(Senior) Legal Counsel - Investment Operations (f/m/d)

Job description

At Upvest, we are on a mission to make investing as easy as spending money. Upvest empowers businesses to offer a wide range of investment products and the best experience in the field of capital market investment and retirement planning. Upvest’s Investment API is easy to integrate so that fintechs and financial institutions can save resources and fully focus on their core business. We are proud to partner with Europe’s leading Fintechs and financial institutions such as DKB, Revolut, N26 and Raisin. Founded in 2017 by Martin Kassing, Upvest now brings together over 270 talented professionals from more than 70 nationalities. Upvest is backed by €280M in total funding from world-class investors, including BlackRock, Tencent, Sapphire Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners, Earlybird, Notion Capital, and Motive. Our latest €105M funding round in March 2026 - led by Sapphire and Tencent - serves as a massive catalyst for our growth, allowing us to offer premier investment experience. YOUR MISSION AT UPVEST: As (Senior) Legal Counsel – Investment Operations, you are part of the legal infrastructure that keeps Upvest's post-trade engine running. You bring a granular understanding of clearing, settlement, and custody — and you use it to ensure that every transaction Upvest processes is legally sound, operationally resilient, and regulatorily defensible at scale. Your mission is to safeguard Upvest's operating business as it scales across the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Working within a high-performing legal team, you will be the go-to legal voice for everything that happens after a trade is executed — ensuring our post-trade infrastructure remains compliant, our counterparty relationships are properly governed, and our operational processes can absorb the demands of rapid growth. Key Responsibilities: - Post-Trade Legal Coverage: Be the legal authority on Upvest's post-execution infrastructure. Advise on the legal framework governing clearing, settlement, and custody operations, ensuring our processes remain compliant with applicable regulation at every step of the transaction lifecycle. - Custody & Safekeeping: Own the legal framework around client asset protection and safekeeping obligations. Ensure Upvest's custody arrangements, including sub-custodian relationships. are structured, documented, and monitored to the highest regulatory standard. - Counterparty & Operational Contracting: Lead the negotiation and ongoing management of agreements with CCPs, CSDs, custodians, and other post-trade infrastructure providers. Maintain a contractual framework that is robust, scalable, and commercially sound. - Regulatory Navigation: Serve as the internal expert on post-trade regulation across EU and German law. Monitor and interpret developments across MiFID, WpDVerOV, CSDR, and MaRisk, and translate their implications into actionable guidance for Operations, Compliance, and Finance. - Operational Risk & Incident Support: Partner with Operations and Compliance to assess and respond to post-trade incidents, settlement failures, and operational risk events from a legal perspective. Develop playbooks that enable fast, legally defensible responses. - Legal Ops & Automation: Drive the modernisation of Upvest's legal function. Champion scalable contracting processes, AI-assisted review workflows, and documentation standards that keep pace with operational growth without sacrificing rigour. What You'll Bring: - Qualification: At least 3–5 years post-qualification experience (PQE) in the financial services industry. At least one German legal qualification (Erste Juristische Prüfung). - Post-Trade Depth: Hands-on understanding of clearing, settlement, and custody mechanics across a range of investment products — at the level of a seasoned practitioner who has worked directly with CCPs, CSDs, or custodians. - Industry Background: Experience in a regulated investment firm, custodian bank, CSD, infrastructure provider, or fintech with a meaningful post-trade operating footprint. - Regulatory Expertise: Strong command of EU and German financial law relevant to post-trade operations (MiFID, CSDR, WpDVerOV, MaRisk). Exposure to UK (FCA) regulation or other European NCAs is a strong plus. - International Mindset: Familiarity with adapting legal frameworks across European markets, particularly where post-trade infrastructure and regulation diverges by jurisdiction. - Automation Advocate: Enthusiasm for streamlining the legal function through technology — whether tooling, AI-assisted review, or smarter process workflows. - Pragmatic and Direct: You focus on keeping the business running through clear-eyed legal judgement. You identify risk without creating paralysis, and give Operations and Compliance answers they can act on. - Languages: Professional fluency in English and German — essential for regulatory filings, custodian negotiations, and day-to-day stakeholder management. HOW WE UPVEST IN YOU: - Impact-driven work: We’re building the infrastructure that will power the future of investing in Europe. It’s complex, ambitious, and meaningful. You’ll work with modern technologies and create something entirely new. No legacy systems, no limits. - Wellbeing: Recharge with 30 days of annual leave and maintain a healthy lifestyle with sports benefits. Access confidential professional coaching and enjoy the flexibility to work remotely abroad for up to 183 days a year. Recharge with UpRest, a one-month fully paid sabbatical after every 4 years of working at Upvest. - Development: Growth is in our DNA. Each Upvenger has access to a personal development budget and the freedom to decide how to use it. - Flexible work environment: Work from any of our hubs in Berlin, London or Tallinn hybrid or remotely across Europe, depending on the role. We give you the choice and budget to work where you’re most comfortable and productive, either at home or in the office. You choose. - Compensation and equity: We believe that all Upvengers contribute to our success and deserve a competitive, above-market salary and a participation in our employee equity program. - Team celebrations: Participate in company-wide events, such as UpFest, dinners, offsites and our Holiday party, to connect with colleagues and celebrate our achievements. - Inclusion: We’re committed to a culture where everyone belongs and thrives. Our Employee Resources Groups foster inclusion and connection, like Upfem for our female Upvengers, or UpVergent supporting neurodivergent Upvengers and allies. OUR VALUES: - Make it easy for others. We simplify the complex and act with the best intentions. - Own the outcome. We are proactive, fast and confident to get the job done, valuing progress over perfection. - Rise to the challenge. We aim high and push the boundaries. We stay curious, learn and celebrate our wins together. - Tell the story. We start with the Why to align on purpose. We are transparent and share knowledge to empower and inspire others. Upvest is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.