Senior Legal Counsel, Monzo

Employment, Incentives & Pensions

£93.5-126.5k

+ Stock Options

Expert level
London
Remote from UK

✅ We can sponsor visas

Monzo

Digital-only bank platform and marketplace

Be an early applicant

Monzo

Digital-only bank platform and marketplace

1001+ employees

FintechB2CB2BBankingMarketplacePersonal financeFinancial ServicesMobile

Be an early applicant

£93.5-126.5k

+ Stock Options

Expert level
London
Remote from UK

✅ We can sponsor visas

1001+ employees

FintechB2CB2BBankingMarketplacePersonal financeFinancial ServicesMobile

Company mission

To build a new kind of bank that makes money work for everyone.

Role

Who you are

  • You are an experienced, commercial and pragmatic employment lawyer, with at least 6 years + PQE or equivalent experience
  • You have an excellent technical grounding in all aspects of employment law, having spent time in private practice, and ideally time in house at a bank and/or other financial institution
  • You have experience advising on employment-related regulatory issues which arise in financial services, such as SMCR and FCA Code of Conduct and wider Remuneration Code matters
  • You have experience of advising on incentive structures including share options, plus an awareness of workplace defined contribution pension arrangements
  • You are a strategic thinker, a strong communicator and a keen problem solver who can recommend solutions that balance business and risk perspectives
  • You are willing to jump in and handle a wide range of EIP related legal issues that may arise even outside your core areas of expertise in an enthusiastic, proactive, and resourceful manner, and can sensibly assess when best to engage external counsel in a cost-effective way
  • You are comfortable operating at all levels of the organisation up to the Executive and liaising with a variety of internal and external stakeholders
  • You enjoy horizon scanning, proactively assessing risks, and quickly identifying and independently implementing mitigating actions. You are always looking for new ways to improve the efficiency and scalability of legal processes and systems
  • You have a dynamic and entrepreneurial approach and are comfortable with the ambiguity of a fast-paced and rapidly-evolving environment
  • You’ve an open and curious mind, are passionate about the intersection of banking and technology and are excited to join us for the next stage of our journey at Monzo!

What the job involves

  • We're looking for a Senior Legal Counsel - Employment, Incentives & Pensions to join our team at Monzo and help us build one of the best, most innovative banks in the world
  • This role will have day-to-day responsibility for advising on employment, incentives and pensions (EIP) related matters in a regulated bank environment
  • This role will report to Monzo’s Director of Legal - EIP and is part of the Group Centre EIP team in the Legal & Board Governance Collective at Monzo, which supports Monzo Group and its operating entities globally
  • In this role, you will work at all levels in the organisation and in close partnership with our People, Reward, Risk & Compliance and Finance teams, as well as in collaboration with senior Legal team stakeholders as the business develops into a matrix organisation
  • You’ll lead on a wide range of EIP related legal matters with opportunities for growth in role as the business scales in the UK and internationally
  • Provide strategic employment legal advice and commercial solutions on EIP matters impacting the Monzo Group as a whole, as well as its subsidiary legal entities. Work closely and collaboratively with Monzo’s Director of Legal EIP and the other Senior Legal Counsel EIP lawyer, as well as with the broader Group Centre Legal team plus local entity GCs and their teams
  • Be a trusted adviser and partner to the People team, including in developing policies, procedures, guidance and templates relevant for a range of EIP legal matters
  • Provide EIP advisory legal support to the business as required across the entire employee life cycle - from hiring (including executive service contracts), people processes and departures
  • Manage any contentious EIP legal matters in conjunction with external counsel
  • Work with Monzo’s Reward team on compensation arrangements and remuneration policies and practices in a bank regulatory compensation framework
  • Provide legal support to the corporate and commercial legal functions, including on TUPE
  • Support international projects and matters in the EU and US as the business continues to scale
  • Work proactively and collaboratively with members of the wider Legal, People, Reward, Tax, Risk & Compliance, & Finance Collectives on a variety of EIP related matters
  • Develop and implement internal frameworks, processes and procedures to increase the efficiency and scalability of EIP legal advice across the Monzo Group and its subsidiary entities
  • Deliver training, share insights from your work, and help educate others on EIP matters
  • Manage relationships with our external legal counsel and work with others in the Collective to ensure we are optimising our legal spend on EIP matters and obtaining best value

Application process

  • Recruiter call (potentially followed by an initial call with Director of Legal - EIP)
  • First stage 1 hour role specific interview
  • Second stage 1 hour behavioural interview
  • Our average process takes around 3-4 weeks but we will always work around your availability
  • We’ll only close this role once we have enough applications for the next stage. Please submit your application as soon as possible to make sure you don’t miss out

Salary benchmarks

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Insights

Top investors

42% female employees

19% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Company benefits

  • Yearly Salary Review + Proactive pay increases to reflect growing responsibilities + Share options
  • Flexible working hours
  • Work From Home Opportunities + we'll pay for any equipment you need to do your job
  • 24 days holiday a year, plus bank holidays
  • Paid sick leave for both physical & mental health + Health insurance via AXA or Vitality + Additional health insurance through Medicash
  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • Learning budget of £1,000 a year
  • Aviva Pension Scheme + 4% Employer Contribution
  • Paid maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave (after 13 weeks of employment)
  • 52 weeks of primary caregiver leave (6 months at 100% pay, 13 weeks at Statutory Maternity Pay, 13 weeks unpaid)
  • 3 months of secondary caregiver leave at 100% pay
  • Unum Life Insurance
  • Access to fertility and family-forming health benefits via Fertifa
  • Abellio Season Travel Tickets + Cycle-to-Work Scheme

Funding (last 2 of 18 rounds)

May 2024

$190m

LATE VC

Mar 2024

$453m

LATE VC

Total funding: $1.9bn

Our take

Monzo is a challenger bank that fully operates online and offers a full range of current, savings, business accounts, and more. The speed of the challenger banks to provide a great experience has been impressive, and the number of competitors appearing has proven the consumer desire for innovation.

Monzo remains one of the popular online banks, with more than 6 million customer active users. The company faces competition as more traditional banks, such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have launched their own digital banks. However, the new technologies that the company is built on enable it to expand quickly (with fewer issues) than the incumbent players' offerings.

With an increasing amount of people switching banks, the company's ever-expanding suite of banking and financial services (such as its buy-now-pay-later offering) has resulted in Monzo receiving the second-highest net switching gains among digital challenger banks (just behind Starling).

After setting U.S. expansion plans aside in 2020, the company launched in the U.S. market in early 2022, partnering with Sutton Bank to provide its U.S. accounts. After several years focused on narrowing its losses, Monzo hit profitability in the first two months of 2023. In the same year, 2 million new customers joined, tallying its customer base at 9 million in 2024.

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Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle