Senior Counsel – Product (Asia-Pacific)

Overview

This role sits within the Regulatory Legal team and provides product-focused legal support for launches, product changes, and ongoing regulatory obligations across the APAC region. The position is remote and based in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Responsibilities

• Provide product legal support for APAC launches and enablement across the organization’s product suite, including:
  • OTC options
  • Institutional custody and execution
  • Cross-regional products rolling out across APAC
  • Derivatives products
  • Tokenised equities
  • Earn and staking products
  • Card and payments offerings
• Gatekeep new APAC outside counsel engagements by scoping the work, estimating cost, and signing off before matters are routed externally.
• Translate complex regulatory frameworks into pragmatic, actionable guidance for the business, using plain-English communication, measurable risk trade-offs, and decision-ready recommendations.
• Use AI-assisted tools to improve speed and consistency of the team’s work (for example for multi-jurisdiction licensing analysis, first drafts of regulatory submissions, and matter tracking).
• Own APAC regulatory workload under the direction of the APAC regulatory lead, including:
  • Licence variations
  • Client and broker agreement documentation
  • Licensing structure questions
  • Routine regulator correspondence
• Take ownership of geography-specific licensing in markets such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan and the Philippines by instructing and supervising local counsel in region and in time zone.
• Support other APAC markets as they arise (including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia).
• Support APAC Group licensing initiatives in key markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong, including preparing application materials and coordinating with outside counsel.

Requirements

• Qualified lawyer admitted in Singapore, Hong Kong, England and Wales, or an equivalent common law jurisdiction.
• 10 or more years’ post-qualification experience (“PQE”) in financial services regulatory law, gained at a regulated financial services institution (for example a bank, broker-dealer, exchange, derivatives dealer or crypto services provider), at a law firm supporting such clients and/or at a relevant regulator.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own regulatory relationships and business-as-usual regulatory workstreams, including notifications, information requests, and supervisory correspondence.
• Strong experience with the financial regulatory landscape in a major Asian financial centre (e.g., Singapore and the MAS; Hong Kong and the SFC/HKMA).
• Proven ability to instruct, supervise, and manage the cost of local counsel across multiple jurisdictions, including in markets where you are not admitted.
• Working knowledge of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (“AML/CTF”) obligations and regulatory expectations.
• Outstanding analytical, drafting, and organisational skills, with crisp, plain-English writing.
• Ability to distill complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, actionable guidance for non-lawyer stakeholders.
• Pragmatic, commercially accountable approach to legal and regulatory risk, providing stakeholders with a useful range of options and a clear recommendation.
• Comfort operating with a high degree of autonomy in a fast-moving, remote, multi-time-zone environment, owning a broad workload from day one.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience advising on virtual asset regulation in one or more APAC jurisdictions.
• Familiarity with the regulation of derivatives (including OTC options), equities, and emerging tokenised financial instruments.
• Experience supporting change-of-control notifications or other regulatory aspects of corporate transactions.
• Experience with payments, e-money or card regulation.
• Working proficiency in a second APAC language.
• An authentic interest in crypto and digital assets, and familiarity with the organization’s products and competitors’ products.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation & benefits information was not provided in the job description.

Location

• Remote role based in Hong Kong or Singapore, supporting regulatory work across the broader APAC region.

Additional Information

• If no specific application deadline is stated, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.
• Applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.
• The employer considers qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
• Candidates may be asked to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of the hiring process.
• Equal opportunity employer; discrimination or harassment is not tolerated.