-and-spoke architecture, unified balances, cross-margining, and risk allocation across the group.
• Be the named senior legal owner: Act as the single senior route into Legal for derivatives and trading, integrated into the product launch process from the start.
• Lead and build the team: Hire, level, and develop senior derivatives counsel across jurisdictions, building depth and succession.
• Partner with Global Policy and Government Relations: Serve as the senior legal counterpart for derivatives regulatory engagement with the CFTC, NFA, FCA, BMA, CySEC, and others.
• Support supervised estates: Work with Regulatory Legal on continuous supervisory relationships, new permissions, and variations tied to product launches.
• Bring structuring judgment in-house: Direct external counsel where genuinely specialist input is required.

What You Bring

• Attorney admitted to practice in the US, or qualified lawyer (Solicitor/Barrister of England & Wales, Irish Solicitor/Barrister, or equivalent admitted in an EU Member State).
• 18+ years’ post-qualification experience (PQE) in financial services regulatory law gained at a regulated financial services institution, major liquidity provider, or in a law firm/private practice supporting such clients.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own BAU regulatory workstreams.
• Experience supporting regulator engagement (e.g., with the CFTC, NFA, FCA, CySEC, or an equivalent EU competent authority), including notifications, information requests, and supervisory correspondence.
• Substantial senior in-house or equivalent experience in derivatives legal, with demonstrated ownership of structuring strategy rather than transactional execution alone.
• Deep, expert-level command of at least one of the following derivatives regulatory regimes: US (CFTC, NFA; FCM, DCM, and DCO structures), UK (FCA), EEA, or an offshore regime (e.g., Bermuda), with a high degree of fluency in at least one other.
• Direct experience with virtual asset markets (this combination is core to the role).
• Experience structuring a product offering across multiple licensed entities in different jurisdictions, holding a view on where activity, risk, and client relationships should sit.
• A track record of building or materially scaling a legal function or team, including hiring, levelling, and succession.
• The range to operate at a function level, setting strategy, organizing the function, and holding senior lawyers to account.
• Credibility with regulators and the judgement to take positions in front of them.
• Comfort operating as the senior legal voice in a fast-moving, product-led business where the regulatory perimeter changes.

Nice to Haves

• Exposure to prediction markets, margin lending, or tokenized and structured products.
• Experience integrating acquired regulated entities and their legal teams into a group legal function.