Commercial Legal Counsel

Licensed sponsor Nottingham Full-time Posted 6 hours ago

About Shufti

Shufti is a global leader in AI-powered identity verification (IDV) and anti-money laundering (AML)
solutions, offering advanced KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business) and KYI (Know Your
Investor) services that enable businesses to onboard customers securely and meet regulatory
requirements. Founded in 2017 and trusted by industry leaders in FinTech, Crypto, Banking, E-commerce,
and iGaming, our technology delivers real-time verification in over 240 countries and territories,
empowering a safer, fraud-free digital world.

Position purpose

Lead the Commercial & Corporate Legal pillar for a global RegTech (KYC/AML/KYB) business — owning
commercial contracting, corporate governance and cross-border legal work. You will build the function
and its playbooks from a lean base, partner closely with the Compliance and Privacy pillars, and grow into
the senior leadership of the Legal, Compliance & Privacy department. This is a build-and-own role for a
commercially minded lawyer who wants scope, ownership and a clear progression path rather than a
narrow, process-bound seat.
The role is offered at Commercial Legal Counsel level and is expected to progress to Senior Commercial
Legal Counsel on successful completion of the probationary period, with a further track toward Head of
Department as the function matures.
Key Responsibilities

Commercial contracting

Own the end-to-end commercial contracting engine: a live contract repository, an agreed turnaround

SLA, and a clear signing-authority matrix.

Build and maintain self-serve playbooks and templates (NDAs, customer, vendor and data-processing

agreements) so routine agreements move quickly and consistently.

Clear the live contract queue and keep it current, escalating only genuine risk items.

Cross-border & international

Draft, review and negotiate commercial agreements across the global network — UK, EU, UAE, US

and APAC — coordinating local counsel where required.

Support international expansion and market-entry work with fit-for-jurisdiction terms.

Corporate governance & company secretarial

Run corporate governance reliably across group entities: board and committee minutes, resolutions,

statutory filings and entity governance.

Maintain accurate corporate records and support the group's multi-entity structure.

Strategic transactions

Support fundraising rounds and any M&A activity with clean documentation and diligence-ready

records.

Coordinate external counsel efficiently, controlling scope and cost.

Privacy & data-protection adjacency

Partner the Privacy pillar on DPAs, GDPR / UK GDPR matters and AI-regulatory change (including the

EU AI Act) as they affect commercial terms.

Leadership & function-building

Mentor and support the Legal Counsel and Legal Associate, and coordinate across the Compliance

and Privacy pillars.

Build the pillar's processes, registers and playbooks, and demonstrate readiness to take on

department leadership.

Required Qualifications

Qualified lawyer (England & Wales, or equivalent common-law jurisdiction) with a strong commercial

and corporate practice background.

Demonstrable ownership of commercial contracting end-to-end — drafting and negotiating NDAs,

customer, vendor and data-processing agreements.

Cross-border / international commercial legal experience across multiple jurisdictions.
Corporate governance and company-secretarial experience across one or more entities.
Sound working knowledge of data-protection law (GDPR / UK GDPR) as it applies to commercial

arrangements.

Strong stakeholder management — able to work directly with sales, product, compliance and senior

leadership.

High learning agility and the appetite to build a function rather than inherit one.

Preferred Qualifications

In-house experience at a fintech, RegTech, SaaS, payments or other regulated-technology business.
Direct exposure to KYC / AML / KYB, sanctions or identity-verification subject matter.
Experience supporting fundraising or M&A alongside a general or fractional general counsel.
Dual qualification, or experience coordinating US and international counsel.
Early people-management or mentoring experience, or clear readiness for it.

What Success Looks Like (first 12 Months)

A live contract engine - repository, turnaround SLA, signing-authority matrix and self-serve

playbooks - with the standing queue cleared.

Cross-border commercial contracting owned reliably across the network, with reduced reliance on

external counsel for routine work.

Corporate governance running dependably across entities, with clean minutes, resolutions and