PS
Lead Legal Counsel, Regulatory and Financial Services
Contract type
Ongoing
Work mode
Hybrid · Paris, France
Experience
Senior · 8+ years
Job description
Lead Legal Counsel to build and run the legal function for Pennylane's new regulated Financial Services activity, from obtaining ACPR licensing as a payment/financing institution to ongoing compliance and scaling the team.
At a glance
- Employment
- Full-time · Employee (employment agreement)
- Work mode
- Hybrid · Paris, France
- Languages
- French – fluent, English – fluent
What you'll do
- Structure and execute the legal path to authorization: interpret requirements, translate them into an internal plan, and ensure deliverables are complete, consistent, and aligned across teams
- Help define the target operating model (intra-group and outsourced) and ensure it is legally defensible and well documented for the application
- After licensing, run and scale the legal function of the regulated entity: ensure ongoing compliance with ACPR expectations, enable product growth safely, and keep the operating model (including outsourcing) continuously audit-ready
- Own legal oversight of day-to-day legal and corporate matters (policies, governance, reporting support, inspections)
- Lead the legal work for launching new regulated products and entering new partnerships
- Manage the legal aspects of onboarding and migrating customers to the licensed subsidiary (terms, communications, complaints/conduct risk)
- Manage, mentor, and develop team member(s), fostering a high-performance, autonomous, and pragmatic legal culture
- Structure the team's workload and roadmap, delegating effectively while remaining deeply hands-on
- Anticipate future hiring needs and actively participate in scaling the regulatory legal team
- Design, document and run the legal aspects of corporate governance: delegation of powers, board/committee charters, conflicts management, inter-company arrangements on payment services outsourcing, governance narrative for ACPR reports, and ongoing legal compliance cadence once authorized
- Own the legal design of the FS product perimeter (payments services, account services, credit/financing products as applicable)
- Work with the contractual team on the associated contractual framework: customer terms, disclosures, pricing documentation, complaint handling language, and operational/legal flows (including KYC/AML handoffs, incident handling and customer communications)
- Own legal matters relating to critical outsourcing and third-party reliance (including existing BaaS arrangements): contract negotiation, regulatory outsourcing clauses, audit/access rights, sub-outsourcing controls, exit plans, SLAs, data protection allocation, operational resilience expectations, and documentation suitable for ACPR scrutiny
- Lead the legal plan for migrating customers from Swan (sequencing, consent/novation approaches, customer communications from a legal standpoint, continuity of mandates, handling of incidents/complaints, and safeguards to minimise conduct risk)
- In close coordination with the DPO and security stakeholders, ensure the Financial Services operating model addresses data processing roles, cross-border flows, retention, incident response, recordkeeping, and contractual protections with key providers
- Help prepare ACPR interactions (Q&A packs, position papers, meeting preparation) until fully licensed; once authorized, own the relationship with ACPR from a legal perspective, supporting the CCRO with legal opinions and advisory
- Train internal stakeholders on the legal/regulatory constraints that shape product and operations, and build a "legal-by-design" approach for Financial Services
What we're looking for
- 8+ years of relevant experience, including in-house legal experience at a regulated entity (payments, EMI/PI, bank, lending/consumer credit, factoring, etc.), fintech, or BaaS
- Proven track record or strong aptitude for managing, mentoring, and developing team members in a fast-paced environment
- Substantial experience in regulated financial services legal work, comfortable owning cross-functional programmes
- Senior legal expert in a French ACPR-regulated entity (établissement de paiement, établissement de crédit, société de financement or similar)
- Hands-on contract experience and knowledge of the regulatory environment (arrêté du 3 novembre 2014, PSD2, DORA, EBA Guidelines, etc.)
- Ability to credibly lead on ACPR/European regulatory frameworks for payments and/or lending/financing
- Ability to credibly lead on outsourcing and third-party risk legal frameworks in regulated environments
- Ability to credibly lead on governance and regulated-entity corporate law basics
- Player-coach mentality: capable of executing complex individual contributions while guiding and empowering the team
- Can work fast without losing rigour
- Strong pedagogy: able to explain complex regulatory legal topics to product managers, engineers and founders in simple, actionable terms
- Pragmatic, impact-driven approach, capable of operating under strong regulatory constraints without blocking innovation
- Very strong written and oral communication skills in both French and English
- Fluent French and English are mandatory
- Based in France, with a strong preference for Paris
- Regular on-site presence in Paris is expected; partial remote is possible; this is not a fully remote role
Your team
Legal Department
Core Legal Department; you report to Stanislas, General Counsel, manage a seasoned Legal Counsel, and partner closely with the Financial Services Chief Compliance and Risk Officer, Chief Operational Officer and the contract team.
Benefits
- 25 vacation days paid by Pennylane, wherever you are based
How to get hired
- 1Interview with Lucie (30-45 min), Senior Recruiter
- 2Interview with Stanislas (1h), Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance
- 3Case Study with Stanislas & Maxime (1h)
- 4Last round with Laurent and Felix (45 min)
Apply
Direct apply at Pennylane SAS
Opens the job posting at Pennylane SAS
About Pennylane SAS
The most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms
Pennylane is a fast-growing French fintech providing accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants. It operates approximately 30k business accounts under a BaaS model with Swan and is initiating a process to get licensed as Etablissement de paiement et Société de financement.
Mission
Help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business.
Key facts
- 1000
- Fintech / accounting and financial software
- Raised a total of €400 millions, including from Sequoia
- Grew from 7 cofounders to 1000 employees
- Recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France and remotely, with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor
- International environment with more than 25 nationalities and a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of employees work from all parts of Europe
- More than 900,000 SMEs and over 6000 accounting firms use Pennylane in France
- Operating approximately 30k business accounts under a BaaS model with Swan
- Initiating a process to get licensed as Etablissement de paiement et Société de financement, aiming to onboard new customers by mid 2027
Partners & customers
SequoiaSwan
What they value
- Trust
- Proactivity
- Autonomy