Senior Legal Counsel
Posted
About Reward
Founded in 2001, Reward is an industry leader transforming the world of customer engagement and commerce media. Operating in 15 countries across Europe and Middle East, Reward’s cloud-based API platform integrates content, advertising, and commerce to deliver exceptional experiences for consumers resulting in increased customer engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.
Reward’s Loyalty-tech platform is behind many award-winning bank loyalty programmes seen today from brands such as Visa, NatWest Group, Barclays, and First Abu Dhabi Bank to name a few. Reward also works with the world’s largest retailers such as McDonald’s, eBay, Deliveroo and Amazon.
Their leading commerce media platform fuses purchase insights with loyalty-tech, offering an unparalleled edge in digital advertising and performance marketing for retailers. Leveraging rich data and insights, the Reward platform provides a comprehensive view of consumer behaviour, empowering retailers to target marketing messages more effectively, resulting in independently verified sales uplift and long-term customer lifetime value.
Beyond bridging the gap between content and commerce, Reward is a purpose driven business. Their mission is to make everyday spending more rewarding. During the last 5 years, Reward has proudly given back more than £2 billion in cashback rewards to consumers world-wide.
Most recently, Reward’s rapid growth was recognised in The Independent’s E2ETech100 list of fastest growing tech scale-ups in the UK. Reward, in conjunction with partners NatWest Group, was also awarded the Industry Achievement Award 2023 at the prestigious Card and Payments Awards.
The Role
This is a newly created role. The Senior Legal Counsel is the senior commercial and technology lawyer in the Reward group legal function, reporting to the Group General Counsel. Following the acquisition of Reward by Rezolve AI Plc in February 2026, the group spans loyalty, commerce media, payments data analytics and AI-driven commerce technology across the UK, EMEA, the Middle East and the United States.
The role owns the contracting and advisory relationship with the business on the arrangements that matter most, being bank and issuer agreements, retailer and merchant agreements, platform, data and AI licensing, and the inbound technology supply chain. It takes primary responsibility for the legal issues that arise where technology, data and regulation meet.
Legal owns artificial intelligence, data protection and regulatory matters for the group, and this role is the principal legal owner of those areas beneath the Group General Counsel, Head of Legal, Risk and Compliance. The role has been created in response to the growth in contracting volume and complexity across the enlarged group, and the successful candidate will be expected to set the standard for how the function contracts rather than inherit one.
This is a hands-on role with genuine autonomy. The successful candidate will run their own matters to conclusion and make the risk-based judgment calls in real time, within the authority delegated to the role, rather than escalating them by default.
Reward seeks a commercially minded senior lawyer who is energised by high-volume, high-stakes contracting in a technology business, who wants the breadth that comes with a small and senior legal function within a listed group, and who is attracted by the prospect of shaping a role from the outset. Depth in technology and commercial contracting is the primary requirement; the successful candidate will be serviceable in data protection and willing to deepen that expertise in role.
• Lead the drafting, review and negotiation of the group’s most significant and complex commercial agreements across the UK, EMEA, the Middle East and the US, including bank and card issuer agreements, card scheme and network arrangements, retailer, merchant and publisher agreements, SaaS and platform terms, master services agreements and statements of work, data licensing and data sharing agreements, API and integration agreements, reseller, agent, referral and joint marketing arrangements, and inbound technology, cloud, hosting and professional services contracts.
• Take the lead in negotiations with counterparty legal, procurement and sourcing teams, and drive matters to signature, extension or renewal without day-to-day supervision.
• Own the group’s templates, fallback positions and playbooks, and keep them current as the business and the regulatory position develop. Apply the non-negotiable positions set by the Group General Counsel and, where applicable, by commercial risk sign-off, and exercise judgment in real time on the points that are tradeable, escalating promptly where a departure from a non-negotiable position is sought.
• Support Product and Engineering from the design stage, so that products and services are offered on terms that are commercially competitive, technically deliverable and protective of the group’s intellectual property and data rights.
• Advise on intellectual property across the technology estate, including software and platform IP, licence scope, open source use and compliance, brand and trade mark matters, and the allocation of rights in models, derived data, insights and outputs.
• Ensure that executed contracts are communicated to the relevant stakeholders, with the interpretation and practical guidance required to support implementation, and that obligations, renewals and change controls are tracked and acted upon.
Data protection, AI and technology regulation
• Negotiate the data protection provisions in the group’s commercial arrangements, including data processing and data sharing terms with banks, retailers and processors, controller and processor allocation, international transfer mechanisms, and the security and audit schedules that accompany them.
• Own data protection for the group as a legal matter, under the UK and EU GDPR, PECR and equivalent marketing rules, and the regimes applicable to group operations in the DIFC, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other CEMEA and NALP markets. Set the group’s legal position on lawful basis, transparency, controller and processor allocation and international transfers, and direct the legal aspects of impact assessments, records of processing, data subject rights, incident response and regulatory engagement, co-ordinating with the Rezolve Head of Risk and Compliance, who is the group Data Protection Officer, and with Compliance, who support operational delivery.
• Own the group’s AI legal and governance framework, and lead on the legal issues arising from the group’s use and supply of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including the EU AI Act and comparable emerging regimes, training and input data rights, model and vendor terms, automated decision-making and profiling, and the group’s internal AI use policies.
