General Counsel

Sydecar; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Sydecar is seeking a seasoned General Counsel to scale our legal and compliance functions while partnering with product teams to shape secure, compliant fintech solutions. You will advise the CEO and Product leadership and drive governance across federal, state, and international standards.

You will lead a fast-paced team, manage outside counsel, and steer initiatives that reduce friction for users while keeping the business on the cutting edge of the industry.

Qualifications

• Experience building and scaling legal teams inside fast-growing organizations.
• Experience partnering closely with product teams, where legal input shaped product decisions.
• Strong written and verbal communicator who can summarize at board level and in deal negotiations.
• Excellent strategic thinking, sound judgment, and practical application of law to business goals.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and continue building a multidisciplinary legal and compliance team.
• Analyze legal issues through risk assessment, risk management, and pragmatic decision-making; provide actionable solutions.
• Work on securities and regulatory compliance, negotiating, reviewing, and drafting commercial agreements.
• Advise executives on changes in law, regulation, and best practices impacting the business.
• Build and maintain a knowledge base to educate stakeholders on product design language and legal considerations.
• Contribute to innovative fund structures and shape Sydecar’s products.
• Track evolving regulations and engage with industry groups to shape them.
• Field and respond to external inquiries about the business.
• Manage outside counsel as necessary.

Skills

Legal leadership

Product-team partnership

Communication

Strategic thinking

Work under pressure

ABA JD

Bar license

In-house FinTech

VC experience

Securities laws

Education

ABA JD

Bar license

In-house FinTech

VC experience

Job description

About Us

Sydecar is on a mission to transform the world of private markets. Our goal is to make these markets more accessible, transparent, and liquid, and we're achieving this by revolutionizing the way investment vehicles are created and executed.

At Sydecar, we're not just a platform; we're a trusted partner in venture capital. We're dedicated to simplifying and standardizing the private investing experience, empowering capital allocators to discover and support visionary entrepreneurs who are shaping the future.

Our platform is designed with ease and efficiency in mind. We take care of all the behind-the-scenes tasks, from automating banking, ensuring compliance, handling contracts, managing taxes, to streamlining reporting. This leaves investors the freedom to concentrate on what matters most: making valuable deals and nurturing meaningful relationships.

Join us at Sydecar, as we lead the charge in revolutionizing private investing.

About the opportunity

The core mission of the executive team is to execute an ambitious roadmap to build the most intuitive, compliant, and stable method of executing alternative asset investments. Our General Counsel will keep our products compliant while helping us push the boundaries of what's possible, finding the path to yes on novel product ideas rather than defaulting to no.

As General Counsel you will span legal research, thought leadership, and product innovation, adding value across every aspect of our operation. Reporting to the CEO and serving as a strategic advisor to the CEO and VP of Product, you will ensure our suite of products and services meets the highest standards of federal, state, and international compliance, while exploring creative ways to reduce friction for our users and keep our team on the cutting edge of the industry.

This is a hybrid role based in San Francisco or New York City with in-office attendance of two to three days per week.

What you'll be doing

• Lead, manage, and continue building a multidisciplinary legal and compliance team.

• Analyze legal issues through risk assessment, risk management, and pragmatic decision-making lenses and provide actionable solutions, rather than simply identifying areas of potential legal risk.

• Work on a range of matters such as securities and regulatory compliance, negotiating, reviewing, and drafting commercial agreements.

• Advise executive members on changes in law, regulation, and best practices that impact the business.

• Build and maintain a referenceable knowledge base to educate our stakeholders with respect to: Why our products are designed the way they are. Why do we use specific language in our product. What laws affect the business.

• Contribute directly to innovative fund structures and shape Sydecar’s current and future products.

• Track evolving regulatory frameworks affecting alternative asset investing and, where appropriate, engage with industry groups and policymakers to help shape them.

• Field and respond to external inquiries regarding our business.

• Manage outside counsel, as necessary.
  

What we're looking for

• Experience building and scaling legal teams inside fast-growing organizations.

• Experience partnering closely with product teams, where legal input directly shaped product decisions and outcomes.

• Strong written and verbal communicator who can flex between board‑level summaries and in‑the‑weeds deal negotiation.

• Excellent strategic thinking, solid judgment, and the willingness to work with business partners to make decisions that are grounded in a practical application of the law, the technology, and the business goals.

• Ability to work under pressure in a fast‑paced, innovative, rapidly changing environment, and get up to speed on new areas of law quickly and effectively, and comfortably in a startup business environment.

• A JD from an ABA‑accredited law school and an active bar license in good standing with 10+ years of legal practice experience and extensive in‑house experience in the FinTech or venture capital space.

• Strongly preferred: deep expertise in the range of securities laws impacting venture funds and FinTech platforms, including the Securities Act, Exchange Act, Investment Company Act, Investment Advisers Act, and FINRA Rules.

Sydecar’s values

Our values are important to the way we live and work at Sydecar. They guide our priorities, behaviors and interactions.

Be Committed

As a team, we rise to meet challenges and recognize that we become stronger and develop character when facing adversity.

Be Excellent

We measure our success not just by what we achieve, but by how we achieve it—through integrity, creativity, elegance, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Excellence is not just doing things well—it's looking for ways to do them better.

Be Humble

Humility is our key to personal and professional growth. We appreciate that great ideas can come from anywhere, regardless of seniority, pedigree, or experience. We care more about collective outcomes than who gets credit or who does what. We try to not let our ego cloud our judgment.

Win Together

Winning is no accident. It is the result of collective hard work, perseverance, sacrifice, and most of all, loving what we do. Winning requires that we give extra—sometimes winning calls for late nights or extra effort, and we show up for clients and each other with urgency and heart. While excellence is a journey, winning is a destination.

Sydecar is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Sydecar are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Sydecar will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Sydecar encourages applicants of all ages.