Legal Counsel, GCC

Taptap Send; Dubai; On-site; AED 330,000 - 478,000; Full time

Job summary

A fintech company is seeking a Legal Counsel for the GCC region to provide legal support for market expansion and product launches. The ideal candidate will have 6-8 years of PQE, preferably with significant in-house experience in a startup environment. Fluency in English and Arabic is required, along with strong organizational and communication skills. This role offers an opportunity to thrive in a fast-paced, impact-driven company in Dubai.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Regular team events

L&D budget

Equipment

Headspace subscription

Qualifications

• Experience in fintech or payments regulatory exposure preferred.
• Fluency in English and Arabic.

Responsibilities

• Lead legal support for market expansion and new product launches in the GCC.
• Handle commercial contracts and employment matters.
• Collaborate with various teams to address legal challenges.

Skills

Organized

Driven

Solutions-focused

Comfortable with ambiguity

Clear communicator

Quick but thorough

Education

Legal qualification +6-8 years PQE

Job description

Our Mission

Reduce inequity by helping immigrants move money home, and become the leading cross-border fintech for emerging markets.

The Team

Founded by Harvard grads / 3rd-time founders --- also founded Segovia (successful exit) and GiveDirectly (>300M revenue, fastest-growing NGO). Top performers from top and varied organizations (e.g., Bain, Bolt, Google, McKinsey, SafeBoda, Uber, Zipline) --- we like moving fast, and we hire people that do as well. Driven by mission, guided by values (see below) – in deed, not just word. Team as global as the mission, >30 languages from 25 countries (i.e., if you’re interested in learning to make Chicken Moambe, we’re the place).

About Us

Taptap Send is backed by top VCs (Spark, Canaan, Reid Hoffman, Breyer Capital, etc.), rapidly growing and a great place for those looking for both impact and a fast-paced tech startup environment. Read more about the journey in Reid Hoffman’s words or TechCrunch article. Launched in 2019, Taptap is tapping into a transformative shift in global finance: from banks to phones. While this has affected wealthier countries as well, it has been nothing short of a revolution for the emerging markets where the overwhelming majority of population had been unable to access digital finance previously. Taptap Send allows immigrants to send money home instantly and with no fee*, saving money in the process. With a formal market size of >700B alone, we’ve got a lot more saving to do for our users. Our mission is to reduce inequity by helping immigrants move money home, and become the leading cross-border fintech for emerging markets. And that’s just the beginning.

*We charge fees for transfers on fixed exchange rate corridors (e.g., XOF, XAF).

Our Investors

Spark Capital, Canaan, Reid Hoffman, Breyer Capital (Jim Breyer), Unbound (Shravin Mittal), Wamda (Fadi Ghandour), Firstminute Capital, Slow Ventures (Sam Lessin), Helios Partners (Souleymane Ba), Crossbeam Ventures (Ali Hamed), Nikesh Arora, Samih Toukan, and many other context-specific angels

Legal Counsel - GCC

The role

You’ll join our energetic legal team of 7 lawyers reporting to the GCC Lead Counsel. This is a high-impact, broad-scope role covering the full legal lifecycle of our operations in the region: regulatory, commercial contracts, market expansion, product launches, employment matters, disputes, and whatever else lands on the legal desk.

You’ll partner across all business functions to advise on decisions, lead projects, negotiate agreements, and communicate legal issues to lawyers and non-lawyers alike, always balancing business priorities with legal risk. You’ll drive growth by navigating new legal and commercial challenges (with local counsel support where needed) and won’t wait to be told what needs doing.

Responsibilities

• Lead legal support for market expansion and new product launches across the GCC
• Lead or support engagement with regulators and maintain our regulatory compliance framework across the GCC region
• Handle commercial contracts, employment matters, disputes, and general legal work as needed
• Work cross-functionally with business, product, compliance and finance teams to tackle day-to-day legal and regulatory challenges
• Collaborate with the legal team to identify risks and develop creative solutions that balance business priorities with legal requirements

Requirements

• Legal qualification +6-8 years PQE
• Significant in-house experience (startup preferred)
• Fintech/payments regulatory exposure (preferred)
• Fluent English and Arabic

A good fit for this role is

• Organized and autonomous: you juggle multiple workstreams without dropping balls
• Driven: you thrive in ambitious, target-oriented environments
• Solutions-focused: you find paths forward beyond problems
• Comfortable with ambiguity: new markets and products energize you, not paralyze you
• A clear communicator: you translate legal complexity into plain business language
• Quick but thorough: you maintain quality while moving at startup pace

Benefits (specifics depend on geography)

• Competitive salary
• Regular team events
• L&D budget
• Equipment
• Headspace subscription

Also you are

• Outgoing - you love speaking to people and enjoy building meaningful relationships
• Execution Oriented - we have an ‘impact first’ philosophy and a lot to get done. You should be able to take an idea to implementation
• Mission Oriented - you are passionate about working for a net positive organisation / tech for good
• Organised - you have a system for how you approach your work that can keep you on track in a scrappy startup environment
• Driven - you thrive in a fast-paced, target oriented company

Taptap Values

Impact first

Team next

Accept reality

Propose solutions

Win with grit

Be proactively candid, with yourself and others

Love the particular

Own it

Create positive energy

Maybe, even have fun

Taptap Send is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. All employment decisions are decided on the basis of qualifications, experience and business need. We strongly encourage applications who are members of underrepresented communities to apply.

If you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the recruitment process, please do not hesitate to let us know. Any information you provide us in this respect will only be used to accommodate your requirements.

Note: we recognize imposter syndrome is real - any candidate that does not perfectly fit every characteristic of this role is still strongly encouraged to apply.