Senior Regulatory & Commercial Lawyer (CY)

Smarter is a management company responsible for defining the overall strategy of investment activities and ensuring optimal management and development strategies for each business unit within the group. The main areas of activity and focus of our company include the international fintech community SFORS (https://sfors.com), the brokerage company Statok (https://statok.global), and the product company Pine Software (https://pinesoftware.com.cy) We are looking for an experienced and business-oriented Senior Legal Counsel to serve as a trusted legal partner for our portfolio businesses across digital assets, algorithmic trading, brokerage, and SaaS technology. In this role, you will lead our regulatory strategy across key global jurisdictions (particularly the EU and UAE), drive complex licensing projects, negotiate high-value commercial and technology contracts, and help build robust legal operations as the group expands. 1. Regulatory Strategy & Licensing Leadership - Lead Licensing & Authorisations: Drive end-to-end regulatory projects under frameworks such as MiCA (EU) and VARA (UAE), collaborating with internal stakeholders and managing external counsel. - Regulatory Horizon Scanning: Monitor emerging legal developments in the EU, UAE, US, and Switzerland (FINMA), translating regulatory shifts into actionable commercial advice. - Product & Market Entry Advisory: Advise Product, Engineering, and Trading teams from day one to ensure new business models (spot, derivatives, prop trading, liquidity solutions) are compliant by design. 2. Commercial, SaaS & Tech Transactions - Draft & Negotiate Commercial Deals: Review complex SaaS, enterprise software, white-label agreements, MSAs, SLAs, DPAs, and IP licensing contracts. - Institutional Onboarding: Oversee the legal side of onboarding with major crypto exchanges, liquidity providers, custodians, institutional banks, and payment rails (including KYB reviews and counterparty agreements). - Platform Documentation: Draft and maintain client-facing platform documents: Terms of Service/Use, Risk Disclosures, and Privacy Policies. 3. AI, Emerging Tech & Compliance Integration - AI & Data Governance: Advise on legal risks and governance around AI development and deployment, including compliance with the EU AI Act, AI vendor contracting, IP ownership, and GDPR. - Cross-functional Alignment: Partner closely with Compliance/AML, Finance, and Information Security on AML/CFT frameworks, sanctions compliance, and internal controls. 4. Legal Operations & Leadership - Scalable Operations: Build internal legal playbooks, automated contract templates, and review workflows to accelerate business velocity. - External Counsel Management: Select, manage, and coordinate outside law firms across multiple jurisdictions, controlling budgets and deliverable quality. - Mentorship: Help build the group’s legal function and mentor junior legal specialists.