Senior Counsel, Affirm
Vendor
$195-280k
Salary variable to location. Plus ESPP.
More information about location
Buy-now-pay-later card for online and in-store
Open for applications
Buy-now-pay-later card for online and in-store
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$195-280k
Salary variable to location. Plus ESPP.
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To deliver honest and transparent financial products that improve users' lives.
Role
Who you are
- JD and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar
- 8+ years of relevant transactional experience in-house at a technology company or in a technology practice group at a top law firm
- 2+ years of direct people management experience, including hiring, developing, and performance-managing attorneys or legal professionals
- Exceptional drafting skills
- Experience in fintech, payments, or financial services
- Experience supporting global or multi-jurisdictional transactions (e.g., Canada, US, UK/EU, Australia)
- Strong working knowledge of data protection and privacy regimes such as CCPA, GDPR, APPs, PIPEDA, and GLBA
- Proven ability to manage high deal volume while maintaining quality, consistency, and attention to detail
- A track record of building or improving legal processes, playbooks, templates, or other operational tools in a high-growth environment
- Clear, concise communication skills, with the ability to distill complex legal and commercial issues into plain language
- Collaborative working style, with experience guiding cross-functional teams toward practical, win-win outcomes
- Intellectual curiosity and creative problem-solving instincts: you learn new products and business models quickly and enjoy finding solutions to novel challenges
- Proactive, self-starter mentality with a bias for action
- Excellent judgment, and ability to make timely, pragmatic, and business-focused decisions in ambiguous situations with imperfect information
- Humility, integrity and a sense of humor; you take your work seriously, but not yourself
What the job involves
- The Legal, Compliance, and Public Affairs team is a group of dedicated professionals committed to helping Affirm scale, innovate, and provide outstanding products for consumers, merchants, and key partners
- We combine legal, compliance, and policy expertise to guide growth, shape products, and build trust across our ecosystem. Our work spans multiple professional disciplines and provides the foundation for Affirm’s mission to deliver honest financial products
- Affirm seeks a practical, proactive, and people-oriented transactional attorney to lead and grow our Vendor Legal team. Reporting to the Senior Director, this role is responsible for managing a team, setting priorities, driving operational execution, and serving as a key stakeholder partner across the organization. You will also maintain a personal deal portfolio, staying close to the work and modeling the standard of quality, speed, and judgment you expect from your team
- You are pragmatic, solutions-oriented, and comfortable balancing risk with business velocity in a high-growth, technology-driven environment. You know how to build and motivate a team, develop talent, and create the systems and processes that scale a legal function. The right person will be equal parts team builder, trusted advisor, process architect, and deal closer. This is a unique opportunity to help rebuild the Vendor Legal team from the ground up
- Foster a collaborative, high-performance team culture grounded in accountability, continuous improvement, and a bias for action
- Lead negotiation, drafting, and execution of a wide range of vendor agreements, including technology services, cloud services, SaaS, data platform, contractor, marketing/creative, lease, and payment processing engagements. Manage a high volume of deals with speed and sound judgment
- Design, implement, and continuously improve playbooks, contract templates, negotiation guides, and other projects that enable the team to operate efficiently at scale. Identify friction points and build solutions that reduce cycle time without sacrificing quality
- Work closely with procurement, financial partnerships, engineering, product, finance, information security, privacy, and other teams to provide clear, practical guidance
- Serve as a proactive, strategic business partner to senior managers across the organization
- Develop and deliver training and resources that empower business partners to self-serve on routine vendor legal matters, increasing team capacity and reducing bottlenecks
Our take
Affirm offers point-of-sale loans to consumers, working with merchants like Shopify, KAYAK, and Walmart. Buy now, pay later transactions have grown in popularity in recent years, and this business is tapping into the market with a totally different approach to credit - by delivering the Affirm card, the first US debit card with the option to pay-over-time.
Serving over 21 million consumers and over 300,000 merchants, the company offers flexible payback options ranging from 3 to 36 months. The interest rates run between 0% and 30%, so, while they are not necessarily the cheapest option, Affirm prides itself on having no fees for late payments, no hidden charges, and total transparency about what people will pay before they take out a loan.
Affirm collects payments from the customers and pays the merchants directly, shouldering the risk itself. The company has boosted its market share, expanding its availability beyond the US to include most of Canada, and continues to launch new features and create new partnerships towards bettering its offering.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-11% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Sep 2020
$500m
SERIES G
Apr 2019
$300m
SERIES F
Total funding: $1.1bn
Company benefits
- Compensation: We have a simple, flexible, and transparent remote-first compensation structure so you can make the best decisions for yourself and your family
- Spending Wallets: Access tech, food, lifestyle, and family planning wallets for your expenses
- Supportive Communities: Get involved with our employee resource groups and community groups
- Remote-first Workforce: If your role is remote, you can set up shop anywhere in your home country
- Generous Time Off: Take the time you need when life happens
- Health Benefits: Get a plan that fits your needs
- Mental Healthcare: Take care of your mind with great mental health programs
- Parental Leave: Birth and non-birth parents get 18 weeks’ paid leave. Plus, a 4-week return-to-work transition program, at full base pay
- Away Days: We offer 20 company-wide paid days off—which help our teams collectively pause to recharge
- Learning & Development: Engage in exciting learning programs to level up your growth
Company HQ
Chinatown, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Max Levchin
(Co-Founder & CEO)Has founded/co-founded numerous companies, holding various executive positions at each, including Paypal, Slide, Glow, HVF Labs, and SciFi VC. Also worked at large brands including Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Evernote.
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