Flex is a growth-stage, NYC headquartered FinTech company that is creating the best rent payment experience. It’s hard to believe that it’s 2024 and paying rent on time is expensive, inflexible, and difficult. We’re here to change that! Flex enables our users to pay rent throughout the month on a schedule that better fits their finances and budget. Our mission is to empower as many renters as possible with flexibility over their most significant recurring expense. After deliberately keeping a stealth profile as we built up unprecedented investor support and an enthusiastic user base, we are looking for motivated individuals to help us keep our mission growing. Will you be a part of the team?
About the role
The Associate General Counsel, Product Advisory will oversee and manage the overall legal and compliance product advisory function across the business to ensure that all products and business units meet regulatory compliance standards and requirements. Your team’s primary mission is to enable our go-to-market, partner and consumer product, and risk teams to launch services and products through a deep understanding of the regulatory requirements and expectations. This role is highly cross functional and requires extensive knowledge of lending and fintech regulations, strong leadership abilities, and the ability to collaborate across multiple departments, especially consumer product, design, engineering, and risk. The successful candidate will have outstanding communication skills, experience managing counsel and compliance professionals, and the ability to anticipate and deliver on the needs of a fast-paced and highly innovative business.
What you’ll do
Lead a high performance team of legal and compliance professionals who collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, Marketing, Customer Support, and Risk to review products, features and initiatives and provide practical risk mitigation strategies in a wide range of subject areas, including product lifecycle, consumer protection regulations, and counterparty relationships.
- Guide your team to investigate, scope, and solve complex product-related regulatory issues.
- Support the design of innovative financial products while ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including payment network rules, card association rules, and consumer protection laws. Translate between regulatory frameworks and “best for our customer” first principles to help the business develop practical solutions that consider both priorities.
- Identify potential areas of risk within new/existing products and provide proactive advice to mitigate those risks effectively.
- Ensure regulatory analysis of new products and services are performed and well-documented, and that related controls are implemented consistently prior to launch for each market we operate in.
- Act as the escalation point for all product development requests to the L&C department.
- Foster productive relationships and oversee the drafting of definitive partnership agreements between Flex business units and counterparties, including partner banks and payment processors.
- Summarize and analyze impact of new applicable rules and regulations.
- Provide expert consultation to senior leadership on lending, consumer protection, and banking compliance-related matters.
- Advise on Flex’s global licensing strategy, and work closely with outside counsel and Compliance to develop and maintain the license portfolio.
- Efficiently manage outside counsel and operational budgets.
- Collaborate and provide supportive leadership within our wider legal and compliance department.
Key qualifications
- JD and member of at least one US state bar, and/or additional relevant degrees with excellent academic credentials.
- Demonstrated track record of successful collaboration with engineers, product managers and cross-functional stakeholders (including other teams within Legal and Compliance).
- 10+ years of experience working in consumer financial services, ideally as a mix of in-house, banking, and at financial technology companies.
- Experience with the following subject-matter areas: consumer lending, payments processing, consumer card products, bill pay, consumer banking, and deposits.
- Extensive knowledge of financial regulations including: OFAC, TILA, ECOA, FCRA, FCPA, UDAAP, UCC, NACHA, FDCPA, SCRA, state lending and loan servicing laws, and card network rules.
- Experience handling regulatory matters with an existing network of stakeholders within the regulatory system, including the CFPB, FDIC, OCC, and other relevant state and federal agencies.
- Experience building or expanding on existing compliance infrastructure to incorporate oversight of new products and services.
- Proven leadership over your domains and management of legal and compliance staff.
- Excellent judgment.
The national pay range for this role is $218,000-$237,000 in base salary. Individual compensation will be commensurate with the candidate’s experience aligned with Flex’s internal leveling guidelines and benchmarks.
Life at Flex:
We understand that it takes a diverse team of highly intelligent, curious, determined, empathetic, and self aware people to grow a successful company. Our HQ is located in New York City, but we have employees located throughout the US, Australia, and South America. We are growing quickly, but deliberately, with a focus on building an inclusive culture. Our dynamic team has incredible perspectives to share, just as we know you do, and we take great pride in being an equal opportunity workplace.
We offer many employee benefits. For full time, U.S. based employees we offer:
- Competitive pay
- 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision
- 401(k) + company stock options
- Unlimited paid time off with a PTO minimum + 13 company paid holidays
- Parental leave
- Flex Cares Program: Non-profit company match + pet adoption coverage
- Free Flex subscription
