Head of Legal

Thirdfort is a client due diligence platform used by over 1,500 regulated businesses, including law firms, estate agents and accountants, to verify their clients and meet their anti-money laundering obligations. That makes this an unusual in-house role: you’ll lead legal for an FCA-regulated business whose platform is used by compliance teams, at a time of significant change in how our customers are regulated.

We’re on a mission to protect society from fraud and money laundering. We’ve already protected over 3 million people through life’s big transactions, with a core aim to protect 3.5 million people by the end of 2026. Our co-founders Olly and Jack started Thirdfort after a friend lost £25,000 to fraud while buying their first property.

Our platform brings together ID verification, AML screening, know-your-business and source of funds checks, and in February 2025 we acquired Homeppl’s rental check platform. Our platform brings together ID verification, AML screening, know-your-business and source of funds checks, and in February 2025 we acquired Homeppl’s rental check platform. We are FCA-regulated and have raised over $25m in capital from leading fintech investors Breega and Element Ventures, as well as the founders of Zoopla, Funding Circle, ComplyAdvantage, Tessian, Fenergo and Fidel. We have teams in London and Manchester.

The Role:

We're seeking a dynamic, solutions-oriented commercial lawyer to lead our Legal team. The Legal team has been integral to Thirdfort's growth story, working closely with the founders, C-suite, and all teams across the business to help achieve our goals and reports to our COO. This is a step up: it suits a senior lawyer who is ready to run a legal function.

This role is varied, fast-paced, and demanding, you'll balance needs from across the organisation, stay at the forefront of regulatory and industry trends, and help the business manage legal risk. You'll set the legal strategy, whilst also being comfortable zooming in, getting hands-on yourself and you’ll use AI, technology and smart ways of working to keep the function lean and effective as we grow.

Why join now:

You’ll have real scope to shape how Legal works and, as Thirdfort scales, for the right person to take on a broader, more strategic role over time. Legal is currently a lean in-house function using AI legal tools, with external specialist support. We’re also looking to recruit an additional lawyer, who will report to you.

Our platform is used by compliance teams in regulated businesses. How we handle their data, contract with them and respond to changes in their regulation is part of what they buy from us.

Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic legal advice to the COO, Co-Founders, C-Suite and broader leadership team as required, and set the legal team’s objectives as part of company planning
• Manage and develop the legal team as it grows
• Support Commercial teams to manage and close a wide variety of commercial deals with clients and partners, and own playbooks and templates so standard deals close quickly
• Give commercially minded regulatory and compliance advice, including on our FCA authorisation, and track changes affecting us and our customers
• Act as product counsel on new features, integrations and the use of AI
• Negotiate and manage the strategic data and identity supplier agreements that underpin our platform, alongside other technology and vendor contracts
• Lead our data protection programme across Thirdfort and Homeppl and the governance of AI in our product and ways of working
• Work with the founders and external counsel on fundraising and M&A
• Manage disputes and litigation with external counsel
• Provide day-to-day advice on employment, corporate governance, compliance and insurance

You might be a great fit if you:

• Are a qualified solicitor (England and Wales) with at least 6 PQE in house and/or private practice, and are ready to lead a legal function, perhaps for the first time
• Have strong commercial and technology contracting experience, with hands-on data protection work in a product setting, ideally in a start-up or scale-up
• Have worked in a regulated business, ideally in financial services, payments, fintech or regtech, and are comfortable owning regulatory filings and compliance processes alongside legal work
• Are an excellent communicator and negotiator, able to explain legal issues clearly to the rest of the business, at pace
• Are hungry to learn about the world of fraud and money laundering, AML experience is a plus, but not essential
• Are pragmatic, output focused and enjoy working with colleagues from different teams and backgrounds
• Are passionate about Legal Ops, AI and using technology to keep legal lean and high-impact
• If this role excites you, we’d still like to hear from you

Life at Thirdfort:

• Driven by our values, our culture promotes a collaborative and open environment where Thirdforters can take ownership, have impact, and feel empowered when it comes to their growth and development. We understand the importance of our teams wellbeing and recognise a one-size fits all approach rarely works, that’s why we aim to provide the flexibility individuals need to work in the way that suits them, and their families, best.

Our Benefits:

• We’ve created our benefits package to reflect Thirdfort’s mission and values. Everything we do is designed to build on trust, and we extend this promise to our team by investing in their physical, mental, and financial security to support them through life’s big moments. Ultimately, our benefits exist to empower our people, ensuring everyone feels deeply supported, trusted, and equipped to do their best work.

When you join Thirdfort, you’ll get immediate access to our flexible employee benefits package that aims to support you across these areas:

• Compensation - £110,000 - £140,000 p.a. base salary
• Hybrid working: 2 days a week in our London office
• Flexible Working Hours
• Annual leave allowance of 26 days, increasing to 30 with tenure and the option to buy additional days
• Enhanced parental leave
• Customisable wellness budget and £250 WFH Budget
• Up to 30 days Working from Abroad
• Enhanced sick leave
• Private healthcare with our provider, AXA
• Regular company and team socials
• Uncapped budget for personal development
• Share options for all employees
• Enhanced employer matching pension scheme with salary sacrifice options
• Access to our Cycle to Work scheme

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analysing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.