General Counsel

The General Counsel provides expert and strategic legal advice to the board and executive committee on all legal matters relating to the business and its entities. The General Counsel will be involved in all of Stitch’s products, alongside any new product lines that are in development.

Key Responsibilities

1. Manage the tactical and strategic legal support related to products and solutions to advance Stitch’s corporate objectives
2. Internally advise and work with our Product, Engineering, Business Development, Growth and other teams to develop a regulatory roadmap that allows Stitch to go-to-market effectively with its payments and data products
3. Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of legal documentation that meets both local regulation requirements and product & sales objectives, such as customer / partner contracts, service-level agreements, and terms & conditions
4. Originate and manage outsourced / localized legal & compliance relationships on a per-territory basis where additional advisory may be required
5. Provide consultation and handle commercial law issues, such as partner agreements, tax issues, etc.
6. Oversee the gathering of international documentation to meet external reporting obligations, whether facing regulators, investors, customers, or any other external counterpart
7. Develop, coordinate, and/or oversee internal and external audit procedures
8. Assist Stitch’s customers in mitigating legal and commercial risks by providing solution-oriented guidance

Requirements

• A qualified lawyer with 12 years or more legal experience in payments & financial services, a solid academic and training background and licensed to practice in South Africa
• Experience across a range of commercial and technology contracts and the ability to analyze and identify the core legal issues, skilled at explaining technical problems succinctly and clearly
• Deep knowledge of applicable global and local payments and data compliance regulation e.g., GDPR, and open banking regulations
• A working knowledge of data privacy and intellectual property issues and how they relate to emerging technology in the payments industry.
• Familiarity with information security standards such as ISO 27001 and CIS Top 18
• Ability to develop relationships with relevant regulators (payments bodies, Central Banks or other regulatory bodies) across relevant jurisdictions
• Prior track record working cross-functionally to enable regulatory compliance across multiple dimensions of a high-growth business: within product (e.g. as counsel to product design and T/Cs), within business development (e.g. identifying ways to onboard partners and customers in a compliant way), and within technology (e.g. working with information security to build a robust IS org)
• A fast learner who can gain rapid familiarity with complex products, services and legal frameworks and maintain knowledge of those changing products, services and legal frameworks.

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