General Counsel

General Counsel

Company Overview

Founded in 2017 as an OTC digital asset trading desk serving high-net-worth individuals, corporates, and institutional clients globally, ONE.io quickly recognised a broader challenge: clients in underserved sectors faced immense difficulty managing liquidity and moving fiat funds. To solve this, we expanded into comprehensive payment services, securing our FCA Payment Institution licence in 2020 and launching our proprietary platform in 2021.

Today, ONE.io provides a unified financial services solution for global clients across diverse verticals. Powered by an expansive banking network and robust regulatory framework, our platform helps businesses manage multi-currency cash positions and handle complex cross-border transactions through two core propositions:

• ONE.io Connect: Essential treasury and operational tools, including multi-currency business accounts, global payments, and spot FX.
• ONE.io Fusion: 24/7 digital-asset OTC and eOTC platform, custody, and a crypto payment gateway.

Through a single onboarding journey, clients access a central hub for their global operations. This includes named IBANs in multiple currencies, 24/7 liquidity and trading, and direct access to core payment rails such as SWIFT, SEPA, Faster Payments, and CHAPS.

The ONE.io Group is very culture-driven and employees live by our values which include:

• Ingenuity: Constantly improving with creativity and confidence
• Integrity: Brave and tenacious in pursuit of equality
• Unity: A team empowered by shared beliefs and commitment
• Dedication: Intuitive to our customers needs and accountable for our actions

Role Overview

We are seeking a General Counsel
to lead the legal function while supporting the Compliance Team to ensure regulatory compliance across both the payments and cryptocurrency business units.

The General Counsel will report to the Group CEO and will be responsible for providing executive oversight over all legal, regulatory, corporate governance, and IP affairs across multiple jurisdictions, supported by a Senior Legal Counsel. 

The ideal candidate will have extensive senior experience in fintech, payments and cryptocurrency laws and regulations, and a pragmatic, commercially-minded approach. 

This will be a full-time hybrid role, with at least 2 days per week in our London office.

The General Counsel will lead the Legal function and serve as the principal legal advisor to the Group CEO, Board and senior leadership team. The role reports directly to the Group CEO and has direct access to the Board on material legal and regulatory matters. 

This is a hands-on leadership appointment. The General Counsel will combine executive judgement with direct delivery. Structuring new products, drafting and negotiating significant agreements, leading regulatory legal workstreams, resolving day to day issues and managing external counsel. Advice must identify a legally defensible route to execution whenever one exists.

The General Counsel will manage and develop the existing Senior Legal Counsel, set clear escalation and delegation standards, and build a legal operating model suited to a lean, international business

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Legal Advice and Department Leadership

• Provide strategic legal counsel to the Group CEO, Board of Directors, and senior stakeholders on key legal, regulatory, and corporate matters.
• Open and proactive collaboration with other departments, providing support where needed to help to advance projects across the business.
• Lead and mentor the legal team, ensuring high-quality output and professional development.
• Manage the overall legal department budget, optimise legal spend, and oversee relationships with external legal counsel across global jurisdictions.
• Manage relationships with external legal counsel and local corporate service providers in multiple jurisdictions.

Commercial Contracts and Customer Agreements

• Review, draft, and negotiate high-value, complex, or strategic commercial contracts.
• Oversee the group’s customer-facing contract library, ensuring ongoing compliance with applicable laws and risk management practices.
• Draft new Service Terms for new products and/or new jurisdictions.

Corporate Governance

• Oversee corporate governance matters to ensure compliance with company law and corporate filings.
• Provide legal input into board meetings and assist with governance-related documentation.

Compliance 

• Serving as a key strategic partner within the senior leadership team, the General Counsel will provide overarching legal leadership and high-level strategic direction across our key operating jurisdictions, including the UK, Canada, Malta, and the BVI.
• Working with the Chief Compliance Officer, be involved with proactive, global regulatory horizon scanning to anticipate statutory and supervisory shifts, collaborating on the firm’s international licensing strategy and new market expansion. 
• Translating high-level legal strategy into operational execution, you will partner closely with the Compliance Team, cascading actionable legal guidance to structure regulatory submissions, navigate complex licensing frameworks, and ensure that internal controls, operational processes, and day-to-day compliance practices rigorously align with applicable legal standards.
• Embed legal review into product design and launch decisions, including client journeys, contractual structure, data flows, financial promotions and allocation of responsibilities.

General business support

• Support the group’s expansion into new products and new jurisdictions.
• Support other teams with their legal requirements, including commercial, people, regulatory, etc.

Team and Legal Operations

• Manage and coach and develop the Senior Legal Counsel with a clear division between strategic matters and day to day legal execution.
• Set matter intake, triage, delegation, escalation and turnaround standard for the legal functions.
• Manage the legal budget and external counsel panel, controlling scope, quality, timeliness and cost across jurisdiction.
• Work closely with Compliance, Product, Operations, Finance, Banking and Commercial Teams.

Skills and Experience

• Qualified solicitor (preferably UK) with extensive in-house experience in financial services, fintech, regulatory law, and/or cryptocurrency.
• Proven track record advising C-suite executives and Boards of Directors, combining strategic legal guidance with commercial pragmatism.
• Proven track record in commercial contract negotiation, legal risk management, and corporate governance.
• In-depth knowledge of the laws and regulations governing payments and cryptocurrency (e.g., UK PSRs, MiCA, DORA, international AML regulations, GDPR).
• Extensive experience in high-level corporate governance, corporate restructuring, and cross-border expansion.

What you’ll get in return:

• Vitality Health Insurance
• Enhanced Parental Leave
• Perks at Work Reward Platform
• Unlimited holiday policy
• Continuous learning and development opportunities
• Flexible working
• Competitive remuneration
• And more…

ONE.io prides itself on being an equal opportunities employer. We will always hire people based on merit and will never discriminate against someone based on gender, race, religion, or background.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer sponsorship at present. This is a UK based role.