Principal Legal Counsel, Corporate & Finance

The role

You will be the senior legal lead on corporate, compliance, treasury, finance and governance work for the Aave Labs Group. You will advise boards and senior leadership and manage the legal side of how the Group is structured, governed and funded.

What you will do

• Act as principal legal adviser to Group boards, foundation councils and senior leadership on corporate, governance and finance matters
• Manage Group legal entities across the Cayman Islands, UK, EU, US and other jurisdictions, including incorporations, dissolutions, statutory registers, filings and annual returns
• Build and run the Group's corporate compliance programme, including a compliance calendar of statutory, licensing and filing deadlines
• Own Group-wide corporate policies and run annual attestations and training
• Track ongoing corporate obligations of licensed subsidiaries, including FCA and MiCAR authorised entities
• Support internal and external audits, bank and counterparty due diligence, and record-keeping
• Advise on and document treasury activity, including lending, borrowing, custody and digital asset holdings
• Work with Finance and external tax advisers on legal structuring of transactions
• Own the Group's signing authority matrix, document execution process and contract repository
• Support the wider Legal team on commercial and regulatory matters as needed

Required qualifications

• 4+ years of post-qualification experience in corporate, finance or funds work
• Significant time at a leading Cayman or other offshore law firm (or a leading onshore firm) and senior in-house experience
• Track record as a trusted adviser to boards and senior leadership, leading complex transactions and managing external counsel with minimal oversight
• Experience with entity management, board governance and corporate secretarial work across multiple jurisdictions
• Experience building or running a corporate compliance programme, including policies, registers, attestations, training and a compliance calendar
• Comfort working closely with Finance, Tax, Compliance and Operations teams
• Strong organisation and attention to detail
• Excellent communication and judgement, with the confidence to challenge and influence at senior levels
• Willingness to be based in the Cayman Islands

Nice to have

• Familiarity with treasury operations, tax structuring or fund administration
• Interest in or experience with crypto, DeFi or digital assets

About the company

Aave Labs builds the Aave Protocol, described as the world's largest and most trusted onchain lending market. The company develops products that expand access to lending, credit and savings globally.