Legal Counsel in Manchester

Ryft is an FCA authorised payment institution and PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment facilitator, providing marketplace and platform payments infrastructure to merchants across the UK and EU.

As Ryft scales through its next phase of growth, including EU and US expansion, the legal function is growing to keep pace with an increasingly complex commercial, regulatory and partner landscape.

The Legal Counsel will be Ryft's first dedicated in house lawyer, reporting to the Finance Director and working closely with the Co-Founders, Compliance, Commercial and Product teams.

The role is responsible for drafting, reviewing and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts, supporting partner and merchant agreements, and providing pragmatic legal input across the business.

This is a hands on role suited to someone who enjoys working close to the commercial edge of a fast growing payments company.

Key responsibilities

• Draft, review and negotiate commercial contracts including merchant agreements, partner and platform agreements, referral and reseller agreements, NDAs and vendor contracts.
• Support Ryft's Terms and Conditions, including material adverse amendment clauses, liability caps and network tokenisation provisions, keeping documentation current as the product and regulatory landscape evolves.
• Partner with Compliance on FX services clauses, third party risk assessments and PSR 2017 related contractual obligations.
• Provide first line legal review of partner due diligence requests, DDQs and RFPs, working alongside Commercial and Compliance.
• Support negotiations with acquiring, sponsor bank, card scheme and technology partners, including redlining and escalation of key commercial and risk terms.
• Advise on employment related documentation and policies in conjunction with the People team, and support HR on contractual matters as required.
• Manage the relationship with Ryft's external legal counsel, briefing effectively and controlling external spend.
• Maintain a contract repository and playbook of standard positions and fallback clauses to speed up negotiation cycles.
• Support the Finance Director and Co-Founders on ad hoc corporate matters, including investor documentation and governance items as needed.
• Flag legal and regulatory risk proactively, escalating to Compliance and the MLRO where matters touch financial crime, safeguarding or FCA obligations.
• What we are looking for
• Qualified solicitor (England and Wales) or equivalent, with 3 to 7 years PQE.
• Strong background in commercial contract drafting and negotiation; experience in payments, fintech or financial services is highly desirable.
• Working knowledge of UK payments regulation (PSRs, FCA requirements) or a demonstrated ability to get up to speed quickly in a regulated environment.
• Comfortable working independently as the first legal hire, with sound judgement on when to escalation versus resolve directly.
• Commercially minded, pragmatic and able to translate legal risk into plain language for non legal stakeholders.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience supporting EU or US market entry, or cross border commercial arrangements, is an advantage.
• What Ryft offers
• The opportunity to build the legal function from the ground up at a fast growing, FCA authorised payments business.
• Direct exposure to the Co-Founders and senior leadership team.
• A collaborative, fast paced environment during a period of significant international growth.
• Competitive salary, share options and standard benefits package
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