About this role
About the Opportunity
N26 is looking for a Senior Legal Counsel Banking Law to further expand our legal expertise. In this key role, you will be part of our Banking Law & Litigation Team and serve as a strategic partner to management and the Executive Board.
Your focus will be on the legal architecture and risk mitigation for groundbreaking financial products. You will shape the future of digital banking by translating complex regulatory requirements into legally sound concepts, from scaling our banking, trading, and crypto offerings to entering new European markets. In doing so, you will balance agility with the highest standards of compliance, ensuring that our product vision always aligns with regulatory law.
In this role you will:
• Work within the N26 Legal Department in our Banking Law & Litigation Team, contributing to the launch and scaling of forward-looking banking and financial products (e.g., Trading & Crypto).
• Provide holistic advice to management and the Executive Board on all legal matters relating to existing and new banking, trading, and financial products.
• Evaluate complex regulatory requirements and develop legally sound concepts for new products in a dynamic environment.
• Collaborate closely with the Product and Compliance teams, ensuring that innovation and regulatory compliance go hand in hand.
• Act as the point of contact for regulatory audits and confidently manage communication with supervisory authorities.
• Independently coordinate collaboration with external legal counsel and ensure first-class advisory quality.
• Independently conduct court and dispute resolution proceedings, taking responsibility for the management of significant litigation across all instances.
What You Need to Be Successful:
Background:
• You are a fully qualified German lawyer ( Volljurist ) -and you have completed both the First and Second State Law Examinations.
• You have at least 4 years of professional experience, with a significant portion in banking and financial law at a renowned law firm and/or an international company (fintech experience is a plus).
• Comprehensive knowledge of banking and financial law, as well as adjacent legal fields, is required. Experience in other legal areas is welcome.
• Ideally, you have successfully completed the specialised lawyer course in banking and capital markets law ( Fachanwaltslehrgang im Bank- und Kapitalmarktrecht ) or already hold the title of Specialist Lawyer ( Fachanwalt ).
• Fluent in written and spoken German and English. Any additional language (especially French, Spanish, or Italian) is a plus.
Skills:
• Strong interest in technical and business contexts, as well as digital business models.
• Ability to work independently, make decisions, and defend them both internally and externally.
• Pragmatic approach to tackling new topics and legal areas, while closely monitoring dynamic regulatory developments.
• High level of integrity, dedicat