Legal Counsel

Company Mission Payhawk is one AI-powered spend management platform for scaling businesses — corporate cards, expense management, procurement, and accounts payable, unified in one place. We serve finance teams across 32+ countries, cutting month-end close time and reconciling 99.7% of transactions with zero manual touch. AI runs through the platform as core infrastructure, not a bolted-on feature — and we hire the top 1% of talent in every function to keep building it that way. Why Payhawk Payhawk, where the bold builders make an impact. We're not a family, we're a high-performance team — and that's deliberate. We debate, ideate, and push each other to be better, because the best ideas come from direct feedback. We've already made history as Bulgaria's first unicorn, but the ambition doesn't stop there: if you want to grow fast - own it; do not wait for it. Give: Honest opinions, real ownership, a focus on outcomes. Get: A front-row seat to a market leader in one of the fastest-moving industries. The role, in one line You will be Payhawk's go-to legal partner across commercial contracts and payment services regulation, doing most of the work yourself in a regulated, multi-jurisdictional fintech and calling on outside counsel only when a matter is specialist or high-stakes. What you will own Legal operations and process - Maintain and improve the legal processes, systems, and governance the business needs as it scales: contract lifecycle management, approval workflows, document storage, and reporting. - Identify and apply AI tools to streamline contract review, drafting, and other legal workflows, building on the team's existing AI assisted intake process. Client contracts and commercial agreements - Own the drafting, negotiation, and execution of client and partner contracts, including terms specific to financial institution and regulated customers. - Act as a primary legal point of contact for commercial negotiations, including contract disputes and cancellation or breach questions as they arise. - Maintain and improve a suite of template agreements, playbooks, and fallback positions to speed up contracting. Vendor and third-party contracts - Review and negotiate vendor, supplier, and partner agreements, including data processing terms for new vendors (including AI vendors), balancing commercial pace against risk. - Apply a consistent approach to vendor contracting, including standard terms and an approval process the wider business can self serve against. Employment and other advisory - Provide input on employment contracts, policies, and people related matters, working alongside HR and external specialists where needed. - Act as a general legal advisor to the business, fielding day to day queries across the company and triaging what needs specialist input. What you will need - Qualified lawyer (or equivalent legal qualification) with 5 years or more post-qualification experience (PQE). - Significant in-house counsel experience in a tech business, ideally at a regulated fintech or financial services company. - Hands on experience using AI tools to improve legal efficiency, and genuine enthusiasm for continuing to do so. - A genuine generalist track record spanning commercial and client contracts, vendor contracts, data protection, and disputes, with comfort giving input on employment matters. - Experience working across multiple jurisdictions, EU and UK exposure required, US exposure a strong plus. - Comfort operating within a lean in house legal function, taking on wide ranging exposure and escalating to external counsel only where genuinely needed. - Sound commercial judgment and the ability to communicate legal risk clearly to a non legal audience. - Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills. Arbitration and mediation experience is a plus. Regulatory advisory (ideal, but not required) - Advise on payment services and EMI regulatory questions across the jurisdictions Payhawk operates in. - Support responses to regulatory and third party requests (subpoenas, disclosure requests, and similar), coordinating with external counsel where needed. - Working knowledge of payment services regulation (EU PSD2, UK PSRs) and GDPR/CCPA, or a demonstrated ability to get up to speed quickly in a regulated environment.