Legal Counsel - Maternity Cover

Senior Legal Counsel

Codat is an advisory intelligence solution purpose-built for modern commercial banking. Through rich, specialized data, forward-looking insights, and integrated workflows, Codat empowers banking teams to deepen their relationships, grow their revenue, and simplify their day-to-day work.

Founded in 2017 and backed by JPMorgan, PayPal, Amex, Plaid, and Shopify, Codat has successfully powered over 350,000 connections to business customers' financial systems — and is trusted by industry leaders to turn scattered information into actionable, strategic advantages in real time, every time.

We're hiring a Senior Legal Counsel on a 14-month fixed-term contract. This is a hands-on, commercially focussed role at the heart of how Codat does business.

You'll lead technology contract negotiations with our UK, US and Canadian financial institution clients - leading redlines, protecting deal velocity and acting as a trusted GTM partner. Alongside commercial work, you will continue building out our AI-enabled legal infrastructure to transform how legal services are delivered at Codat.

Responsibilities include:

• Commercial contracting and ownership: draft, review and negotiate SaaS agreements with financial institution clients across the UK, US and Canada.
• GTM partnership: embed with the Sales and Account Management team - join customer calls, work to quarter-end timelines, and help Account Executives and Account Managers close deals at pace.
• AI enablement: create, implement and manage AI solutions that scale the legal function and enable the business to self-serve routine requests.
• Product and partnership advice: Advise Product, Engineering and GTM on new products, features and partnerships - translating legal considerations into market-ready outcomes.
• BAU legal and compliance: Handle day-to-day legal queries across a range of topics (such as data protection and employment), in a practical, business-aligned way.

What you'll bring to the team:

• Qualified solicitor (or equivalent) with at least 4 years' PQE, gained in private practice or in-house.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience negotiating enterprise SaaS terms/API agreements.
• Commercial instinct: you have worked in a sales-led environment, you understand the pipeline and you are comfortable advising on commercial strategy, not just legal risk.
• AI-native: you have designed, built and iterated on AI solutions (agents, automated review tools, intake systems) that allow the business to self-serve on routine work.
• Strong knowledge of data protection principles as they apply to a B2B SaaS context.
• Comfortable working autonomously at pace with minimal supervision. You are a clear, concise drafter who communicates in plain English and knows how to right-size advice.

Nice to haves:

• Experience advising on cross-border commercial contracts across the UK, US and Canada.
• Experience negotiating contracts with banks or regulated financial institutions — you understand how their legal and procurement functions operate, the risk frameworks they work within, and how to reach agreement efficiently.
• Familiarity with the legal and regulatory considerations that come with serving regulated financial institution clients.
• In-house experience at a tech or fintech start-up or scale-up: you are comfortable with ambiguity, iterating quickly and building processes where none exist.