What are the responsibilities and job description for the US Legal Strategy & Operations Lead position at Aspire?
About the company
Aspire is the leading all-in-one finance operating system for growing businesses. We are on a mission to reinvent business finance for a new generation of entrepreneurs and business owners, empowering startups and SMBs to realise their full potential.
Founded in 2018, Aspire has raised over USD 300M across equity and debt from world-class investors. In 2023, we successfully closed an oversubscribed USD 100 million Series C equity round led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures with participation of Tencent, Paypal Ventures, LGT Capital Partners, Picus Capital and MassMutual Ventures. To power our solutions, we have partnered with some of the best companies in the world such as JP Morgan, Visa and Wise and helped more than 50,000 businesses using our suite of products.
Aspire has been awarded Best Employer of the Year and Startup of the year by Asia FinTech Awards, and also LinkedIn’s Top Startup in Singapore. In 2024, we also made it to CB Insights’ Top 100 Global Fintech List two years in a row.
You will be amazed by the energy and experience of our team! Aspire serves as an environment for you to innovate and drive change with our team of ex-entrepreneurs, ex-founders, and high-achievers with international and diverse backgrounds. Are you a top talent who is passionate about entrepreneurship? Join our rapidly growing team to make an impact in the Fintech space!
About the role:
You are a foundational member of the US launch team. This is a high-impact, individual contributor role. You act as the right hand to the US Country Lead and are responsible for seeing through all US legal, regulatory, and compliance matters.
This is a rare opportunity to be the single point of legal authority for a global company's entry into the world’s largest market. You will report directly to the leadership team and have full ownership over building a robust, compliant, and scalable legal framework to support exponential US growth.
In this role, you will:
- Launch: Support the development of the business model, the planning & execution of the launch of the US business from 0 to 1
- Product Regulations & Risk: Work directly with product and engineering teams to ensure compliant development for all US payments features (ACH, Wires, Card programs, virtual accounts) and Aspire products, ensuring adherence to applicable rules and regulatory compliance obligations.
- Partnerships: Be the main PIC with banking & commercial partners, from identifying them to drafting agreements, negotiating, monitoring performance, coordinating escalations.
- Governance & Risk Management: Develop and maintain core US legal and compliance policies, training, and documentation, ensuring effective internal controls are established and followed by operational teams.
- External Counsel Management: Efficiently manage and oversee outside US counsel, ensuring cost-effective and clear advice on specialized issues.
- Payments Regulatory Strategy: Act as the primary subject matter expert on US financial services laws, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), KYC/KYB requirements, FinCEN regulations, and state-level Money Transmitter Licensing (MTL) strategy.
You should have:
- 6-10 years of experience working in legal or compliance advisory role, ideally in a financial technology company
- Legal or compliance advisory background, with expertise in US payments regulations, particularly those relevant to commercial finance
- Expertise in US payments and banking regulations, particularly those relevant to commercial finance, including Regulation E (as it relates to commercial accounts), BSA/AML, OFAC, and a working knowledge of Money Transmitter requirements.
- Proven ability to operate as a generalist individual contributor, handling both complex strategic regulatory advice and high-volume commercial drafting.
- The ability to identify and define problems, build project plans to address them, and manage implementation of their solution
- Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to translate complex legal risks into clear, actionable advice for non-legal stakeholders (Product, Sales, Engineering)
- Comfort working in a lean, fast-paced, and cross-cultural start-up environment where ambiguity is common
- Experience with cross border transactions and money movement a plus
By submitting this application, I confirm that all the information given by me in this application for employment and any additional documents attached hereto are true to the best of my knowledge and that I have not wilfully suppressed any material fact. I confirm I have disclosed if applicable any previous employment with Aspire. I accept that if any of the information given by me in this application is in any way false or incorrect, my application may be rejected, any offer of employment may be withdrawn or my employment with Aspire may be terminated summarily or I may be dismissed. By submitting this application, I agree that my personal data will be processed in accordance with Aspire's Candidate Privacy Notice