Legal Counsel (UK)

Skills this role screens for

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Job Description

This is a high-impact commercial legal role supporting the Wise Platform business that powers international payments for banks, financial institutions and enterprise partners around the world. Enterprise partners range from large regulated banks to embedded-payments and technology providers.

Your mission is to enable, protect and empower Wise Platform, providing first-rate commercial legal advice while improving and applying processes, templates and ways of working that let Legal scale in a rapidly-growing, fast paced environment. You'll be a trusted partner to Business Development, Product, Pricing and Compliance, bringing structure and predictability to how deals are run and the judgement to move quickly where it matters most.

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To achieve this, you'll be

• Part of the core team of lawyers owning all aspects of the contract lifecycle with bank partners, online platforms and enterprise customers;
• Building and embedding a process as well establish clear guardrails and expectations for when and how Legal engages;
• Applying a prioritisation framework to allocate legal resource appropriately;
• Owning template and playbook management, including annual reviews and clear communication on template updates;
• Driving effective communication and change management;
• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements across a wide range of legal matters and ad hoc issues, including financial regulation, payments, banking and partnerships;
• Working closely with Product, Product Compliance and Pricing to ensure agreements reflect approved positions;
• Identifying and implementing tooling and technology solutions that streamline workflows and increase scalability;
• Understanding the real risks to the business and advising on the operational impact and practicalities of those risks; and
• Mentoring and upskilling other members of the Legal team and the wider business, making life simple and easy.

Who they want

Qualifications

We're looking for a proactive, analytical, solution-oriented professional who excels at building relationships as well as advising. You will be:

• A qualified lawyer in England and Wales (or another common law jurisdiction), with strong post-qualification commercial experience - PQE: 4-6 years experience;
• A strong background as a commercial lawyer with substantial B2B experience, ideally in payments, financial services, technology or platform/partnership businesses;
• Experience leading change management, designing and embedding processes, guardrails, templates and playbooks;
• Proven aptitude for commercial drafting, structuring and negotiation;
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, prioritising and working independently under tight deadlines across multiple deals;
• Strong stakeholder-influencing skills with the ability to build trusted relationships across key business partners and senior leadership;
• Training and upskilling non-lawyers to operate within the right process and scope;
• Experience gained in-house at a well-established or high-growth company and/or at a top-tier law firm; and
• Energy, presence and a get-it-done, collaborative approach, with comfort navigating the ambiguity of a fast-paced, evolving international business.

What you get

What we offer in return

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders  — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.

Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

• Stock options as a part of compensation package;
• Lots of awesome Wise benefits;
• Flexible working: whether it's working from home, school plays or life admin we get that flexibility is essential and you're trusted to do the right thing;
• Wellbeing support: you and your family have access to an Employee Assistance Program, where you'll be able to speak to qualified counsellors on anything that matters to you; and
• 6 weeks of paid sabbatical after 4 years at Wise on top of annual leave.