Head of Legal (Payments)

Job Description

About us

OpenPayd is a leading global payments and banking-as-a-service platform for the digital economy. Through it’s API-driven technology, businesses can embed financial services into their products and create the seamless user experiences needed to drive business growth.

OpenPayd’s platform removes the need to contract with multiple providers for different services and across different markets. Instead, businesses can access accounts, FX, international and domestic payments, acquiring and Open Banking services globally via a single API integration. With licensing across the UK, Europe, Canada and others, OpenPayd is committed to providing businesses with a fully compliant solution across all markets, leaving your business to focus on growth.

Our Mission

Our mission is to ‘To open up banking and payments for business globally, through a modular platform’. We believe that all businesses regardless of their scale or industry should be able to leverage the best payment and banking services. We believe in providing our services through a simple, flexible and scalable platform.

How are we building our teams?

We’re looking for self-starters who are experts in their fields and who are eager to learn new things. Our leadership places a high value on continuous development, both professional and personal. If you join the team, you'll experience a fun and thriving office culture, with perks and events throughout the year.

At OpenPayd we know diversity of thought is crucial for our team to flourish. That’s why we make sure diversity isn’t only considered when hiring, but is part of the process, with diverse hiring panels for every role. We are a workplace where everyone can come to work as themselves and be proud of who they are. Our team already speaks over 20 languages, and that number’s constantly growing. No matter where you’re from, we’ll do everything we can to make you feel at home. Our forums and inclusivity initiatives are designed to support our colleagues to share their ideas and give feedback on their experiences. And in all our offices we also offer flexible working arrangements.

How will you add value to the OpenPayd journey?

• Leading and guiding the payments legal team activities (Regulatory, Commercial, Data privacy functions)
• Acting as a senior advisor to the General Counsel for regulatory matters impacting the OpenPayd business
• Being responsible for maintaining ongoing compliance with applicable, laws, regulations and guidance, including the Payment Services Directive, Electronic Money Directive, outsourcing guidelines and FCA Principles of Business
• Overlooking legal team performance: identifying the knowledge gaps and supporting the team in growth and development
• Assisting the product and technical teams to ensure the OpenPayd Platform is compliant with applicable regulations and industry guidance
• Providing advice and legal support to ensure the Group has strong governance and operational resilience practices in place
• Acting as the business owner for regulatory risks in the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, including conducting risk assessments, implementing controls to mitigate identified risks and ongoing monitoring
• Delivering legal education for the business through bespoke training and raising awareness
• Supporting the wider legal team to provide efficient and effective legal support to the business

The ideal candidate will have the following:

• UK qualified solicitor with 8-10 years post-qualification experience (gained either within private practice or in-house)
• A strong working knowledge of the Payment Services Regulation, FinTech regulation, Change of control rules
• Experience of building and managing a legal function (in-house)
• Technical knowledge of UK and EEA payment services and e-money regulation
• Experience of providing regulatory advice / supporting company growth and delivery of strategic projects
• Knowledge of EEA passporting rules under PSD, EMD, and CRD5
• Experience of regulatory reporting
• Ability to explain complicated legal concepts in a way that is understandable to business stakeholders in both written and oral communications.
• Confidence to challenge the status quo and equally feel comfortable being challenged themselves
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Flexible & open minded approach, including taking on additional tasks or changes to the role as required
• A strong business acumen
• Ability to do work with support rather than high levels of hands on supervision and act with integrity and honesty at all times

Desirable knowledge:

• MIFID regulated activities
• Crypto asset derivatives
• Senior Managers and Certification Regime
• EU Wire Transfer Regulations
• PRA regulation and supervision
• Card scheme rules
• Understanding of EU and UK regulations for ‘third country’ country firms
• Understanding of payment systems rules (SEPA, SWIFT, Faster Payments, TARGET2)

#LI-DNI

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We’d like you to take a read of our Talent Acquisition Policy which explains how we collect and process your data related activities in accordance with GDPR guidelines.

Please read our policy carefully. By submitting the application button you will be giving OpenPayd Group companies your consent to use your data in accordance with our Talent Acquisition Policy.

We are looking forward to receiving your CV.

OpenPayd Talent Team

To all recruitment agencies: OpenPayd does not accept speculative agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, OpenPayd employees or any other company location. OpenPayd is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. OpenPayd will only accept CV's from the partners with relevant agreement via the People and Talent team only.