Head of Legal
Dfns is a wallet-as-a-service platform that provides institutional-grade digital asset wallet infrastructure for fintechs, banks, and enterprises via API.
Funding history
Investors
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About Dfns
Dfns is a B2B cybersecurity company that offers wallet-as-a-service infrastructure, enabling financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises to provision and manage programmable digital asset wallets at scale. Users can create MPC-secured multichain wallets, automate transaction workflows, enforce policy-based access controls, and deploy key management across cloud or on-premises environments. The platform supports multiple blockchains and is certified under SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018.
Skills
About the Role
You will serve as the legal leader, owning every legal matter end-to-end. You will draft, review, and negotiate commercial contracts including SaaS agreements, NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, and partnership deals. You will oversee vendor onboarding, KYB, and due diligence processes. You will build and execute the intellectual property strategy, managing trademark, copyright, and patent portfolios. You will handle disputes, claims, and litigation, including pre-litigation strategy and settlement discussions. You will advise on employment contracts, policies, and labor law across multiple jurisdictions. You will monitor and operationalize global regulations such as MiCA, DORA, GDPR, AML/CFT, and frameworks from the EU, US, UK, APAC, and emerging crypto and fintech regimes. You will partner with the Chief Product Officer and product team to translate regulatory requirements into clear product specifications. You will maintain a living regulatory map, engage with regulators and industry bodies, and develop scalable legal playbooks, templates, and processes. You will manage external counsel relationships across jurisdictions, optimizing for expertise, performance, and cost. You will report directly to the CEO and work closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, Security, People, Finance, and the executive team to support international growth.
Requirements
- 10+ years of legal experience, with meaningful exposure across commercial contracts, IP, regulatory, and employment matters, ideally with significant in-house experience in fast-growing tech companies
- Admitted to practice law in France
- Multi-jurisdictional expertise strongly preferred
- Demonstrated track record drafting and negotiating complex B2B agreements
- Entrepreneurial mindset able to self-start, champion new ideas, and execute end-to-end
- Deep, hands-on expertise with regulatory affairs in fintech, crypto, payments, or financial services, and a clear appetite for regulatory deep dives
- Strong working knowledge of IP/patent strategy, litigation management, and employment law in France and at least one major hiring jurisdiction
- Proven ability to translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into actionable product and business inputs
- Familiarity with SaaS, fintech, and blockchain businesses
- Experience operating in a remote-first environment across multiple time zones
- Pragmatic approach to balancing speed, risk, and business priorities
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the gravitas to engage regulators and operate at the executive level
- Fluent in English and French, other languages are a plus
Responsibilities
- Act as the legal force multiplier for the leadership team, surfacing risks, proposing solutions, and shipping them
- Draft, review, and negotiate commercial contracts including SaaS agreements, NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, partnership deals, and vendor contracts
- Work closely with sales and product teams to support deal flow and business growth
- Oversee the legal aspects of vendor onboarding, including KYB and other due diligence checks
- Build and execute the IP strategy, including trademark, copyright, and patent portfolios in collaboration with external IP counsel
- Manage disputes, claims, or litigation, leading pre-litigation strategy, settlement discussions, and risk mitigation
- Advise the People team on employment contracts, policies, and labor law across jurisdictions, and support sensitive HR matters, investigations, and global mobility arrangements
- Monitor, analyze, and operationalize every regulation relevant globally, including MiCA, DORA, GDPR, AML/CFT, US state and federal frameworks, UK FCA, MAS, VARA, and emerging crypto and fintech regimes
- Partner directly with the CPO and product team to translate regulatory requirements into clear product specifications and features
- Lead engagement with regulators, industry bodies, and policy stakeholders, and maintain a living regulatory map of the markets served
- Develop and maintain playbooks, templates, and scalable legal processes as the business grows
- Manage and coordinate external counsel relationships across jurisdictions, optimizing for performance, expertise, and cost