Lead Legal Counsel, Regulatory and Financial Services

Are you looking to have an impact on the daily life of millions of entrepreneurs in France (and tomorrow in Europe)? Are you looking for a work environment that values trust, proactivity, and autonomy? Then Pennylane is the right place for you ! Our vision We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones). We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business. About us Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!) In 5 years of existence, we’ve managed to : 💻 Make ourselves known as a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants 💰 Raise a total of €400 millions, including from Sequoia, the famous fund from the Silicon Valley who invested early in companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, Paypal and much more... 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Grow from 7 cofounders to 1000 happy Pennylaners : we’re now recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France (and also remotely), with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor . 🌍 Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities, with a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe 🤝 Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms and obtain outstanding ratings 🚀 Already more than 900,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 6000 accounting firms use Pennylane in France! We are currently operating approximately 30k business accounts under a BaaS model with Swan. The role of Financial Services in our strategy is set to grow, both in terms of revenue and product contribution, to serve our 800k current customer base. As such, we are initiating a process to get licensed as Etablissement de paiement et Société de financement. Our ambition is to start onboarding new customers by mid 2027 before starting migrating existing customers. To meet this ambition, we are starting to hire our Tech, Product, Compliance, Legal and Ops leaders. We are looking for a Lead Legal Counsel to drive the legal function of our Financial Services activity and build our regulatory legal team. From the day you join until we are fully licensed, you will structure and execute the legal path to authorization: interpret requirements, translate them into an internal plan, and ensure deliverables are complete, consistent, and aligned across teams. You will help define the target operating model (intra-group and outsourced) and ensure it is legally defensible and well documented for the application. After licensing, you will shift from “building the file” to running and scaling the legal function of the regulated entity: ensuring ongoing compliance with ACPR expectations, enabling product growth safely, and keeping the operating model (including outsourcing) continuously audit-ready. You will own the legal oversight of day-to-day legal and corporate matters (policies, governance, reporting support, inspections), lead the legal work for launching new regulated products and entering new partnerships, and manage the legal aspects of onboarding and migrating customers to the licensed subsidiary (terms, communications, complaints/conduct risk). This is a greenfield project with high autonomy and responsibility, and the opportunity to shape the legal culture of a fast-growing fintech while managing and mentoring an experienced Legal Counsel, with the ambition to scale the team further as the business grows. Organisation & Reporting You will be part of the core Legal Department. Your reporting line will be Stanislas, our Gener