Legal Counsel, Europe

Who We Are: Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Our recent Series D funding round brought our total investment to over $320 million, fueling our ambitious vision. Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 9 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet . We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it. Alpaca is proudly backed by top-tier global investors, including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Unbound, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Elefund, and Y Combinator. Our Team Members: We're a dynamic team of 380+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond! We're searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth. If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply. Your Role: Reporting to the Vice President, the Legal Counsel Alpaca Europe is looking for a talented solicitor or barrister to join the team as Legal Counsel, a role offering the opportunity to work across a diverse range of legal and regulatory matters in a fast-paced, technology-driven environment. This position is ideally suited for someone with a background in financial services regulation, who thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced "can-do" environment. The successful candidate will be based in the UK or Europe as part of the Alpaca Legal team, and will interact daily with the wider Alpaca Global and European legal and compliance teams. Things You Get To Do: Providing day‑to‑day legal advice to internal stakeholders across the business on a broad range of legal and regulatory matters. Advising on the design and roll‑out of new products, services and business offerings, including advising on cross‑border business activities, passporting arrangements and applicable conduct of business rules. Reviewing, drafting and negotiating customer‑facing contractual agreements, disclosures, account documentation and website materials. Reviewing, drafting and negotiating commercial agreements with institutional clients and counterparties. Assisting with regulatory inquiries from UK & EU regulatory authorities, as well as UK, EU, and worldwide exchanges. Liaising and engaging with external legal advisers. Who You Are (Must-Haves): A qualified lawyer (solicitor or barrister) with 3‑5+ years of experience at a law firm, financial institution, financial services regulatory agency, exchange, broker‑dealer, or technology company. Excellent academic background with a strong foundation in legal analysis and reasoning. Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to outline complex matters in a simple, logical, and concise manner. Excellent judgment, analytical rigor, and clear communication skills. Demonstrated ability to own projects from concept to execution. Practical, solution-oriented mindset with strong business judgment. Comfort working with cross-functional, globally distributed teams. Intellectual curiosity and interest in fintech, digital assets, and blockchain technology. Who You Might Be ( Nice-to-Haves): Must be eligible to work without sponsorship for this rol