General Counsel

SEI; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

SEI is hiring a General Counsel to lead the legal function at the Sei Development Foundation. The role combines drafting contracts, negotiating deals, building a scalable compliance program, and engaging regulators to align legal risk with business strategy.

The successful candidate will create templates and playbooks, oversee external counsel, and serve as the internal owner of legal risk across partnerships, tokens, and governance in a fast-growing fintech/crypto environment.

Qualifications

• J.D. from a top-tier law school and active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction.
• 6+ years of legal experience in financial services, fintech, payments, or capital markets regulation.
• Proven track record building legal infrastructure for high-growth companies.
• Hands-on executor: drafts, negotiates, and manages contracts and policies.

Responsibilities

• Own all legal, regulatory, and compliance functions across the foundation and its ecosystem activities.
• Draft, negotiate, and manage contracts — vendor agreements, grants, investment docs, and partnerships.
• Manage outside counsel relationships across jurisdictions with clear in-house vs. external work boundaries.
• Build the compliance program from scratch — AML/sanctions controls, KYC frameworks, internal policies.
• Act as strategic advisor to founders on governance, token-related activities, and high-stakes decisions.

Skills

Contract drafting

Negotiation

Regulatory strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Policy & governance

Education

J.D. from a top-tier law school

Job description

About Us

Sei is the first parallelized layer 1 blockchain. By re‑writing the most widely adopted execution environment in Web3, Sei is setting a new standard in blockchain performance and scalability. Apps on Sei benefit from both the performance of web2 and the decentralization and sovereignty of web3. For more detailed information visit Sei's official website.

About the role

The Sei Development Foundation (SDF) is hiring a General Counsel — the first internal legal owner and the person who turns legal and compliance from a fragmented outside‑counsel patchwork into a real, business‑speed function. This is a leadership and execution role: you will personally draft contracts, negotiate deals, build the compliance program, and engage regulators while also setting the strategy that governs how legal supports the business.

You'll start by building the templates, playbooks, and outside‑counsel structure that let the function scale. Over time, you'll become the organizational owner of legal risk and the person leadership turns to before any high‑stakes decision. The right candidate has deep, hands‑on experience building legal infrastructure for high‑growth fintech, crypto, or financial‑services businesses — whether in‑house or as outside counsel at a top‑tier firm.

Responsibilities

Legal Ownership & Scope

• Own all legal, regulatory, and compliance functions across the foundation and its ecosystem activities, including non‑profit compliance, contracts, grants, investments, partnerships, and policy work
• Serve as the legal lead on token‑related activities, including grants, investments, and structuring decisions
• Lead the transition of Blockchain Association and Digital Chamber policy work into SDF, including the structural and compliance implications of operating under non‑profit status

Hands‑On Execution

• Personally draft, negotiate, and execute contracts — vendor agreements, grant agreements, investment docs, partnership terms, and bespoke commercial arrangements — rather than routing everything through outside counsel
• Own marketing communications review across the organization, building a process that scales with the business and never becomes a bottleneck
• Manage outside counsel relationships across multiple jurisdictions, with clear ownership of what stays in‑house vs. what gets sent out, and disciplined oversight of spend against budget

Compliance & Regulatory Strategy

• Build the compliance program from scratch — AML/sanctions controls, KYC frameworks where applicable, internal policies, and entity‑level governance
• Own regulatory engagement strategy for digital asset and stablecoin developments, including proactive positioning with regulators rather than reactive response
• Apply US securities law, commodities regulation, and AML/sanctions frameworks to live questions about token operations, partnerships, and product launches in regulatory gray areas

Infrastructure & Systems Building

• Build a complete legal template library: contracts, grant agreements, vendor agreements, investment docs, and a comms‑review framework that any team can self‑serve against
• Rationalize outside counsel across jurisdictions — vet, consolidate, and manage spend with a clear framework for what justifies external support
• Stand up a risk register and reporting cadence so leadership has real, current visibility into legal exposure

Leadership & Cross‑Functional Partnership

• Act as a strategic advisor to founders and leadership on corporate governance, token‑related activities, partnerships, and high‑stakes business decisions
• Translate complex legal concepts into clear, practical guidance for non‑legal stakeholders

What We're Looking For

• J.D. from a top‑tier law school and active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction
• 6+ years of legal experience in financial services, fintech, payments, or capital markets regulation, with deep working knowledge of US securities law, commodities regulation, and AML/sanctions frameworks — and their application to digital assets
• Proven track record of building or advising on legal and compliance infrastructure for high‑growth companies — whether in‑house or as outside counsel — with concrete examples of contracts, programs, and frameworks you personally built or led
• Hands‑on executor: you personally draft, negotiate, and manage legal workflows, and you can point to specific contracts, programs, and policies you built yourself
• Experience advising on complex financial products and equity or token structures, with the judgment to make fast calls on novel questions
• Exceptional communicator with a track record of translating complex legal concepts into clear, practical guidance for non‑technical stakeholders, including C‑suite
• Comfort working in a fast‑moving, ambiguous environment where regulatory ground shifts and execution speed is a competitive advantage

Bonus Points

• Experience at a top‑tier law firm with a Web3, fintech, or capital markets practice
• Direct experience with non‑profit or foundation compliance, including grant frameworks and policy‑association governance
• Existing relationships with regulators, the Blockchain Association, the Digital Chamber, or other policy bodies in the digital asset space