About the job
Founded in 2015 with the mission to protect the open economy, OpenZeppelin is the world leader in securing blockchain applications and smart contracts.
Its bedrock open source Contract Libraries are a public good and industry standard for smart contract development.
OpenZeppelin’s professional expertise, unified with the Defender developer security platform, integrates through clients’ development lifecycles, so teams can plan, code, audit, deploy and operate projects faster and more safely.
Please note: Always refer to OpenZeppelin's official job page for the most accurate information about our open roles, as we have seen multiple third party job sites posting inaccurate information.
Legal Counsel
OpenZeppelin is seeking an experienced and commercially-minded lawyer to support our wide array of legal matters at a growth-stage security company enabling the world to move on-chain. You’ll be a member of our dynamic operations team and report to our General Counsel, managing all legal operations and driving our commercial contracting process. You will also have the opportunity to advise on the wide-range of legal issues typical for a remote and global tech company, balancing legal issues with Company values and strategic objectives. This is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself at the intersection of advanced technology, high-growth business operations and law.
What You'll Do:
- Draft, negotiate, and close a wide variety of agreements and manage the process behind all client and vendor agreements. You will support all commercial and contractual matters and deal flow
- Proactively provide risk-weighted advice to business leaders that succinctly balances commercial upside against corresponding legal, financial, operational, and reputational risk
- Collaborate with and support the General Counsel on international hiring, fundraising, acquisitions, intellectual property strategy and licensing, privacy, compliance and other diverse matters
- Work across cross-functional teams as a business partner, including Finance, Operations, HR and IT & Security
- Regularly update templates and forms to comply with changes in law and changes in the market
- Design and execute automated processes for contracting and complying with contractual obligations and building automations, using AI and advanced tools
- Design and execute staff trainings and compliance practices on a variety of topics
- Manage legal records and organize corporate governance processes for entities in multiple jurisdictions
- Tackle projects assigned to you to help the Company meet its goals and take ownership of projects that are of a personal interest to you
What You'll Bring:
- 5-7 years of relevant legal experience, preferably with a mix of law firm experience and in-house experience at a high-growth tech company
- Demonstrated experience and comprehensive knowledge in drafting, reviewing and negotiating a wide variety of commercial agreements in the technology space, including SaaS and on-prem delivery models
- Highly analytical with an impeccable attention to detail
- Creative problem-solving and negotiation skills and you take a pragmatic, business-minded approach to legal analyses and risk assessments
- Comfortable with high levels of responsibility and self-direction with excellent follow-through skills, and able to handle multiple projects simultaneously
- Expert communicator, verbally and in writing, who is capable of explaining complicated topics to those without legal training
- A law degree and a license to practice law in at least one jurisdiction
Nice to have Attributes:
- Prior experience working in a B2B technology company and understanding of software-related legal issues, including those applicable to open-source, on-prem and SaaS delivery models
- Strong knowledge of and interest in blockchain or other disruptive technology
- Our interview process takes place on Zoom and tends to consist of the following stages:
- Recruiter call (30-45 minutes)
- Hiring Manager call (45 minutes)
- Team member interview (30 minutes)
- Leadership call (30 minutes)
- Paid work test
- Reference checks
- Company in-person gatherings in different locations around the world