Legal Counsel - Fintech

Aave Labs began with a simple question: how do we make financial services like borrowing, saving, and earning more accessible globally?

We built the Aave Protocol, now the world’s largest and most trusted onchain lending market, connecting decentralized finance with individuals, traditional finance, and fintech.

Today, we build trusted, high-quality products that expand access to lending, credit, and savings globally

We build trusted products that help people access and discover economic opportunities.

We hold a high bar for quality and craftsmanship. We’re a global team building products people can actually use, turning complex technology into something simple and reliable.

We’re looking for a Legal Counsel to join Aave Labs and support our global business, with a particular focus on commercial matters, acquisitions and strategic transactions.

You’ll work closely with teams across the business to structure, negotiate and execute a broad range of commercial arrangements and transactions, including strategic partnerships, acquisitions, asset purchases and acqui-hires.

This role is well suited to someone with a strong corporate and commercial foundation who can navigate complex transactions, understand the commercial objectives behind them and provide practical, business-oriented legal advice in a fast-moving environment. This position offers global responsibilities, allowing you to work with diverse teams and navigate complex international legal landscapes.

Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements, including strategic partnerships, technology and software agreements, integrations, vendor and service agreements

Partner closely with Business Development, Product and other teams to structure complex commercial arrangements and develop practical legal solutions that enable new partnerships and products

Support the negotiation and execution of strategic partnerships with financial institutions, fintechs, infrastructure providers and other participants across the digital asset ecosystem

Provide legal support throughout the lifecycle of partner integrations and strategic initiatives, from initial structuring and negotiation through implementation and launch

Advise teams across the business on contract interpretation, rights, obligations and commercial risk

Support acquisitions, asset purchases, acqui-hires and other strategic transactions from initial evaluation through signing and completion

Conduct and coordinate legal due diligence, identifying key risks and translating findings into clear, practical recommendations

Draft, review and negotiate transaction documentation, including NDAs, LOIs, term sheets, purchase agreements, IP transfer arrangements and other ancillary documents

Work closely with senior stakeholders and external counsel on transaction structuring, negotiation and execution

Advise on corporate, commercial and intellectual property considerations arising from strategic transactions

Support post-transaction matters, including the transfer and integration of contracts, intellectual property and other assets

Develop and improve commercial templates, contracting processes and legal playbooks to enable the business to move efficiently and at scale

4+ years of experience as a practising lawyer, with a strong background in corporate and commercial law and experience handling complex transactions

• Experience working in fintech, crypto or digital assets, with a strong understanding of the commercial and legal environment
• Strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements
• Experience advising on acquisitions, corporate transactions and other complex commercial arrangements
• Working knowledge of digital asset regulatory frameworks, including securities law issues and token classification, as they bear on deal structuring and diligence
• Familiarity with DeFi protocols and on-chain/DAO governance structures, including where they arise as transaction counterparties or acquisition targets
• Experience conducting legal due diligence and drafting and negotiating transaction documentation
• Experience structuring transaction consideration involving tokens, as distinct from standard cash or equity consideration
• Experience within a leading law firm and/or an in-house legal team within a technology or financial services environment
• Strong commercial judgment and the ability to identify material legal risks and translate them into practical recommendations
• Preference is for this role to be based in New York, NY, and relocation assistance is available for the right candidate.

Aave Labs celebrates diversity and views each and every team member as a separate individual with their own unique identity. No matter your race, religion, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation or even the wallet you use, we welcome you at Aave Labs. We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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