Legal Director, X Payments

ABOUT xAI

xAI's mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company's mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

About the Role

Come join X Payments as Legal Director, Payments! This is a once in a career opportunity to work at an exciting, fast-paced company as we build payments functionality into the app of everything. We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Attorney to manage regulatory, product and commercial aspects of launching new payments services globally. The ideal candidate will have experience navigating the complex regulatory landscapes both domestically and internationally as well as drafting and negotiating payments-related agreements with banks, payments processors and other payments ecosystem participants.

This role will require significant cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, policy, operations, and business teams, as well as other legal subject-matter experts, as you help shape the future of payments products to be used by billions of users worldwide. This is an opportunity to work on novel issues in an exciting, fast-paced environment as we build and scale for our global community.

Responsibilities

• Become a deep subject matter expert in the products you cover, building close connections with your product team through effective communication and collaboration
• Serve as the first point of contact for your product team's legal questions, and for the broader legal team's questions about your product
• Review new and changed products, features, platforms and initiatives to provide practical legal risk mitigation strategies across multiple jurisdictions
• Provide and coordinate legal advice across complex and multifaceted legal issues applicable to the product you are supporting, including compliance with newly developing regulatory and legal obligations
• Enable product teams to move quickly by proactively identifying and helping to resolve areas of potential legal risk
• Draft and negotiate commercial agreements for third party partnerships in support of features and functionality of your product
• Coordinate with public policy, communications, product management, engineering, product marketing, trust and safety, and other cross-functional teams on external communications, policy development, and product development and launches
• Provision of legal advice on legislative and regulatory Federal and State matters relating to payments functionality across the USA, partnering with Product Counsel, Government Affairs, Litigation, Compliance, Privacy and other team
• Collaborating with legal and policy colleagues to 'join the dots' between requirements impacting the X platform (content compliance, privacy compliance) and ensuring the compliant design and deployment of new payments functionality
• Supporting and collaborating with X's Chief Compliance Officer for X Money and advising on appropriate systems, controls and policies as expected by financial services regulators
• Advising on the adequacy of the X Money risk management framework and lifecycle
• Directly contribute to and help coordinate responses to external inquiries and administrative procedures related to legal and regulatory matters, including collaborating effectively with outside counsel
• Support with regulatory engagements and examination, in particular with State and Federal regulators, including helping to prepare materials
• Keeping abreast of global payments regulation and overseeing the operational process to secure appropriate licenses in other jurisdictions

Required Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school.
• Admission to the bar in at least one state in the USA.
• 8+ years of experience practicing law with a focus on payments, preferably in the financial services or fintech industry.
• Strong knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations governing payment services, including but not limited to, BSA/AML, Dodd-Frank, UCC, and consumer protection laws.
• Experience working with payment networks, banks, processors, and regulatory agencies such as the CFPB, OCC, and FinCEN.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to excellence in legal and regulatory compliance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience advising clients on risk mitigation across technology product platforms
• Proven experience to distil complicated technical concepts for legal colleagues and to distil complicated legal concepts for technical colleagues
• Experience working on multiple projects at once
• Proven problem-solving, communication and interpersonal skills

Annual Salary Range

$225,000 - $285,000 USD

Benefits

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

xAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.