General Counsel

InterPayments is a San Francisco, CA-based SaaS company sitting at the exciting intersection of payments and data intelligence. Our Mission is to empower merchants and the software vendors they use to lower payment processing costs. We create innovative data services that Fortune 1000 companies rely upon to lower fees by putting payments in competition on every swipe.  

We empower dedicated team-first individuals who are driven to solve problems to foster innovation, perform at their highest potential, and make a meaningful impact - while creating meaningful relationships along the way.

Role and Purpose

This will be home office based and may require up to 10% travel (primarily for InterPayments events).

You want to make an impact.  As the first in-house legal hire, you want to ensure the company has the proper contractual and compliance infrastructure that scales.  You are motivated by the large mission we have. You enjoy the fact that educating large, enterprise customers requires wearing multiple hats.  You provide input into the legal risks and strategies that will ensure the scalability of the company.  This is a high impact role requiring close collaboration across CEO, Product and Sales.  

This role requires a strategic legal thinker with a strong business acumen, exceptional negotiation skills, and the ability to balance legal requirements with the practical needs of a growing B2B SaaS startup. You will be instrumental in building and protecting the legal framework that supports the company's growth and success.

 

You value building trust and long-lasting relationships. 

 

You’ll make our company better. 

How you’ll make an impact

• Strategic Leadership: Provide strategic legal advice to senior management and other key stakeholders.
  • Structure and manage the company's internal legal function.
  • Develop and implement legal policies, procedures, and best practices to support the company's objectives.
  • Provide training to internal teams on legal matters, ensuring a strong understanding of legal implications and compliance requirements.

 

• Payment Card Regulatory Compliance:
  • Stay current on changes in payment card network rules and regulations at the state level and federal level and keep internal stakeholders up-to-date.
  • Develop and implement strategies to ensure compliance with payment card network rules and state/federal regulations.
  • Be the responsive, reliable source for all internal and external payment card compliance matters and questions.
  • Stay abreast of changes in laws and regulations relevant to the industry.
  • Develop and implement strategies to ensure the company's compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
• Contract Negotiations:
  • Lead and facilitate negotiations for complex contracts, including SaaS agreements, partnerships, and other business transactions.
  • Engage with customers and their legal teams to negotiate agreements in a timely manner, balancing legal requirements with a commercial mindset to meet customer needs.
  • Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of legal agreements to protect the interests of the company.
• Management of Outside Counsel:
  • Oversee the selection, retention, management, and evaluation of all outside counsel.
  • Collaborate with external legal partners to ensure alignment with the company's legal strategy and goals.
  • Oversee outside counsel’s work product when necessary and hold outside counsel accountable to goals, timelines, and cost-effective and high-quality legal support.
• Enterprise Risk Management:
  • Identify, assess, and address legal risks affecting the company and key internal stakeholders.
  • Protect the company’s intellectual property.
  • Develop and implement proactive risk management strategies and policies to limit risk in a commercially viable manner and protect the company's interests with customers, partners, investors, and regulators.
• HR Support:
  • Provide legal guidance and support on internal HR-related matters, ensuring compliance with employment laws and regulations.
  • Work collaboratively with the HR department to address employment-related legal issues.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Work closely with CEO, Product, Sales, and other teams to align legal efforts with overall business objectives and foster a collaborative environment.
• M&A and Fundraising:
  • Serve as the key legal internal advisor on all major business transactions, including contract negotiations, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and fundraising activities.
  • Play a key role in fundraising activities, ensuring compliance with legal requirements.

 

Individuals who thrive in this role typically have…

• 10+ years of experience which includes in-house counsel experience at or with SaaS companies
• Payment card industry experience and a solid understanding of card network rules
• Prolific and charismatic written communication.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with internal stakeholders and external vendors.
• Self-starter, independent driver who can execute with minimal supervision, balance multiple activities simultaneously and achieve deadlines.
• Responsible & accountable. If you say you will do it, you do it.
• Attention to detail.
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities and a results-oriented mindset.

• Bachelors degree and Juris Doctorate degree (JD) from an accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in the relevant jurisdiction.
• Proven experience in contract negotiations, risk management, and regulatory compliance.

 

Who you are

You strive to uncover complex problems and find great personal and professional fulfillment in solving them.  You can put yourself into the mindset of a customer to uncover problems before an actual customer does.  In addition, you are: 

 

• Team-oriented: You believe shared success and individual advancement go hand-in-hand.  We share your values.  You thrive in an inclusive, collaborative environment and hold yourself and your teammates accountable    You step up and step in when your team needs you.   

  

• Impact-driven: You find deep meaning and satisfaction in making an impact.  You are self-aware about what motivates you and what instills passion.  You take pride in being trusted to deliver results for your team.  You embrace a growth-mindset.  You reframe setbacks as gifted opportunities to improve.  In short, you’re a polite, ethical hustler. 

  

• Structured decision maker: you believe progress is rooted in a focused effort.  To know how to focus, you work hard to understand the root cause and listen to different points of view.  You prefer investigating to being right.  You first identify the core drivers of a problem and work backwards to simplify the solution.  You constantly think about 2^nd and 3^rd order effects of decisions.  In general, you are optimistically paranoid about what you don’t know. 

 

InterPayments’ Values:

• Customers and mission first.  The customer is at the heart of everything we do and we have an enormous obligation to help them.  We align our company, team, and individual goals with customer outcomes and our mission.  When making decisions and setting priorities, we always keep our customer’s perspective and our mission in mind. 
• Always build trust.  We focus on the long-term. We treat everyone - existing and prospective teammates, customers, partners, vendors, investors - as if we’ll know and work with them forever.  We assume good intent and empathize.  We’re always ethical, respectful, and honest.  We are responsive, reliable, and trustworthy.  We are loyal and committed to one another, our customers, and our mission.  Nothing is transactional.   
• Do the hard(er) thing.  We reject complacency and embody a growth mindset because it’s more fulfilling.  Being resilient, flexible, and adaptable is challenging.  Seeking and delivering honest feedback is hard.  Embracing open-mindedness, intellectual honesty, and respectful disagreement is tough.  Being relentlessly curious, simplifying complexity, and thinking through 2^nd/3^rd order effects of decisions takes more work.  Being highly responsive and making data-driven decisions requires more effort.  We choose to do them anyway.  We find reward in pushing ourselves and others beyond our comfort zones. 

 

InterPayments is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, and encourage all qualified applicants to apply.

 

 

 

 

 

InterPayments’ core values are the building blocks of how we achieve our mission: Obsess about our Customers’ and Partners’ Needs; Be Relentless, Resilient, and Responsive; Collaborate with Teammates, Customers, and Partners; Act with Integrity and Empathy; Outperform your Potential; and Communicate Honestly and Respectfully.

InterPayments is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, and encourage all qualified applicants to apply.