Senior Director, Legal, Global Payments

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GoFundMe is the world’s most powerful community for good, dedicated to helping people help each other. By uniting individuals and nonprofits in one place, GoFundMe makes it easy and safe for people to ask for help and support causes—for themselves and each other. Together, our community has raised more than $40 billion since 2010.

At GoFundMe, our mission is to help people help each other. As our platform continues to evolve, payments are central to delivering a trusted, seamless experience for donors and beneficiaries around the world. Join us! The GoFundMe team is seeking an exceptional Sr Director, Legal, Global Payments to lead the legal strategy supporting our global payments ecosystem and serve as the company's foremost legal advisor on payments, financial services, and fintech matters.

Reporting to the VP Legal, this leader will serve as GoFundMe's senior legal authority on payments, partnering closely with Product, Payments, Engineering, Compliance, Finance, Risk, Trust & Safety, and Business Development to enable innovation while ensuring the company meets evolving legal and regulatory requirements. This is a dedicated payments legal leadership role for someone with deep expertise in payments regulation, regulatory examinations, financial services infrastructure, and the legal frameworks required to support a modern global payments platform.

As GoFundMe continues to evolve its products, payment capabilities, and regulatory responsibilities, this executive will build the legal strategy, governance, and scalable legal infrastructure needed to support Platform Excellence, global marketplace expansion, and the company's next generation of payments capabilities. Working closely with GoFundMe’s Senior Leadership Team, this leader will help shape the legal architecture underlying GoFundMe's global payments and regulatory ecosystem.

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into practical business solutions that enable responsible innovation while protecting GoFundMe, its customers, its partners, and the integrity of the platform.

What You'll Do

Lead Payments Legal Strategy

Serve as GoFundMe's senior legal advisor and enterprise leader for payments, financial services, and fintech legal matters. Define the legal strategy supporting GoFundMe's global payments platform, partnering closely with executive leadership to enable continued product innovation, business growth, and international expansion. Partner with executive leadership to design scalable legal and regulatory operating models that support global expansion, enterprise risk management, and long-term platform strategy. Help shape the legal architecture underlying the company's global payments and regulatory infrastructure, ensuring legal frameworks evolve alongside the business. Advise on emerging legal and regulatory developments affecting payments, financial services, and global commerce.

Enable Product Innovation

Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Design, Compliance, Risk, and Business teams throughout the product lifecycle, from concept through launch and ongoing iteration. Provide practical legal guidance on new payment methods, payment service providers, financial services offerings, platform capabilities, and strategic initiatives. Develop scalable legal review processes that accelerate innovation while maintaining appropriate legal and regulatory safeguards. Translate complex legal and regulatory requirements into clear, actionable guidance for cross-functional stakeholders.

Advise on Global Payments & Financial Services

Serve as the company's subject matter expert on payments law, money transmission, financial services regulation, AML/BSA, sanctions, fraud prevention, KYC/KYB, card network and ACH rules, and related legal frameworks. Advise on U.S. federal and state regulatory requirements, as well as international legal frameworks governing payments and financial services, including FINTRAC, TRACFIN, AMLR, and other evolving global regulatory regimes. Lead legal strategy for regulatory engagement, licensing initiatives, supervisory examinations, audits, and interactions with regulators, banking partners, payment networks, and financial institutions. Partner closely with the Chief Compliance Officer to ensure legal and compliance strategies remain aligned while maintaining clear first- and second-line responsibilities. Partner with Risk, Compliance, and executive leadership to identify, assess, and manage enterprise legal and regulatory risk across GoFundMe's payments ecosystem.

Build Governance & Legal Infrastructure

Build the legal frameworks, governance, and regulatory infrastructure necessary to support GoFundMe's Platform Excellence strategy and global marketplace expansion. Develop governance frameworks that enable consistent legal decision-making across products, jurisdictions, and regulated activities. Build scalable legal processes that allow Product, Engineering, Payments, and Business teams to innovate responsibly while maintaining strong legal oversight. Foster effective partnership across Legal, Compliance, Risk, Product, and Engineering to create a durable operating model for a rapidly evolving global payments platform.

