Summary
Astra Tech is seeking a mid-level lawyer to join its Legal team in Dubai and support the group’s corporate, commercial, governance and licensed fintech activities. The role covers entity maintenance, board and committee processes, commercial agreements, product and regulatory advice, data protection, and dispute management. Candidates should be qualified lawyers in good standing with 4 to 6 years of post-qualification experience, strong drafting and negotiation skills, and experience in commercial law, corporate governance and preferably financial services, payments or fintech. Professional English is required; Arabic and UAE or wider GCC experience are advantageous.
The posting
As published on astratech.ae. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
Role Summary
We are looking for a mid-level lawyer to join the Legal team in Dubai. The work is broad day-to-day commercial, corporate and governance support for the group’s entities, and the legal questions that come with operating licensed fintech products.
It will suit someone who has built strong technical foundations in private practice or a good in-house team, and who now wants ownership of their own matters.
Responsibilities
Assist in maintain the group’s corporates entities: incorporation, licensing, renewals and ongoing maintenance of entities across UAE mainland, DIFC, ADGM and other free zones, and in overseas jurisdictions where the group operates.
Prepare and manage corporate governance documentation: constitutional documents, shareholder and board resolutions, powers of attorney, delegations of authority and statutory registers.
Support board and committee processes — papers, resolutions, minutes and follow-up actions — and keep the group’s authority matrix current and correctly applied.
Advise on intra-group arrangements and related documentation, working with Finance and Tax and instructing external counsel on the occasional specialist question.
Draft, review and negotiate the full range of commercial agreements — vendor, supplier and services agreements, technology and software licensing, SaaS and cloud contracts, distribution and reseller arrangements, marketing and sponsorship, and strategic partner agreements.
Advise on intellectual property matters, including brand protection, licensing-in and licensing-out, and IP terms in product and technology contracts.
Own and continuously improve the contract templates, playbooks, fallback positions and self-service tools that allow the business to move quickly with less legal involvement.
Advise on consumer-facing terms: user terms and conditions, promotional terms, disclosures and marketing claims.
Advise the business on how products and features sit against the regulatory perimeter for payments, stored value, remittance, card issuing and lending, and on the licence conditions applicable to the group’s regulated entities.
Provide the legal input behind regulatory submissions and correspondence — licence variations, product notifications and regulator queries — with Compliance leading the relationship with the Central Bank of the UAE and other regulators.
Partner with Product and Engineering from the design stage, so that regulatory, AML/CFT, sanctions, consumer protection and data protection requirements are built into products rather than retrofitted.
Advise on data protection and privacy across the group, including the UAE personal data protection framework and, where relevant, DIFC and ADGM data protection regimes and the GDPR.
Review and negotiate agreements with banks, card schemes, payment processors, and other financial institution and fintech counterparties.
Keep across relevant regulatory developments alongside Compliance, and translate them into practical guidance the business can act on.
Handle pre-action disputes, demands and complaints, instructing and supervising external counsel where escalation is needed and keeping spend under control.
Contribute to the legal risk register and to policies, training and internal guidance for the wider business.
Pick up employment, real estate and other general corporate matters as they arise, sharing the load across the legal team.
Requirements
Qualified lawyer in a common law jurisdiction (England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, India or similar), or a civil law jurisdiction with strong common law drafting experience. Good standing required.
4 to 6 years post-qualification experience gained at a reputable law firm and/or a well-regarded in-house legal team.
Strong commercial contracting experience, together with solid corporate and governance grounding. Exposure to financial services, payments or fintech, whether in practice or in-house.
Strong, precise drafting and negotiation skills in English, with the judgement to know when a point is worth taking and when it is not.
Fluent professional English — English is the working language of the team and the group.
A track record of running matters independently and to deadline, with sound judgement about when to escalate.
Advantageous
Arabic language ability, written or spoken. This is a genuine advantage but is not a requirement and its absence will not count against a strong candidate.
UAE or wider GCC experience, and familiarity with the UAE regulatory environment, including Central Bank of the UAE requirements for payment and finance businesses.
Experience in a high-growth technology company, a licensed fintech, or another regulated environment.
Experience working with, or supervising, junior lawyers and paralegals.
Familiarity with legal operations tooling — contract lifecycle management, matter management, e-signature and legal AI tools.