Senior Counsel, Strategic Partnerships (Lending)

About Column

For companies building financial technology and transforming the financial services space, the biggest bottleneck to their growth and innovation is often the underlying banks and infrastructure stack they rely on. We have spent our careers founding and scaling companies like Plaid, Square, Meta, Blend, and Affirm, and have seen this problem firsthand — builders and developers needing to partner with traditional banks, and creating API and abstraction layers over the patchwork that is the bank, its core, and many other vendors. All of this results in a complex (and often expensive) banking supply chain involving a user, fintech, BaaS middleware provider, bank, core and the Federal Reserve.

At Column, we set out to simplify and fix this. We are a bank and a software company built from the ground up, offering builders and developers technology-forward banking solutions that cut out the hundreds of vendors, middleware providers, and abstraction layers. This means a safer, more transparent, and less costly banking supply chain. Come build with us!

The Opportunity

At Column, we’re looking for a senior lawyer excited to own strategic partnerships end to end, from the first "we want to build with Column" conversation through drafting, signing, launch, and ongoing expansion. Instead of handing the work off to a relationship manager or a separate product team, you're the through-line. You will architect novel partnership structures that enable modern banking experiences and shape how we build and launch unique products, navigating complex regulatory requirements along the way. You'll work closely with Go-to-Market, Engineering, Finance, Risk and Compliance and have a direct impact on how bespoke financial products are built and delivered at scale. Your unique perspective, drawn from past experience launching lending products, will allow you to navigate complex regulatory environments while maintaining Column’s competitive edge.

This role offers direct access to leadership and the ability to shape Column’s approach to complex partnership agreements, product development and regulatory compliance. You’ll be responsible for driving strategy and execution from start to finish, working closely with our fintech partners on everything from novel products to rapid-fire ideas for new features, delivery channels, product structures and UX changes.

This role reports directly to the Bank’s General Counsel.

Pay transparency

Compensation packages at Column include base salary, equity, and benefits. New hire offers are made based on a candidate's experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

The annual base salary range for this position is $210,000 - $300,000 + equity.

What you’ll get from us:

• 🏥 Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans, including options that are 100% covered by Column for you and 100% covered for your dependents!

• 👶 Comprehensive family planning and fertility benefits via partnership with Carrot, including reimbursement of up to $20,000 in qualified expenses

• 💳 FSA and HSA account options to enable use of pre-tax money for medical and dependent care expenses

• 📈 401k plan, including self-directed brokerage options

• 🌴 Flexible time-off policy - take the time off that you want and need to relax and recharge

• 👶 100% paid parental leave, including 16 weeks for birth mothers, 12 weeks for primary caregivers, and 8 weeks for secondary caregivers

• 🍽️ Catered lunches and dinners for SF employees

• 🚆 Commuter benefits

• 🎉 Regular team building events, including annual offsite

What You’ll Do

• Structure Bank-Fintech Lending Partnerships: Lead the legal structuring of loan agreements, line of credit products, EWA lending and non-lending offerings, and BNPL partnerships. Draft and review key customer-facing terms and marketing materials, structure onboarding flows and applications, determine BSA/AML requirements, conduct true lender analyses, and own every legal detail of rolling out a new Column-backed product. Work closely with engineering to design a flow-of-funds model and reflect that product structure in legal documentation.

• Own complex agreements end-to-end: Structure, draft, and negotiate complex customer and third-party partnership agreements covering a broad range of banking products and services.

• Drive Product Strategy & Innovation: Be the strategic legal voice enabling product innovation across our credit and lending portfolio. Partner closely with business teams and fintech partners from ideation through launch, anticipating challenges an