Lead Strategic Commercial Partnerships

Structure, negotiate, and advise on strategic commercial partnerships with payment processors, financial institutions, banking partners, card networks, and fintech providers. Advise on legal considerations related to payment infrastructure, financial services partnerships, strategic commercial relationships, and emerging business models. Review customer-facing terms, disclosures, marketing materials, and communications related to payments products and financial services offerings. Develop scalable legal standards, templates, governance processes, and commercial frameworks that enable efficient execution as the business scales.

What You'll Bring

Education: Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school. Bar Admission: Active admission to at least one U.S. state bar, preferably California or New York. 12+ years of legal experience with significant expertise in payments, fintech, or financial services. Experience serving as the senior legal advisor supporting payments products, regulated financial services, or complex payments infrastructure. Demonstrated success designing scalable legal operating models, governance frameworks, and regulatory strategies while advising executive leadership on product innovation, enterprise risk, and long-term business growth. Deep expertise in payments law, money transmission, financial services regulation, regulatory examinations, licensing, audits, AML/BSA, sanctions, fraud prevention, KYC/KYB, card network rules, ACH rules, and the legal infrastructure supporting regulated payments businesses. Proven success partnering with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Finance, Risk, and executive leadership to launch and scale payments products in highly regulated environments. Experience supporting organizations within payments platforms, marketplace businesses, cross-border payments providers, or global financial institutions, with expertise in payment infrastructure, regulated money movement, strategic financial partnerships, and complex multi-jurisdiction legal frameworks. Strong executive presence with the ability to translate legal complexity into practical, business-oriented guidance that enables responsible innovation. Proven ability to build scalable legal processes, governance models, and commercial frameworks that support a rapidly evolving global payments organization.

Additional Experience We Value

Experience advising on international regulatory regimes, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Latin America. Experience supporting digital assets or emerging payment technologies. Experience within global marketplace platforms, Trust & Safety, consumer technology companies, or other highly regulated technology businesses. Experience supporting organizations through licensing strategies, new regulated activities, or evolving payments operating models.

Why you’ll love it here

Make an Impact : Be part of a mission-driven organization making a positive difference in millions of lives every year. Innovative Environment : Work with a diverse, passionate, and talented team in a fast-paced, forward-thinking atmosphere. Collaborative Team : Join a fun and collaborative team that works hard and celebrates success together. Competitive Benefits : Enjoy competitive pay and comprehensive healthcare benefits. Holistic Support : Enjoy financial assistance for things like hybrid work, family planning, along with generous parental leave, flexible time-off policies, and mental health and wellness resources to support your overall well-being. Growth Opportunities : Participate in learning, development, and recognition programs to help you thrive and grow. Commitment to DEI : Contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion through ongoing initiatives and employee resource groups. Community Engagement : Make a difference through our volunteering program.

We live by our core values: impatient to be great , find a way , earn trust every day , fueled by purpose . Be a part of something bigger with us!

GoFundMe is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that actively pursues candidates of diverse backgrounds and experiences. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, marital status, age, medical condition, mental or physical disability, or military or veteran status.

The annual U.S. salary range for this full-time position is $194,000 - $291,500. The company also offers equity and other benefits to employees, including healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance and 401(k) saving program. In addition to this wage, there are geolocation differentials that will increase pay depending on the work location. Additionally pay may vary depending on other factors including skills, experience, education, or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific total compensation package based on your location during the hiring process.

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Learn more about GoFundMe:

We’re proud to partner with GoFundMe.org , an independent public charity, to extend the reach and impact of our generous community, while helping drive critical social change. You can learn more about GoFundMe.org’s activities and impact in their FY ‘25 annual report .

Our annual “Year in Help” report reflects our community’s impact in advancing our mission of helping people help each other.

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Notice to Applicants for Jobs Located in NYC or Remote Jobs Associated With Office in NYC Only

We use Metaview as part of our hiring process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an automated employment decision tool (AEDT), as defined by New York City Local Law 144. As part of the hiring process, we provide Metaview with job requirements and candidate submitted resumes and application materials to assist in evaluating job-related qualifications. While this tool is used to improve efficiency and support our recruiting personnel, all final hiring decisions are made by GoFundMe employees.

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