Join us as a Managing Legal Counsel, Payments and Digital Assets

• This is an excellent opportunity to shape the legal strategy of the bank's payments and digital assets activities, while acting as a trusted advisor on regulation, industry developments and emerging technologies
• Whilst your role sits within Retail & Private Banking, you'll lead our Payments Legal Centre of Expertise (CoE), providing specialist legal support across the bank and wider Legal, Governance and Regulatory Affairs (LG&RA) function
• You'll operate at the forefront of legal and regulatory change, working with senior stakeholders, regulators and industry bodies to help the bank navigate an evolving payments and digital assets landscape
• You'll work from home some of the time, coming into the office at least one day per week to collaborate closely with your colleagues

What you'll do

As our Managing Legal Counsel, you'll be an experienced and ambitious senior lawyer leading the Payments Legal CoE and coordinating the delivery of legal advice across the bank's payments and digital assets activities. You'll work closely with senior stakeholders and legal colleagues across LG&RA to make sure legal support is delivered efficiently, effectively and in line with business priorities. You'll keep advice commercially focused and accessible, helping stakeholders understand and manage legal and regulatory risks.

As a key advisor to the business, you'll help shape strategic decisions, support innovation and manage legal and regulatory risk in a practical way. You'll play an important role in supporting the development and launch of innovative products and services, including digital assets and emerging payment technologies such as tokenisation, stablecoins, custody and programmable payments , helping the bank navigate a rapidly evolving market.

You'll be:

• Leading the development and delivery of the bank's payments legal strategy, including horizon scanning for regulatory, market and technological developments
• Providing expert advice on payment products, schemes, infrastructure, open banking, account-to-account payments and strategic payments initiatives
• Building strong relationships with regulators, industry bodies, advisers and internal stakeholders to influence and respond to market and regulatory developments
• Providing the communication of internal and external legal advice and helping to deliver transactions and projects to stakeholders in a commercial, user friendly and efficient manner
• Driving continuous improvement through process optimisation, technology, automation and AI-enabled solutions that enhance efficiency and service delivery
• Developing and mentoring legal colleagues while strengthening payments and digital assets expertise across LG&RA
• Managing legal spend effectively through e-billing, auctions and other cost management tools

The skills you'll need

We're looking for someone with deep knowledge of banking law and practice, supported by significant experience within financial services industry. You'll bring extensive expertise in payments regulation and, at the minimum, a developing understanding of digital assets regulation gained either in-house or within a leading law firm.

You'll be comfortable operating at a senior level, managing complex legal and regulatory issues while building strong relationships across the bank and externally with regulators, industry bodies and advisers. Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills will be essential, alongside experience developing and motivating high-performing teams.

You'll also need:

• Industry-leading knowledge of payments regulation, payments schemes and the legal frameworks underpinning UK and international payment services
• An understanding of emerging legal and regulatory developments affecting digital assets, open banking, future payment models and agentic AI
• The ability to identify, assess and communicate complex legal and regulatory risks in a clear, pragmatic manner
• Deep knowledge of payments regulation, payment schemes and the legal framework underpinning UK and international payment services
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and contributing to strategic business decisions
• A proactive approach to horizon scanning, thought leadership and sharing legal and market developments with business and legal colleagues
• The ability to identify issues of strategic, legal or reputational importance and determine how they should be addressed