Product Counsel
Sydecar
Product, Legal
San Francisco, CA, USA · New York, USA · New York, NY, USA · Remote
USD 180k-230k / year + Equity
Posted on May 27, 2026
Location
San Francisco Office - Hybrid; New York Office - Hybrid
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
Hybrid
Department
Legal
Compensation
- $180K – $230K • Offers Equity • $18K – $23K Bonus
About Us
Sydecar is on a mission to transform the world of private markets. Our goal is to make these markets more accessible, transparent, and liquid, and we're achieving this by revolutionizing the way investment vehicles are created and executed.
At Sydecar, we're not just a platform; we're a trusted partner in venture capital. We're dedicated to simplifying and standardizing the private investing experience, empowering capital allocators to discover and support visionary entrepreneurs who are shaping the future.
Our platform is designed with ease and efficiency in mind. We take care of all the behind-the-scenes tasks, from automating banking, ensuring compliance, handling contracts, managing taxes, to streamlining reporting. This leaves investors the freedom to concentrate on what matters most: making valuable deals and nurturing meaningful relationships.
Join us at Sydecar, as we lead the charge in revolutionizing private investing.
About the opportunity
We are hiring our first Product Counsel — a securities lawyer who can sit alongside our PMs, EMs, and designers and help us ship product that holds up under regulatory scrutiny without grinding to a halt every time a feature touches Reg D, the Investment Advisers Act, or our customer agreements.
This is not a role for someone who wants to write memos and wait for questions. The first 90 days are about embedding — sit in standups, shadow customer calls, read the friction memo, and start advocating for the changes the business is pushing for. We need someone who streamlines workflows while holding the line on rigor — and who can teach product teams enough about Reg D, the Advisers Act, and consumer-facing securities communications that they make better decisions before they reach the legal queue.
You'll report to Shauna (Head of Legal & Compliance) and own the legal-product interface. Nik (CEO) will be your day-to-day partner.
What you'll be doing
Embed with product.
Sit with the four product teams (Investors, Deal Organizers, Financial Systems, Operations) — attend standups, planning, and design reviews where it matters.
Be the first call when a PM is scoping a feature with a legal dimension. Quick "yes / no / here's the path" beats a multi-day review every time.
Build a working relationship with Nik, Tim (CTO), Pete (CX/Deal Ops), and the PMs so legal becomes a multiplier on speed, not a tax on it.
Own securities and regulatory analysis on product changes.
Reg D 506(b) / 506(c) offerings, accredited investor verification, ICA exemptions (3(c)(1), 3(c)(7)), and the substrate that makes SPVs work.
Stand up the legal scaffolding for our boutique RIA strategy: Form ADV implications, advisory rules, scope decisions on what we can and can't offer.
Banker / broker-dealer adjacencies, transfer of interests, and jurisdiction-specific issues as they arise.
Quality-review what we say in product.
Review and raise the bar on in-product copy that touches securities, suitability, and risk — labels, attestations, prompts, modals, error messages.
Help PMs and content owners understand why a phrase matters so they don't keep relearning the same lesson.
Customer agreements, ToS, and privacy.
Refresh customer-facing legal docs as the product evolves, including the agreements that anchor our pricing and the ToS that binds the platform.
Partner on data handling, AI-use policies, and vendor contracts where they intersect with product.
Streamline the legal-product workflow.
Build the playbooks, templates, and decision trees that let PMs self-serve on the 70% of questions that don't need a lawyer.
Make the 30% that do need a lawyer move faster — clear intake, predictable turnaround, no surprises at launch.
What we're looking for
Required
4–7 years of practice, with significant time on Reg D / private fund securities work — Reg D 506(b)/(c), accredited investor rules, ICA exemptions, fund formation.
Prior in-house experience at a fintech, brokerage, fund admin, or comparable financial services platform. We are not looking for a pure BigLaw profile.
A track record of partnering directly with product or engineering teams — embedded reps, not just a transactional or litigation background.
JD from an accredited US law school, member in good standing of at least one US bar.
Clear, plain-language writing. You can explain a Reg D nuance to a PM in two sentences and a complex product feature to a regulator without losing the thread.
Nice to have
Familiarity with the Investment Advisers Act, Form ADV, and RIA / ERA (Exempt Reporting Adviser) registration mechanics.
Experience drafting, negotiating, or refreshing customer agreements and ToS for a SaaS or fintech platform.
Experience with eSign / DocuSign / electronic execution under E-SIGN and UETA.
KYC/AML literacy (BSA, OFAC, beneficial ownership rules) — you'll partner with the compliance team but you won't own this work.
The kind of operator we're looking for
Bias for unblocking. You'd rather give a clear answer in 30 minutes than a perfect answer in three days.
Founder mentality. You'll set up your own systems, write your own playbooks, and hire the next legal person on this team when the time comes.
High standards on product copy and customer experience — you take pride in the language a customer reads on screen.
Comfortable disagreeing with a PM, an engineer, or the CEO when the answer needs to be no — and equally comfortable finding a path to yes when one exists.
Sydecar’s values
Our values are important to the way we live and work at Sydecar. They guide our priorities, behaviors and interactions.
Be Committed
As a team, we rise to meet challenges and recognize that we become stronger and develop character when facing adversity.
Be Excellent
We measure our success not just by what we achieve, but by how we achieve it—through integrity, creativity, elegance, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Excellence is not just doing things well—it's looking for ways to do them better.
Be Humble
Humility is our key to personal and professional growth. We appreciate that great ideas can come from anywhere, regardless of seniority, pedigree, or experience. We care more about collective outcomes than who gets credit or who does what. We try to not let our ego cloud our judgment.
Win Together
Winning is no accident. It is the result of collective hard work, perseverance, sacrifice, and most of all, loving what we do. Winning requires that we give extra—sometimes winning calls for late nights or extra effort, and we show up for clients and each other with urgency and heart. While excellence is a journey, winning is a destination.
Sydecar is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Sydecar are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Sydecar will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Sydecar encourages applicants of all ages.
Compensation Range: $180K - $230K