Senior Counsel, Transactions (Capital Markets) (Chicago)

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest regulated stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com.What you’ll be part of:Circle is committed to visibility and stability in everything we do. As we grow as an organization, we're expanding into some of the world's strongest jurisdictions. Speed and efficiency are motivators for our success and our employees live by our company values: High Integrity, Future Forward, Multistakeholder, Mindful, and Driven by Excellence. We have built a flexible work environment where new ideas are encouraged and everyone is a stakeholder.What you’ll be responsible for: Under the direction of the Assistant General Counsel - Transactions, you will play an immediate and direct role in complex commercial transactional work, supporting Circle's global capital markets business — including crypto exchanges, digital asset market makers, and institutional capital markets partners — as well as Circle's Arc network, a purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin finance. We are looking for someone who is highly proactive, accountable, team-oriented, capable of managing multiple competing priorities, and who is excited to join a lean team that executes on a variety of novel and complex legal issues at the cutting edge of crypto and global finance. What you'll work on: Serve as a trusted legal partner to Circle's capital markets business development team, working collaboratively and building strong lines of communication across global deal teams — with a primary focus on supporting crypto exchange partnerships, digital asset market maker agreements, and institutional capital markets transactions globally.Structure, negotiate, and draft complex crypto, fintech, and capital markets agreements — including exchange listing and integration agreements, market maker and liquidity provision agreements, co-funding, credit and collateral arrangements, and USYC tokenized collateral transactions — addressing legal risk in business-centric ways with the goal of strengthening commercial partnerships and advancing revenue opportunities.Support Arc's capital markets go-to-market, including drafting and negotiating agreements with exchanges, liquidity providers, validators, and institutional partners participating in Arc's lending, borrowing, FX, and tokenized asset use cases.Support the creation and expansion of contract templates and playbooks for capital markets transaction types, including exchange, market maker, and digital asset collateral frameworks, to increase speed and consistency across the deal pipeline.Aid in the development and implementation of processes, procedures, and metrics (including efficient contracting workflows) to increase the overall effectiveness of legal services provided to global capital markets teams.Assist business leaders with contract interpretation and management as they execute deals with exchanges, trading firms, custodians, and other institutional counterparties globally.Remain current on developments in crypto capital markets, digital assets, tokenization, stablecoins, and blockchain infrastructure — including Arc's role as a settlement and capital markets layer — to provide sound, practical transactional advice across Circle's institutional go-to-market motion.What you’ll bring to Circle: You are passionate about financial technology and the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchains — a team player with a sense of humor who enjoys both learning and mentoring. Commercially minded, you keep the business objective front and center and communicate complex ideas clearly, both verbally and in writing, in a way that allows clients to act on them. You thrive in evolving, fast-moving environments, manage multiple priorities with ease, and exercise sound judgment under pressure — equally comfortable working autonomously and collaborating as part of a team. You are obsessively organized, energetic, and deeply accountable, with a strong sense of ownership over your actions and decisions.Core Requirements10+ years of legal experience in capital markets, crypto, or financial services.3+ years of prior experience at a top-tier law firm.J.D. (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in at least one U.S. State Bar.Extensive experience drafting and negotiating complex crypto, fintech, and capital markets agreements, including exchange, market maker, liquidity provision, collateral, and digital asset transactions.Familiarity with TradFi capital markets concepts — including derivatives, structured products, collateral management, and market infrastructure — and how these intersect with digital asset and blockchain ecosystems.Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams on high-impact, institutional partnerships, with a focus on capital markets, exchanges, and market maker business teams.Ability to manage a variety of initiatives, matters, and transactions requiring analysis and distillation of relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, ideally in a financial services, fintech, or crypto environment.Ability to identify regulatory, tax, accounting, and other potential implications and quarterback deals to ensure all relevant stakeholders are aligned on transactions.Comfort leveraging AI tools to streamline routine tasks and enhance workflow efficiency, while exercising independent legal judgment and maintaining full responsibility for reviewing, verifying, and validating outputs to ensure legal accuracy and mitigate risk.Willingness to participate in negotiation calls outside standard business hours to support global deal teams.Preferred RequirementsFamiliarity with the legal and regulatory landscape across key global markets relevant to Circle's business, including digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, and capital markets — with an understanding of how product and technology requirements intersect with those frameworks.Prior exposure to ISDA documentation, master trading agreements, or other capital markets framework agreements is a plus.Prior experience working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Financial Supervisory Service regulations is a plus.Experience/familiarity with Slack, Apple MacOS, ChatGPT and other AI tools, and GSuite.Circle is on a mission to create an inclusive financial future, with transparency at our core. We consider a wide variety of elements when crafting our compensation ranges and total compensation packages.Starting pay is determined by various factors, including but not limited to: relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Please note that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.Base Pay Range: $230,000 - $297,500We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where we hire. Additionally, Circle participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law.Should you require accommodations or assistance in our interview process because of a disability, please reach out to View email address on apply.placed-app.com for support. We respect your privacy and will connect with you separately from our interview process to accommodate your needs.#LI-RemoteJob SummaryJob number: JR100970Profession: Legal