Associate General Counsel, Europe & UK

Job description

### Better Money Strike is the Bitcoin company. With Strike, you can buy and sell bitcoin, pay bills, and borrow against your holdings. From individuals to businesses, Strike is purpose-built for every step of the Bitcoin journey. Available in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Africa — Strike is building a better financial system powered by Bitcoin. Bitcoin is better money. Strike is how you use it. ### Role As Strike scales its Bitcoin-native financial services across Europe and the UK, we’re hiring the senior lawyer who will own the legal function for our European and UK business and further support our international expansion. This is a broad, senior role. You will be the primary legal lead for Strike in Europe and the UK, setting regulatory strategy, driving and maintaining licensing, counseling product and commercial teams, and managing outside counsel across the region. You will work directly with the General Counsel and partner with teams across Executive, Product, Engineering, Data, Compliance, Communications, and Marketing. Because our legal team is streamlined, you will operate with real autonomy and ownership. ### **What You’ll Own** - Serve as the senior legal lead for Strike’s European and UK business, and the primary point of contact for regulatory, product, and commercial legal matters in the region. - Develop and drive Strike’s European regulatory strategy: obtaining, maintaining, and passporting licenses across the EU and UK, including Strike’s MiCA authorisation and EU27 passporting, UK MLR registration (and the incoming FSMA cryptoasset regime), and compliance with PSD2, e-money frameworks, Travel Rule, and UK financial promotions (FinProm) rules. - Advise on lending regulation across European and UK jurisdictions as Strike builds out its bitcoin-backed lending product internationally, including structuring, licensing, and disclosure requirements. - Counsel product teams across the full product lifecycle—from concept to launch to sunset—on how to build and ship financial products compliantly in a fast-moving regulatory environment. - Lead negotiations on the commercial agreements that underpin the European business, including banking and payment rails, custody, trading and lending partners, vendors, and marketing. - Own outside counsel across the region; maintain the existing relationships, build new ones, direct the work and manage spend, and turn the external advice into clear, actionable guidance for Strike’s Business and Product teams. - Managing incoming regulatory matters and lead Strike’s regulator engagement across European and UK authorities, with particular focus on the MFSA in Malta and FCA in UK. - Support Strike’s AML / CFT programme in Europe and the UK, including FATF Travel Rule implementation for bitcoin transfers, in close coordination with Compliance. - Advise on European data protection obligations (GDPR) in the context of product development and commercial partnerships. ### **International Expansion (Secondary)** The core of this role is Europe and UK. Beyond that, you will contribute to Strike’s expansion into new, regulated markets. This work includes scoping the local entity, structure, and licensing paths for target jurisdictions outside of Europe and the UK, and supporting cross-border product and lending initiatives in markets that Strike currently serves (or can serve) on a cross-border basis. ### **What You’ll Bring** - Qualified lawyer admitted in at least one EU / EEA Member State or the UK. Demonstrated capability across both EU and UK law. - 10+ years of post-qualification legal experience, including significant in-house and / or financial services experience. - A track record of owning regulatory and licensing matters and advising a business directly. - Deep experience drafting and negotiating material commercial agreements. - The judgment to research novel questions outside your core expertise and provide practical, decisive guidance under time pressure. - Strong project management and organizational discipline to manage multiple licensing and product workstreams at once. - Excellent written and spoken English; additional European language(s) a plus. - Comfortable in a fast-moving environment with constructive friction, risk-adjusted analysis, and creative problem solving. ### **Nice-to-Haves** - Cryptoasset or digital-assets regulator experience. - Consumer credit / lending regulatory experience in the EU or UK. - UK Financial Promotions (FinProm) experience. - EU data protection (GDPR) depth. - Familiarity with the EU AI Act as it applies to financial products and services. - Experience managing outside counsel and regional legal budgets. - Background at a top-tier law firm, an EU / UK financial services institution, or in-house at a technology or fintech company. ### **UK-Based positions** - Salary range: ￡168,000 - ￡175,000 - Meaningful equity in a high-growth company at the intersection of Bitcoin and global payments. - Health and wellbeing benefits aligned with local statutory requirements and beyond. - Cell phone and internet reimbursement. - Flexible PTO, sick leave, and parental leave. - A fully remote, collaborative, async-friendly team. ### **Non UK-Based positions** - Location Dependent By clicking submit application below, you consent to our use and processing of your data as described in our [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://resources.zaphq.io/docs/strike-candidate-privacy-notice.pdf). ***Use of AI.** Strike uses AI-assisted tools to help review, assess, and verify applications and support the integrity of our recruitment process. A human is always involved in our hiring decisions — we do not rely on automated processing alone.*