Hyperlayer
Head of Legal
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About the role
As we scale our client base of Tier 1 and Tier 2 financial institutions across the UK, US and beyond, we're looking for an experienced, commercially minded Head of Legal to build and own Hyperlayer's legal function from the ground up.
This is a broad, hands-on general counsel role, but with specific expertise as described in the Responsibilities below. You'll be the dedicated legal leader in the business, covering everything from software licensing and client contracts to corporate matters and vendor agreements, with day-to-day exposure across the full spread of legal issues a growing, regulated fintech faces. You'll be expected to handle the vast majority of this work yourself rather than defaulting to external counsel, using external lawyers selectively for specialist or high-stakes matters.
This is an individual contributor role to start, with administrative support available for tasks like signing requests and NDA drafting — but with clear scope to build out a wider legal team as the company continues to grow. You'll also be expected to bring modern ways of working to the function, including using AI tools to speed up contract review, drafting and legal operations.
What you'll do
Client contracts & software licensing
- Own the drafting, negotiation and execution of client contracts, with particular depth in software licensing arrangements for financial institution customers.
- Act as the primary legal point of contact for commercial negotiations with Tier 1 and Tier 2 FI clients across the UK, US and other markets we serve.
- Develop and maintain a suite of template agreements, playbooks and fallback positions to speed up contracting and reduce reliance on bespoke drafting.
Corporate law
- Advise on corporate structure, governance and entity management across the group's jurisdictions.
- Lead legal workstreams on equity financing activity, including supporting due diligence, transaction documentation and investor negotiations.
- Support the leadership team on corporate reorganisations or other strategic transactions as they arise.
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Vendor & third-party contracts
- Review and negotiate vendor, supplier and partner agreements, balancing commercial pace against risk.
- Put in place a consistent approach to vendor contracting, including standard terms and an approval process the wider business can self-serve against.
Employment & other advisory
- Provide occasional input on employment contracts, policies and people-related matters, working alongside HR and external specialists where needed.
- Act as a general legal advisor to the business, fielding day-to-day queries across the company and triaging what needs specialist input.
Legal operations & process
- Design and implement the legal processes, systems and governance the business needs as it scales — contract lifecycle management, approval workflows, document storage and reporting.
- Identify and roll out AI tools to streamline contract review, drafting and other legal workflows, improving turnaround times without compromising quality.
- Build out the legal function over time, starting with administrative support for signing requests and routine drafting, with a path to hiring further legal headcount as workload grows.
Qualifications
- A solicitor or equivalent UK legal qualification (PQE 6+ years)
- Significant in-house counsel experience — this role is not suited to candidates who have only advised clients from within a law firm.
- Strong software licensing experience, ideally gained licensing technology to financial institutions or other regulated enterprise customers.
- Experience working across both UK and US law and jurisdictions; exposure to EU and/or APAC is a strong plus.
- A genuine generalist track record spanning commercial/client contracts, corporate law (including equity financing), and vendor contracts, with comfort giving input on employment matters.
- A track record of building legal processes, systems or ways of working in a scaling business, not just handling matters as they land.
- Hands-on experience using AI tools to improve legal efficiency, and genuine enthusiasm for continuing to do so.
- Comfort operating as a sole legal function, taking on wide-ranging exposure and only escalating to external counsel where it's genuinely needed.
- Sound commercial judgement and the ability to communicate legal risk clearly to a non-legal audience.
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How to apply
Please click on the 'Apply' button, you will be asked to provide an updated CV and answer some questions. For further information about this vacancy, you can contact us at: recruitment@hyperlayer.com.
We will not be offering UK work visa sponsorship for these roles. Candidates will need an existing non-sponsored right to work in the UK.
Working at Hyperlayer
At Hyperlayer we are proud of our in-office culture. It makes a real difference to the working atmosphere and maximises collaboration in and across teams. This is critical to how we work and learn. Also, we think it makes for a great workplace!
We value our team and are proud to offer some great benefits:
- A performance-based employee bonus scheme.
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, a day off on your birthday, and an additional day per year of tenure to a maximum of 30.
- Critical illness and life insurance cover.
- AXA PPP Health Insurance, including gym offers.
- Cycle-to-work scheme.
- Referral bonus scheme.
- Workplace nursery scheme.
Equity, diversity, and inclusion
Hyperlayer's mission is to make a positive impact on people's lives, making it easier for everyone to manage their money.
Hyperlayer's commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is a key part of this; it helps us better serve our customers, employees, and business partners from every background.
We are constantly learning and striving to do better, and we expect all staff to actively take part in this process.
Data Privacy
As part of our recruitment process, Hyperlayer Limited collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants.
We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use this data and to meeting our data protection obligations. To read more click here.
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