Lead Counsel, Payments Partnerships Legal

Meta seeks a experienced transactional attorney to serve as Lead Counsel to support its growing efforts in the payments (financial services and financial integrity) across Meta’s family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, WhatsApp, Muse, and Reality Labs). You will work with partnerships and business development teams to structure, draft, and negotiate a wide variety of contracts, including strategic payments processing agreements, agentic payments partnerships, payment network integrations and other strategic payments agreements. You will also advise clients on the various legal risks, business strategies and other issues related to commercial transactions and general operations. In this role, you will join a legal team supporting the delivery of new payment and financial services experiences globally. This is a full-time position.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal and strategic business advice to Payments and Financial Integrity Partnerships to help develop a comprehensive, long-term approach to our relationships with key partners and the commercial aspects of our products and programs
• Serve as legal subject matter specialist on payments and financial services and financial integrity transactions
• Draft, negotiate, and close complex payments and financial services and financial integrity agreements
• Identify legal risks in payments transactions and financial integrity and work with business and other internal stakeholders to identify and implement solutions and mitigations in line with business objectives
• Advise on the privacy, data protection and information-sharing considerations arising from financial risk and fraud data exchanges with external partners, industry consortia and financial institutions
• Collaborate with internal business partners and cross-functional teams across Meta, including partnerships, product, tax, finance, compliance, financial crime, integrity, and privacy, as well as other members of the legal team and outside counsel
• Willingness and ability to manage numerous deals, meet tight deadlines, and work extended hours when necessary to complete projects
• Open to travel as and when required

Minimum Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent law degree from an accredited institution
• Active and in good standing bar license in at least one U.S. state or equivalent foreign bar license. Where the jurisdiction of licensure differs from the location in which the role is based, the ability to promptly obtain permission to practice law for Meta in that location
• 5+ years of legal experience as a practicing attorney, including at a law firm or in-house
• Experience advising on payments law, financial services regulation, or money transmission requirements, including applicable federal and state regulatory frameworks
• Experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements with financial institutions, payment networks, or technology partners
• Experience advising clients on and managing numerous deals on tight deadlines with minimal supervision
• Experience communicating complex legal and regulatory concepts clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders through written and verbal communication
• Experience building relationships and collaborating with cross-functional business and legal teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with international payments regulations, cross-border money transmission requirements, or financial services licensing across multiple jurisdictions
• Experience with or knowledge of agentic commerce and emerging payments technology
• Experience drafting and negotiating agreements with fraud, risk, identity or financial crime detection vendors, including data processing and service-level terms
• Experience supporting compliance, AML/CFT, sanctions or financial crime programmes through third-party partnerships and vendor arrangements
• In-house legal experience at a consumer technology company, fintech, or payments platform with direct responsibility for payments or financial services products
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize legal workflows and drive measurable efficiency or quality improvements
• Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
• Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)

$170,000/year to $237,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits