Legal & Compliance - sole hire, build with AI

Accountabilities: Own the company's legal and compliance function end to end, ensuring existing operations remain compliant while establishing the regulatory foundations required to launch and scale new financial products. Partner with product and engineering teams from the earliest stages of product design to identify the simplest viable regulatory approach, minimize licensing requirements, reuse existing permissions where appropriate, and reduce unnecessary compliance obligations. Define the appropriate legal entity structures, licensing strategies, and bank-partner arrangements for each new product, ensuring alignment with applicable laws and business objectives. Draft, review, and maintain product-specific policies, procedures, consumer disclosures, commercial agreements, and other legal documentation required for regulatory and partner approval. Review marketing materials, product experiences, customer communications, and strategic partnerships before launch, establishing scalable review processes that enable teams to move quickly and responsibly. Maintain a consistent legal and compliance framework across the expanding product portfolio, eliminating duplicated requirements and unnecessary complexity as new offerings are introduced. Oversee regulatory compliance across consumer financial services, including consumer protection, credit reporting, lending requirements, money transmission, bank partnerships, privacy, fraud prevention, and BSA/AML/KYC obligations. Manage regulatory examinations, audits, complaints, disputes, litigation defense, and other legal matters, coordinating with internal stakeholders and external specialists when necessary. Maintain strong relationships with banks, business partners, regulators, auditors, and other external stakeholders, serving as the primary legal and compliance representative. Build and continuously improve AI-powered and agentic workflows for legal research, document drafting, policy maintenance, regulatory monitoring, and compliance reconciliation. Identify repetitive tasks that can be automated, simplified, or eliminated, reducing manual effort and building a legal function that becomes increasingly efficient as the business grows. Establish rigorous quality controls for AI-generated work, personally reviewing critical decisions and ensuring that all legal conclusions, recommendations, and deliverables meet high professional standards. Engage and manage outside counsel selectively for matters requiring specialized expertise or human-led legal services, maintaining clear scopes of work and efficient external relationships. Provide founders and cross-functional leaders with concise, actionable legal guidance that supports informed decisions without creating unnecessary friction. Support broader corporate legal needs, including intellectual property, employment matters, tax-related legal issues, and other requirements associated with a growing technology business. Requirements Juris Doctor (JD) degree and active admission to practice law in at least one U.S. state. Demonstrated experience in a legal or compliance role within a fintech startup, preferably in a fast-growing business operating in regulated consumer financial services. Experience taking regulated consumer financial products through their lifecycle, from initial product design and regulatory assessment to launch, ongoing compliance, and growth. Strong working knowledge of the consumer finance regulatory landscape, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP), Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z (TILA/Reg Z), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E (EFTA/Reg E), state lending and money transmission licensing, bank partnership programs, and Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering/Know Your Customer (BSA/AML/KYC) requirements. Proven ability to assess regulatory risks pragmatically, identify the minimum requirements necessary for compliant operations, and design products or programs that avoid unnecessary licenses, obligations, and operational overhead. A track record of simplifying legal or compliance programs, consolidating overlapping requirements, automating recurring processes, or redesigning workflows to improve efficiency. Demonstrated experience managing relationships with external counsel, banking partners, regulators, and other relevant stakeholders. Practical proficiency with AI tools and agentic workflows, including using them for legal research, drafting, monitoring, policy maintenance, and process automation. Strong technical aptitude, with the ability to interpret code and data, independently investigate technical questions, and build or improve AI-enabled workflows without relying entirely on engineering support. Excellent legal judgment and the ability to distinguish tasks suitable for AI assistance from decisions requiring direct professional review, accountability, and approval. Exceptional attention to detail, organization, and follow-through, with the ability to manage multiple legal and compliance priorities without allowing critical obligations to be overlooked. Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, particularly the ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, concise, practical guidance for non-legal stakeholders. A strong preference for candidates with experience in product, engineering, business operations, or another multidisciplinary function alongside their legal career. An entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to operate as a hands-on individual contributor, building and managing the entire function rather than inheriting or leading an established legal team. Comfort working in a high-intensity, fast-moving startup environment characterized by ambiguity, evolving priorities, significant responsibility, and ambitious growth targets. A proactive, resourceful approach to problem-solving, with a preference for eliminating unnecessary processes rather than simply documenting and maintaining them. Genuine interest in improving financial access and economic opportunity for consumers underserved by traditional financial institutions. Benefits Competitive annual compensation: Base salary range of $200,000–$280,000 USD , plus equity compensation. Equity participation: Stock options ranging from 0.02% to 0.06% , offering an opportunity to participate in the company's long-term growth and success. Healthcare and employee benefits: Access to a benefits package designed to support employee well-being and personal needs. Specific coverage details are not provided in the original posting. Fully remote work: Work remotely from an eligible location in the United States, with direct collaboration across a distributed team. High degree of autonomy: Own the legal and compliance function, establish its priorities, and shape how it operates as the business expands. Direct executive access: Work closely with company founders and influence product strategy, regulatory decisions, and broader business direction. AI-driven innovation: Build advanced legal and compliance workflows using AI agents, automation, and emerging technologies. Entrepreneurial ownership: Create scalable legal infrastructure for a growing, multi-product fintech business from the ground up. Meaningful mission: Help expand access to financial tools and economic opportunities for consumers underserved by traditional credit systems. Lean, high-performing environment: Work with a small, ambitious team focused on capital efficiency, rapid execution, and measurable outcomes. Professional development: Expand your expertise across fintech regulation, product development, AI-enabled operations, and strategic legal leadership. Significant organizational impact: Shape the long-term legal and compliance framework supporting future products and business growth.