General Counsel, Step
+ Stock
Office located in Palo Alto, CA
Mobile banking that helps build credit
Job no longer available
Mobile banking that helps build credit
201-500 employees
Job no longer available
+ Stock
Office located in Palo Alto, CA
201-500 employees
Company mission
To create a bank that gives users the tools to become smarter with their money and reward them along their financial journey.
Role
Who you are
- J.D. from an accredited law school and a member of good standing in a state bar, preferably California
- 10+ years of experience at one or more law firms and corporate legal departments. Strong preference for candidates with significant prior experience at a fast-paced fintech company (at a leadership level, either as a general counsel or a deputy general counsel managing a significant legal function)
- Mastery of relevant financial and marketing regulations, including Reg B, Reg E, Reg Z, UDAP, UDAAP, SEC Advisers Act, Bank Secrecy Act (KYC/AML)
- Experience and familiarity with all relevant privacy regulations, especially COPPA, CPPA, CPRA, and all upcoming and evolving regulations in the space (such as the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act)
- Familiarity with representing the interests of a company in legislative and judicial settings as well as in front of regulatory agencies
- Working knowledge of corporate legal functions such as employment, IP (patents, trademarks, open source, copyrights, trade secrets), immigration, and contracts management
- Strategic thinking with a proactive approach to legal issues
- Business acumen and the ability to balance legal risk with business objectives
- Ability to navigate complex regulatory environments and quickly adapt to changes
- Strong leadership and team management skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
What the job involves
- We seek an experienced and business-minded General Counsel to join our team to lead our legal, regulatory, privacy, and policy functions
- Build, scale, and oversee Step’s legal, regulatory, privacy, and product compliance functions
- You will work closely with Step’s leadership on business strategy, corporate governance, and navigating complex legal challenges in the fintech space
- Operate as one of our primary product architects
- You will work with the product and engineering teams to help build next-gen financial solutions that seek to improve the lives of many, helping drive and push for innovative and creative solutions on one hand while ensuring that the products are compliant with applicable laws and regulations on the other hand
- Be one of the closest advisors and confidants to Step’s executive team
- Proactively provide business-forward advice and ensure the company operates at the highest level of legal and regulatory compliance in all aspects of the business
- Be the authority on all applicable financial, banking, investing, consumer-protection, and marketing regulations
- Serve as the north pole to the company in both educating our team members on legal and regulatory trends as well as implementing whatever is necessary to ensure compliance
- As Corporate Secretary, manage functions around Step’s equity program, corporate governance (maintain corporate policies, bylaws, governance documents), and board meetings (resolutions and minute keeping)
- Ensure Step’s legal and business interests are protected in all commercial transactions
- Liaise with Step’s external banking partners to ensure smooth product execution and spearheading approvals of product changes and marketing initiatives
- Function as the Chief Compliance Officer of Step’s investment advisory subsidiary
Our take
Thanks to an increasingly mobile-native and plugged-in younger demographic, fintechs have a new market to play for: teens and young adults. It’s led to fierce competition, but Step is one of the players leading the pack.
Step’s offering is a fee-free, interest-free visa card, with instant payments and easy account management that is optionally controlled by a parent (or sponsor). The idea is to offer a relatively low-risk sandbox in which young people can build up financial literacy along with a good credit score, whilst enjoying the benefits of digital banking.
The well-funded teen banking service Copper is hot on Step’s heels, however, with both racing to add high-demand stock and crypto investments to their offerings. Onu and Acorns also offer investment opportunities for younger users, and Greenlight has carved out a strong (albeit more traditional) niche focusing on account security.
Some savvy TikTok marketing by Step, along with flashy backing from celebrity investors, has helped it rapidly onboard over 3M users and cultivate strong name-brand recognition among its social network-native demographic. Much depends on how fast it can bring new features to market, but with unprecedented funding awarded to Step in 2022, it is well-equipped to do so through a scale-up of its product infrastructure.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
10% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Apr 2021
$100m
SERIES C
Dec 2020
$50m
SERIES B
Total funding: $176.3m
Company benefits
- Competitive Medical, Dental, Mental Health & Wellbeing benefits
- 12 weeks paid parental leave, baby bonus to support unexpected expenses and flexible return to work
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Annual Professional Development Reimbursement Program
- Flexible Work From Home and Time Off Policy
- Stock Options
Company HQ
Ventura, Palo Alto, CA
Leadership
CJ MacDonald
(Co-Founder & CEO)Originally worked in Senior Sales and Business Development roles at Synapse, LiveOps, and Luminate, the latter of which was acquired by Yahoo. Subsequently co-founded Gyft, ultimately acquired by First Data.
Alexey Kalinichenko
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously a Software Engineer at Microsoft and Google, before moving into a Senior Engineer role at Square. Left to serve as CTO for Token.
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