GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect, manage and send bank payments through Direct Debit, real-time payments and open banking. With US$130bn+ processed annually across 30+ countries, we handle recurring and one-off payments without the chasing, stress, or expensive fees. Our end-to-end payment platform also features AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud, alongside connections to over 350 platforms businesses use everyday.
We are headquartered in the UK, with teams and operations spanning North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
- As Associate Legal Counsel (5 to 6 years of PQE), you will focus on a number of legal areas and advise UK teams across the business.
- You will take a consultative approach and work closely with the business - never working alone, or able to concentrate on purely legal issues. As a member of a busy legal team you will also be expected to contribute to team-wide initiatives.
- The key responsibilities of this role include:
- Support and advise the Partner team and negotiate strategic Partner deals
- Support and advise the Go-To-Market teams in the UK on the most strategic and/or highest value deals
- Work closely with your manager to support on strategic projects
- Work on specific projects, for example when we roll out new templates/launch new products
- Review and negotiate customer, partnership and supplier contracts by providing pragmatic and commercial support
- Supervise more junior lawyers on negotiations or on specific files
- Instruct and manage external legal counsel
- Build out and maintain self-help tools, playbooks and guides for the legal team and for the wider business
- Focus on constant process improvement related to high volume work - for example by iterating our contracting automation and management workflows
- Be prepared to deal with any legal issue, at any time.
We’re looking for a lawyer with private practice training and/or in-house experience in a fast-paced environment. You will be driven, able to work independently and able to apply your existing knowledge and approach across a very wide range of legal (and quasi-legal) areas. As a technology business, it helps if you have had experience in a similar area, or perhaps you have a keen interest in tech outside of your day to day work.
We’d love to hear from you if:
- You have experience negotiating complex contracts with sophisticated counterparties
- You have experience reviewing marketing materials in accordance with applicable laws and regulations
- You grasp new legal concepts quickly, and are not afraid to use your common sense.
- You are able to appropriately challenge ways of working and not be afraid to ask why.
- You are a self-starter who is proactive and you are willing to roll up your sleeves to get the job done.
- Your communication skills are first class, and you are able to distil complex and cumbersome legalese into understandable English.
- You love tech and tools, and love exploring how they can contribute to efficiency and customer experience.
- You enjoy project management and thrive on operational efficiency.
- You are easy to work with, do not take yourself seriously and want to work in a fun, fast-growing and challenging environment.
Bonus points if:
- You have knowledge of FCA requirements or payment services.
- You have experience in IP management and handling IP related issues.
- You have experience with selling and supporting SaaS solutions.
- You can explain what an API is.
Base salary range: £48,000 - £72,000
Base salary ranges are based on role, job level, location, and market data. Please note that whilst we strive to offer competitive compensation, our approach is to pay between the minimum and the mid-point of the pay range until performance can be assessed in role. Offers will take into account level of experience, interview assessment, budgets and parity between you and fellow employees at GoCardless doing similar work.
- Wellbeing - stay healthy with dedicated support and medical cover
- Work away scheme - gives you the option to work away from your country of residence for up to 90 days in any 12 month period
- Adaptive Working - allows you to work flexibly, around your lifestyle
- Parental leave - to suit everyone embarking on life's great adventure
- Learning Budget - lead your own development with an annual learning budget
- Time off - generous holiday allowance, + 3 annual volunteer days, + 4 annual business-wide wellness days (‘GC Fridays’)
We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Working this way creates the GC magic- the reason we all love showing up to work.
Diversity & InclusionAs of April 2025, we had 806 employees (GeeCees) globally, with 524 based in the UK, 163 based in Latvia and 119 across our other offices.
To ensure that we're representative of the world around us - and to be able to review relevant benchmarks - we ask GeeCees to voluntarily disclose diversity data. This year, the proportion of GeeCees providing data increased to 88% (up from 79% in 2024). With regards to diversity within GoCardless, we can see GeeCees identifying as:
Asian, Black, Mixed or Other — 25%
Neurodiverse — 9%
LGBTQIA+ — 9%
Disabled — 1%
Average age — 33
Female — 45%
Male — 55%
We’re rooting for you during your application and GoCardless aims to provide reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process as remarkable and accessible as we can. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you need extra support.
If you want to learn more, you can read about our Employee Resource Groups and objectives here
Sustainability
We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment, leaving a more sustainable world for future generations. Check out our sustainability action plan here.
Find out more about Life at GoCardless via Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Skills Required
- 5 to 6 years of post-qualification experience
- Private practice training and/or in-house legal experience in a fast-paced environment
- Experience negotiating complex contracts with sophisticated counterparties
- Experience reviewing marketing materials for compliance with applicable laws and regulations
- Ability to work independently across a wide range of legal and quasi-legal areas
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including explaining complex legal issues clearly
- Experience with project management and operational efficiency
- Knowledge of FCA requirements or payment services
- Experience in intellectual property management and IP-related matters
- Experience selling and supporting SaaS solutions
- Ability to explain APIs
What We Do
GoCardless is on a mission to take the pain out of getting paid for businesses with recurring revenue. We’ve created a global bank debit network, to rival credit and debit cards. On top of it, we’ve built a platform designed and optimised for taking invoice, subscription, membership and instalment payments. We now process $13bn in transactions a year and we’re proud to count 50,000 businesses around the world as our customers, from small businesses to household names like TripAdvisor and the Guardian. Our recurring payments platform integrates with the applications businesses use every day, giving businesses more visibility over payments and saving them huge amounts of time on tasks like payment reconciliation. We partner with more than 150 billing and subscription software partners globally, including Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Zuora and Salesforce. GoCardless has offices in London, Paris, Munich, Melbourne and San Francisco. We’re backed by some of the world’s leading investors including Adams Street Partners, Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Notion Capital, Passion Capital, Salesforce Ventures Y Combinator.
