Senior Commercial Counsel - Payments & Regulatory Leader

finera.; Dubai; On-site; AED 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Training resources

Office snacks

Multinational culture

Team-building events

Employee recognition

Job summary

Finera is seeking a Senior Commercial Counsel to own the legal structuring and negotiation of commercial agreements and to oversee payments regulation across Europe, Asia and MENA. This role sits at the intersection of law and commercial strategy and includes leading a small team of direct reports as the function scales.

You will negotiate directly with merchants, acquiring banks and partners, coordinating with Commercial, Risk, Sales, Finance and Payment Solutions to keep deal terms both

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with 8+ years' PQE, ideally with in-house experience.
• Experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements in payments/fintech.
• Knowledge of payments regulation across Europe, Asia and MENA; UAE law a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead drafting, negotiation and closing of Finera's commercial agreements: merchant, acquiring bank, PSP, referral, partnership and SaaS agreements.
• Advise on deal terms, pricing mechanics, reserves, liability and risk allocation as Legal's primary partner on commercial deals.
• Contribute to Finera's regulatory position on payments across Europe, Asia and MENA, including scheme rules.
• Lead licensing and market entry workstreams with regulators and local counsel.
• Manage and develop the Legal Counsel, allocate work and set quality standards.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance and Finance on merchant risk and deal economics.
• Support strategic negotiations and disputes, including with banks and card schemes.
• Build, maintain contract playbooks and templates; leverage AI tools for efficiency.
• Track and report deal flow, workload and contract risk to the CLO.

Skills

Commercial contract drafting

Regulatory knowledge

Team leadership

In-house experience

Data protection & IP knowledge

AI tools in legal work

Tools

AI legal tools

Job description

Finera is seeking a Senior Commercial Counsel to own the legal structuring and negotiation of commercial agreements and to oversee payments regulation across Europe, Asia and MENA. This role sits at the intersection of law and commercial strategy and includes leading a small team of direct reports as the function scales.

You will negotiate directly with merchants, acquiring banks and partners, coordinating with Commercial, Risk, Sales, Finance and Payment Solutions to keep deal terms both