“For most people, passion comes after they try something, discover they like it, and develop mastery – not before.”
–Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Designing Your Life
Whether you are a fintech veteran or scoping your first move in-house, you should apply if you are a creative legal thinker, solutions-oriented, and enjoy the thrill of mastering new areas of the law. We are looking for a counsel with the skills and curiosity to develop mastery–and someone who knows how to have fun in the process. You should be flexible, creative, and pragmatic; should have excellent business judgment and a strategic mindset; and should be able to reason confidently from first principles. Firm life is often said to be a giant pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie. But excelling as product counsel requires a mindshift: we also engage in daily problem-solving, but our aim–like the engineers who designed the first tower of the Brooklyn Bridge–is not to solve problems and move on to the next, but to solve problems that unlock the construction of something delightful. You should apply if you are excited about leveraging your legal talents as thought partners with our visionary product managers to reimagine the banking experience for businesses.
Who we are
Mercury lays the groundwork for ambitious companies to operate at their highest level with banking* and credit cards engineered for the startup journey. With an intelligent bank account powering their operations, founders and finance teams can efficiently store, manage, and move their funds while driving smarter business decisions. And with access to the best investors, operators, founders, and resources, startups can better navigate the obstacles of company building. That’s why more than 100K startups choose Mercury. Our mission is to disrupt business banking by providing customers with a bank experience that is intuitive, enjoyable, and attuned to an entrepreneur’s need.
About the team
Product Legal is responsible for serving as embedded legal advisor to product teams, supporting business teams through the life cycle of product development. We also help business teams interpret privacy obligations consistent with Mercury’s risk tolerance. In this role, you will be advisor and confidant to product teams developing new tools for a scaling company’s financial-services needs. You will advise on legal regimes for privacy, as well as product questions in financial services and payments. Experience in fintech or financial-information privacy is welcomed, as is a passion for mastering something new. You must have subject-matter expertise in privacy–and other relevant subject-matter expertise may include knowledge of fintech and financial information, payments, commercial lending, banking, and privacy. Polymaths encouraged to apply.
What you’ll do
We’re looking for someone skilled at digesting the law and then communicating technical, legal concepts to the designers, engineers, and product wizards that build Mercury’s magic products–someone who exudes curiosity and embraces a growth mindset. You will educate internal stakeholders on how to leverage in-house counsel, build strong relationships with business teams, and understand the business environment. You will advise on legal and privacy requirements for new products and, when you don’t know the answer, will know how to obtain the answer and explain it to business partners.
You should have:
- At least 5 years experience as a lawyer, knocking it out of the park in everything you’ve done, at a top law firm, in-house, or in government. This means you should have a demonstrated record of success, in legal and non-legal pursuits.
- Subject-matter expertise in privacy and data protection. Other relevant background may include fintech and financial information.
- Superlative communication skills - you understand the role of a lawyer as a communicator.
- Ability to go zero to sixty on new subject matter and master new areas of the law seemingly overnight.
- Humility, kindness, decency, character, and a propensity for offering to help a colleague when sick or for remembering someone’s birthday.
- Thinking-outside-the-box to regulatory interpretation - you should feel comfortable reading a regulation and interpreting it based on its text, rather than solely based on the way it’s generally understood in industry.
- Ability to make decisions with incomplete information and excellent judgment.
- Growth mindset - you take initiative, going beyond your role to assume responsibility and to look for ways to be helpful.
- Track record of moving with urgency and focus.
- Passions outside the law.
The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options), and benefits.
Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.
Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following:
- US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $198,100 - $233,000 USD
- US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $178,300 - $209,700 USD
*Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust ; Members FDIC
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