Sr. Counsel, International

We are looking for an experienced lawyer to join our International Legal team. This position will report into our APAC / Americas lead, and will work closely with a number of global cross functional teams in legal, product, commercial and others. You will be responsible for managing complex legal issues including regulatory responses, licensing and registration, OC management, and legal advocacy for Coinbase across the broader APAC region. We are looking for candidates with prior experience with financially regulated products, particularly securities, derivatives, and payments, and prior experience working with federal regulators. In-house experience is a plus, along with knowledge of Australian financial services law and regulations. Preference for prior experience and/or interest in cryptocurrency markets and custody.

What you’ll be doing:

• Work with business teams on securing required licenses and registrations for our regional entity and businesses.
• Provide full product life-cycle counseling for a variety of global consumer and institutional products, and practical advice on associated legal issues and risks, complex agreement structures and company policies in a risk-tolerant, but compliance-oriented environment.
• Stay abreast of and advise on digital currency and blockchain technology legal and regulatory issues.
• Lead and assist with complex and global cross-functional efforts, driving and ensuring cross-functional alignment with other stakeholders (Local Management, Product/Engineering, Business Development, Finance/Tax, Compliance).
• Effectively collaborate with those same cross-functional teams and legal colleagues to solve problems, build partnerships, and close deals quickly.
• Proactively solve problems for the business as they plan and execute on an aggressive global growth plan, develop scaled strategies for addressing risk in business-centric ways and build commercial processes that allow the business flexibility and freedom to move quickly.
• Operate in a fast paced, demanding environment and quickly adjust to meet leadership's needs.
• Recognize priority initiatives and effectively manage your clients and your advice to scale your advice and provide the right level of guidance for the request at hand.
• Look around corners and creatively solve problems for the business as they plan, build, and execute their transactional and product roadmap.
• Be a business partner, not just a laywer.

What we look for in you:

• Currently practicing as a lawyer with an active Australian practicing certificate and 7+ years of legal experience.
• Interest in digital currency and blockchain technology.
• Expertise and experience working with regional financial services, securities, and crypto regulators.
• Experience counseling product teams in launching technology products and have a clear understanding of the legal underpinnings supporting these products.
• Experience working and leading with cross-functional, globally located teams.
• Familiarity with relevant money transmission laws, travel rules, global banking regulations, securities regulations, client money regimes and/or commodities regulations around APAC region.
• Experience advising clients on risk mitigation across technology product platforms.
• Experience working with and presenting to VP-level leadership.
• Comfortable challenging the status quo and preconceived notions of what is possible.
• Excellent judgment, analytical rigor, clear communication, and business pragmatism.
• Top-notch analytical skills with experience owning projects from concept to finish.
• Creativity, comfort and experience with oral solutions that help scale financial services businesses and technology solutions that help scale practices.
• Comfort with risk-taking and creative problem-solving.
• Intellectual curiosity and flexibility.
• Team-oriented and collaborative.

Nice to haves:

• Direct experience working on regulatory matters related to ASIC and other Australian regulators.