Principal Legal Counsel, Corporate & Finance

About the role

Aave Labs is looking for a Principal Lead Counsel, Corporate & Finance, to join its Group function in the Cayman Islands. You will be the senior legal lead on corporate, compliance, treasury, finance and governance work, working closely with Finance and Operations. The Group is growing with new entities, licensed subsidiaries, a foundation and commercial relationships across several jurisdictions, so you will own the legal side of how the Group is structured, governed and funded.

Key responsibilities

• Act as principal legal adviser to Group boards, foundation councils and senior leadership on corporate, governance and finance matters
• Manage legal entities across the Cayman Islands, UK, EU, US and other jurisdictions, including incorporations, dissolutions, statutory registers, filings and annual returns
• Build and run the corporate compliance programme, including a compliance calendar of statutory, licensing and filing deadlines
• Own corporate policies such as code of conduct, conflicts of interest, anti-bribery, sanctions, whistleblowing and personal account dealing, and run annual attestations and training
• Track obligations of licensed subsidiaries, including FCA and MiCAR authorised entities, such as change in control notifications, director and officer approvals and annual returns
• Support internal and external audits, bank and counterparty due diligence, and record-keeping and document retention
• Advise on and document treasury activity, including lending, borrowing, loan participations, custody arrangements and stablecoin and digital asset holdings
• Work with Finance and external tax advisers on transaction structuring, including choice of contracting or lending entity, withholding tax and transfer pricing
• Own the signing authority matrix, document execution process and contract repository

Required profile

• 4+ years of post-qualification experience in corporate, finance or funds work, including significant time at a leading Cayman or other offshore law firm (or a leading onshore firm) and senior in-house experience
• Track record advising boards and senior leadership, leading complex transactions and managing external counsel with minimal oversight
• Experience with entity management, board governance and corporate secretarial work across multiple jurisdictions
• Experience building or running a corporate compliance programme, including policies, registers, attestations, training and a compliance calendar
• Comfortable working with Finance, Tax, Compliance and Operations teams; familiarity with treasury operations, tax structuring or fund administration is a plus
• Interest in or experience with crypto, DeFi or digital assets is helpful but not required
• Willingness to be based in the Cayman Islands, with relocation assistance available for the right candidate

Required skills

• Entity management, corporate governance and corporate secretarial work
• Treasury and tax structuring knowledge is a plus
• Ability to run many workstreams at once and keep records accurate