Commercial Counsel

Maple transforms institutional lending, leveraging innovative technology to empower lending markets. Our goal is to be the most reliable lender in the global financial system, distinguished by our commitment to superior user experience and transparency. At Maple, we embody a culture of ownership, relentless execution, and unwavering commitment to our customers, partners and team. Founded in 2019, Maple has grown to become the leading institutional lender across crypto markets having originated >$17B in loans to date. The team has built a dynamic and innovative product that leverages the benefits of blockchain and smart contract technology with an intuitive and feature rich application. About the role Maple Finance is an institutional digital-asset lending and asset-management platform, active across secured lending, custody-linked account control arrangements, and on-chain products including syrupUSDC/syrupUSDT. Legal is a small, in-house function led by the General Counsel, built to run lean and to lean heavily on AI-assisted tooling rather than headcount for routine work. This is a rare opportunity for a lawyer to get broad, high-responsibility exposure, across lending documentation, digital asset regulatory questions, and commercial contracts, that would normally take years to see across separate rotations at a law firm. You will work directly with the General Counsel on live matters from day one. This is not a research-only or document-review-only role: you will be trusted with first-pass drafting and judgment calls, reviewed and signed off before anything goes out the door. This is a remote role however our strong preference is to hire a candidate in the Western Hemisphere. What you'll do Lending documentation. First-pass review, drafting, and redlining of master loan agreements, loan confirmations, and account control agreements for institutional lending and borrowing counterparties, working from the department's playbooks and precedent library. Regulatory research. Support the department's ongoing work on digital-asset regulatory positioning (DeFi vs. regulated activity, licensing questions, AML/compliance touchpoints) across various jurisdictions, under the General Counsel's direction. Policies and Corporate Governance. Develop, draft and refine Maple's policies, procedures, and corporate governance frameworks, using and improving the department's standard templates. Commercial and vendor contracts. Review NDAs, vendor agreements, partnership and grant agreements, and marketing materials against Maple's standard positions. Precedent and template maintenance. Help keep the precedent library, playbooks, and templates current as the department's positions develop. AI-assisted practice. Work daily inside the department's AI-assisted drafting, review, and research workflows as the normal way of doing the job, not an add-on. See the note on AI fluency below. Experience and qualifications Required: Qualified lawyer (or equivalent) in the U.S. or other common law jurisdiction (e.g. Canada, England, Cayman Islands, Australia, etc), admitted and in good standing.* Approximately 1-3 years post-qualification experience (or a strong newly-qualified candidate), ideally with meaningful exposure to commercial contracts, banking/finance, or financial services work. Strong contract drafting and review skills, and the judgment to know when a departure from standard-form language needs to be escalated rather than resolved on instinct. Intellectually curious and comfortable reasoning from first principles. Capable of working from primary sources (statutes, regulator guidance, the actual agreement) rather than relying on secondary summaries or inherited assumptions. * A note on jurisdiction: These are illustrative examples - Maple's legal work spans multiple jurisdictions, and no single bar admission covers all of it. The department relies on outside counsel for jurisdictions outside the in-house team's own qualification as needed. The right candidate is qualified in a jurisdiction recognized for financial services, or demonstrates ability to manage cross-jurisdictional matters. If unsure, apply. Preferred, not required: Prior exposure to secured/structured lending, fund finance, or credit documentation. Familiarity with digital assets, DeFi, or crypto-native business models. Qualification or substantive coursework in a second relevant jurisdiction, given the multi-jurisdiction nature of the work. Strong attention to detail and organizational skills. Attributes that matter here This is a small-and-growing legal function inside a fast-moving, crypto-native company, not a law firm rotation. The attributes that matter more here than seniority or pedigree: Ownership : willing to run a first draft or a research question to a real answer, not a partial one, before bringing it back. Comfortable with ambiguity : the department is actively building its own playbooks and positions; not everything has a settled answer yet. Intellectually honest about confidence levels : separates what is known, what is likely, and what is still open, and can make a recommendation among options. Low ego, high trust : this is a small team working closely together in a fast-paced environment. AI-native working style. Comfortable treating AI-assisted tools as a standard part of legal practice, not a novelty or a threat, and willing to build judgment about when to trust automated output and when to override it. What the role offers Direct, hands-on mentorship from the General Counsel across a genuinely broad practice area mix. Ownership of real matters from an early stage, not just document review. A front-row seat on how an in-house legal function is being built and run in an AI-augmented way from the ground up, at a company that treats that as a strategic differentiator rather than a cost-cutting measure. Front-row experience at a leading on-chain finance protocol in an important fast-moving industry where the law is still developing. If you subscribe to the values of Maple - Personal Ownership, Focused Execution, User Prioritisation, Innovative Mindset - and want to be part of a collaborative culture focused on bringing Global Finance into the future, then we want to hear from you!