(Senior) Legal Counsel (f/m/d) – Investment Operations

Upvest GmbH

Job Overview

Location

Berlin

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Serve as the primary legal authority on Upvest’s post-trade infrastructure, ensuring legal compliance and operational resilience for clearing, settlement, and custody processes across the EEA, UK, and Switzerland.
• Own and structure the legal framework for client asset protection and safekeeping obligations, including oversight of sub-custodian relationships to meet the highest regulatory standards.
• Lead negotiation, drafting, and ongoing management of contracts with central counterparties (CCPs), central securities depositories (CSDs), custodians, and other post-trade infrastructure providers.
• Act as the internal expert on EU and German financial regulations governing post-trade operations, including MiFID, CSDR, WpDVerOV, and MaRisk, translating regulatory changes into actionable guidance for Operations, Compliance, and Finance.
• Partner with Operations and Compliance teams to assess, respond to, and mitigate post-trade incidents, settlement failures, and operational risk events with legally defensible solutions.
• Develop and implement playbooks and response protocols for legal risk events in post-trade operations to enable rapid, compliant decision-making.
• Drive the modernization of the legal function by championing scalable contracting processes, AI-assisted contract review workflows, and standardized documentation practices that support rapid business growth.
• Provide legal counsel on cross-jurisdictional regulatory differences across European markets, ensuring operational adaptability where post-trade frameworks diverge by jurisdiction.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of evolving regulatory landscapes in the EU, UK, and Switzerland, and proactively advise stakeholders on implications for Upvest’s investment operations.
• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure all post-trade activities are legally sound, commercially viable, and aligned with Upvest’s mission to simplify investing at scale.
• Represent the legal team in cross-functional initiatives, ensuring legal considerations are embedded into product development, operational scaling, and partner integrations.
• Maintain accurate and accessible legal documentation for all post-trade agreements, custody arrangements, and regulatory compliance frameworks.
• Advise on legal risks associated with new investment products and expansion into additional European markets, ensuring regulatory readiness before launch.
• Contribute to Upvest’s culture of transparency and accountability by clearly communicating legal requirements and risk assessments to non-legal stakeholders.

🎯 Requirements

• At least 3–5 years post-qualification experience (PQE) in the financial services industry
• At least one German legal qualification (Erste Juristische Prüfung)
• Hands-on understanding of clearing, settlement, and custody mechanics across investment products, with direct experience working with CCPs, CSDs, or custodians
• Strong command of EU and German financial law relevant to post-trade operations (MiFID, CSDR, WpDVerOV, MaRisk)
• Professional fluency in English and German
• Experience in a regulated investment firm, custodian bank, CSD, infrastructure provider, or fintech with a meaningful post-trade operating footprint

🏖️ Benefits

• 30 days of annual leave
• Sports benefits
• Access to confidential professional coaching
• Flexibility to work remotely abroad for up to 183 days per year
• One-month fully paid sabbatical (UpRest) after every 4 years of service
• Personal development budget with freedom to choose how to use it
• Competitive, above-market salary and participation in the employee equity program
• Company-wide events including UpFest, dinners, offsites, and the Holiday party
• Inclusive culture supported by Employee Resources Groups such as Upfem and UpVergent

Skills & Technologies

Senior

Remote

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Upvest GmbH

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About Upvest GmbH

Upvest GmbH provides a set of APIs that enable fintechs, banks and wealth managers to embed investment capabilities into their applications. The Berlin-based company offers infrastructure for fractional shares, ETFs, crypto and other assets, handling trading, custody, settlement and regulatory compliance. Customers can launch brokerage or robo-advisor products without building their own broker-dealer, reducing time-to-market and operational overhead. Upvest holds BaFin licences for proprietary trading, investment brokerage and crypto custody, serving clients across Europe.

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