General Counsel

About the job

General Counsel — GoQuant

Full-time | Remote (global) | Reports directly to the President & CEO

About GoQuant

GoQuant is a fast-growing digital-asset technology company providing high-performance trading infrastructure, dark pools, credit systems, and cross-venue execution for global institutions — including GoDark, a privacy-preserving perpetuals exchange. We operate through a multi-entity structure, including operating companies, holding companies, regulated affiliates, and independent foundation and token structures. We are hiring the person who will own all of it, legally, from day one.

The Role

You will be the senior legal executive for the entire group: corporate structure, regulatory strategy, compliance, token and protocol counsel, commercial contracts, employment, and tax coordination across every entity and jurisdiction. In a business like ours, the legal architecture IS part of the product — the separation between operating companies and protocol structures, the accuracy of a regulatory position, the enforceability of one intercompany agreement — these are the difference between a durable institution and an expensive lesson.

This role carries real authority: you will hold sign-off on entity formation, regulatory positions, token matters, and any public statement about our regulatory status, with a direct reporting line to the founders. The mandate is to run legal so well that matters reach executive leadership only as flagged exceptions requiring a business decision — never as routine chores.

This is an immediate-start, high-priority hire. Candidates who can begin quickly will be strongly preferred.

What You'll Own

• Group structure — Maintain the integrity of a multi-jurisdictional structure end to end: entity charts, intercompany services and IP agreements, board governance, statutory registers, and filings in every jurisdiction — and serve as the institutional owner of why the structure is built the way it is.

• Capital structure — Cap table accuracy across the group: issuances, transfers, conversions, valuation discipline, and reconciliation against statutory registers and board approvals.

• Token & protocol counsel — Legal strategy for token issuance and protocol governance, including securities-law analysis across jurisdictions and the rigorous independence of foundation structures — the liability firewall you will defend.

• Regulatory strategy — Map every regime we touch; own the documented position on where we need licenses versus where structure keeps us outside the perimeter; produce regulatory judgment in-house and use outside counsel for execution, not thinking.

• Compliance — Design and implement the group's AML/CFT, sanctions, and privacy framework; own counterparty and institutional onboarding responses; be the primary liaison to regulators and licensing bodies.

• Commercial contracting — Lead negotiation of partnership, vendor, liquidity, and client agreements; build templates and playbooks so routine deals close without executive involvement; enforce key terms after signature.

• Strategic transactions — Legal structuring for fundraising (convertibles, priced rounds, investor diligence) and complex commercial deals, spotting structural issues before they're signed.

• HR & employment — Supervise the HR/employment function across jurisdictions: employment and contractor frameworks, equity grants, immigration-sensitive structuring, and separations executed cleanly enough to withstand dispute.

• Tax coordination — Own the group filing calendar with external advisors in each jurisdiction; oversee tax implications of cross-border payments and intercompany arrangements. Nothing late, nothing penalized.

• Disputes — Manage active disputes end to end and build the standing process: documentation discipline, escalation triggers, settlement thresholds.

• The legal function — Lead and develop the in-house team; own every outside counsel, registered agent, and advisor relationship as the single point of accountability — scope, rates, budget, and delivery.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of legal experience with meaningful time in digital assets, fintech, or financial market infrastructure — in-house at a growth-stage company strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated multi-jurisdictional corporate structuring experience, including offshore jurisdictions and international financial centers; you have run entities in places where the registered agent knows you by name.
• Real token/protocol experience: securities analysis, foundation structures, issuance documentation — you have formed views on what survives regulatory scrutiny and what doesn't.
• Regulatory judgment: you can write the memo yourself, then use outside counsel to verify it — not the other way around.
• Compliance program experience: you have built (not inherited) an AML/sanctions framework and answered institutional KYC diligence under time pressure.
• Contract craft: you negotiate, draft, and close yourself; templates and playbooks are how you scale, not how you hide.
• Cross-border employment and equity compensation fluency, including visa-sensitive structuring.
• Clear, calm written communication — you can explain a structuring decision to a founder, a regulator, and an investor in one memo.
• Available to start quickly and operate hands-on in a lean team.
• Who You Are
• A builder-operator: you produce judgment and work product directly, not just supervise it.
• Constitutionally independent — comfortable telling founders that a deal, a description, or a shortcut creates unacceptable risk, and holding that line.
• Pragmatic about risk: you find the path that lets the business move fast safely, rather than defaulting to no.
• Detail-obsessed and intellectually honest — you show your work and change your mind on evidence.
• Calm under pressure; when something breaks, you are the steadiest person in the room and the first to own the fix.

Nice to Have

• Experience as first or sole counsel at a startup that scaled.
• Direct experience with derivatives-venue regulation (CFTC or international equivalents) or exchange/clearing legal frameworks.
• Experience managing HR and tax functions alongside legal.
• Admission to practice in a US jurisdiction plus working familiarity with offshore counsel ecosystems.

Why Join

• Rare mandate: own the entire legal architecture of a multi-jurisdiction digital-asset group before scale, instead of untangling one after.
• Real authority in writing — sign-off rights, a founder reporting line, and a seat at the risk committee, not a "legal reviews at the end" culture.
• Build the function your way: the team, the outside counsel bench, the playbooks.
• Fully remote role with a global team; meaningful equity upside commensurate with the mandate.