Legal Director

About the Role:

ZIGChain and Zamanat are seeking a Legal Director to build and lead the legal function across both entities. This is a hands-on, senior legal and operational leadership role for someone who has cut their teeth in banking or institutional finance and has since moved into or has relevant experience in web3 / digital assets. The successful candidate will combine deep regulatory and compliance expertise with the operational discipline to build a legal team from the ground up, while personally leading on financial product structuring, token frameworks and capital raising.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team building & leadership

– Build, structure and lead the legal function across ZIGChain and Zamanat, including hiring, onboarding and performance management, as and when the business needs require.

– Set team objectives, workflows and reporting lines; manage outside counsel relationships and budgets.

– Instill a strong operational and process-driven culture within the legal team.

• Regulatory, licensing & compliance

– Own and maintain all regulatory, licensing and compliance requirements across jurisdictions of operation, to the highest standards.

– Lead engagement with regulators, licensing bodies and auditors; manage license applications, renewals and reporting obligations.

– Design and maintain compliance frameworks, policies and controls (AML/KYC, MLRO, sanctions, market conduct, data protection).

– Monitor the evolving regulatory landscape for digital assets and banking and translate changes into actionable business guidance.

• Financial product structuring

– Provide legal expertise on the structuring of financial products, including the establishment and governance of SPVs and other corporate structures.

– Advise on entity structuring, jurisdictional selection and cross-border considerations for new products and business lines.

– Negotiate and draft agreements with banking partners, custodians, exchanges and other institutional counterparties.

– Maintain a panel of legal firms and advisors who can be brought on board for deal-specific requirements, and liaise and manage their scope of engagement, ongoing workstreams with the business teams, and conduct necessary fee negotiations.

• Token management & capital raising

– Advise on the legal and regulatory treatment of token issuance, distribution and ongoing token

management.

– Lead legal workstreams for capital raises via equity, preference shares, convertibles, token sales or other instruments including documentation, disclosures and investor-facing terms.

– Coordinate with tax, finance and compliance on the structuring and execution of fundraising.

• Client & entity onboarding

– Own and manage the legal and compliance workflows and requirements for onboarding of ZIGChain, Zamanat and external clients.

– Design and maintain onboarding due diligence standards (KYC/KYB, AML, sanctions and risk-rating) and ensure consistent application across entities and clients.

– Draft, negotiate and manage onboarding documentation (client agreements, terms of business, risk disclosures) and streamline the legal process for new client and entity onboarding.

– Coordinate with compliance, risk and operations to ensure onboarding workflows meet regulatory and licensing obligations.

– Maintenance of records of KYB and KYC.

• Governance & risk management

– Act as a trusted legal advisor to the CEO and Board; support governance, corporate secretarial matters and

board reporting.

– Identify, assess and mitigate legal and regulatory risk across the group; maintain the legal risk register.

– Manage disputes, litigation and regulatory investigations as they arise.

– Identify and maintain Legal Document Management Systems for Companies, transactions and counterparties.

Candidate Requirements:

• Qualified lawyer with a strong academic background and current standing at the bar / relevant law society.
• Significant experience in banking or institutional finance (in-house or private practice), followed by recent experience in web3 / digital assets.
• Demonstrated experience building, managing and developing a legal team, with a strong structuring, operational and process-oriented mindset.
• Deep expertise in regulatory, licensing and compliance matters within financial services and digital assets.
• Hands-on experience with financial product structuring, including establishment of SPVs and similar structures.
• Working knowledge of token management, token economics and capital raising through multiple avenues.
• Understanding of tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) and other financial products preferred.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate confidently with regulators, boards and senior management.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment across multiple jurisdictions.

Desirable:

• Genuine interest in and experience with blockchain technology is an advantage.
• Prior General Counsel, Head of Legal or senior in-house counsel title.
• Existing regulator relationships in key digital asset / financial hubs.
• Experience with cross-border licensing (e.g., VASP / EMI / banking licenses) and multi-entity group structures.