• Own the legal assessment of the regulatory perimeter as it affects the group’s propositions, including financial promotions, consumer protection and unfair commercial practices, marketing and consent, and the requirements imposed on the group in its capacity as a supplier to regulated financial institutions. Manage third-party risk assessments, partner audits, security and resilience schedules, and information requests from bank and scheme counterparties.
Risk and disputes
• Keep the business informed of legal and regulatory developments affecting the sector and ensure that proportionate risk management strategies are in place.
• Anticipate and mitigate legal exposure, develop strategies that avoid costly disputes, and manage any litigation, claims or regulatory investigations that do arise, working with external counsel, so as to secure the optimal outcome at proportionate cost.
Leadership and legal operations
• Provide legal input at senior internal forums as required by the Group General Counsel, and act as the day-to-day legal point of contact for bank, scheme and retailer counterparties.
• Continue to build the legal function: improve contract management and administration, self-service templates, approval workflows and matter intake, including the use of AI tooling where it demonstrably improves turnaround and quality; contribute to and influence group policy; and maintain contractual records and reporting to a standard that will withstand audit and regulatory scrutiny.
• Deliver training and practical guidance to the commercial, product, finance and operational teams on contracting practice, data protection and risk, so that the business is equipped to make sound decisions without legal becoming a bottleneck.
• Work with Finance to ensure adherence to broader finance and risk requirements, including contractual insurance, payment and audit requirements.
• Qualified solicitor or barrister in England and Wales, or qualified in another common law jurisdiction.
• A minimum of six years’ post-qualification experience, with candidates of greater experience welcome.
• Demonstrable seniority in technology, data or fintech contracting, gained in-house or in a recognised commercial or technology practice, with a track record of running significant negotiations independently and to conclusion.
• An international orientation, with familiarity with the UK and EU legal regimes.
Technology Contracting (essential):
• Substantial technology contracting experience is essential: platform, SaaS and licensing terms, master services agreements and statements of work, data licensing and data sharing arrangements, API and integration agreements, and inbound cloud, hosting and professional services contracts.
• Command of the service level, security, liability and indemnity architecture that sits behind those agreements, and a clear grasp of the commercial consequences of each.
• Practical experience of advising on intellectual property in a technology environment, including licence scope, open source and rights in data and outputs.
Data Protection:
• A serviceable working knowledge of substantive data protection under the UK and EU GDPR as applied to high-volume personal data processing, together with a demonstrable appetite and the capacity to deepen that expertise in role.
• Command of the transactional elements of data protection, sufficient to negotiate data processing and data sharing terms, standard contractual clauses, international transfer provisions and security schedules without supervision.
Judgment and Communication:
• Exceptional academic credentials, with demonstrated analytical and drafting ability.
• The capacity to explain legal concepts in plain English and the confidence to give a clear recommendation rather than a list of options.
• Sound commercial judgment, a practical and problem-solving orientation, and scrupulous adherence to legal and ethical requirements. A strong business, rather than purely technical, bent.
• Credibility and presence with senior stakeholders, including the group executive and the legal and procurement functions of major financial institutions.
Leadership and Collaboration:
• A collaborative approach focused on leading rather than directing, with the approachability and adaptability required to work effectively with a wide variety of people and personalities at all levels of the group.
• Experience of supervising or mentoring more junior lawyers, and of instructing and managing external counsel and legal spend.
• Capacity to implement compliance standards, with practical experience of evaluating, managing and mitigating risk.
• Demonstrated flexibility, adaptability and capacity for growth and reorientation, with the drive and determination to deliver outstanding results as the group grows.
Desirable:
• In-house experience in a payments, loyalty, banking technology or data analytics business, or as a supplier to regulated financial institutions.
• A recognised data protection qualification, for example the CIPP/E.
• Familiarity with the data protection regimes of the DIFC and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and with other CEMEA and NALP regimes in which the group operates.
• Experience of AI governance frameworks and of preparing for the EU AI Act.
• Practical experience of using AI tools to streamline legal and commercial workflows, for example contract review and triage, template and clause automation, obligation extraction and knowledge management, and the judgment to know where such tools should not be relied upon.
• Experience of contract lifecycle management or other legal technology implementation.
Founded in 2001, Reward is an industry leader transforming the world of customer engagement and commerce media. Operating in 15 countries across Europe and Middle East, Reward’s cloud-based API platform integrates content, advertising, and commerce to deliver exceptional experiences for consumers resulting in increased customer engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.
Reward’s Loyalty-tech platform is behind many award-winning bank loyalty programmes seen today from brands such as Visa, NatWest Group, Barclays, and First Abu Dhabi Bank to name a few. Reward also works with the world’s largest retailers such as McDonald’s, eBay, Deliveroo and Amazon.
Their leading commerce media platform fuses purchase insights with loyalty-tech, offering an unparalleled edge in digital advertising and performance marketing for retailers. Leveraging rich data and insights, the Reward platform provides a comprehensive view of consumer behaviour, empowering retailers to target marketing messages more effectively, resulting in independently verified sales uplift and long-term customer lifetime value.
Beyond bridging the gap between content and commerce, Reward is a purpose driven business. Their mission is to make everyday spending more rewarding. During the last 5 years, Reward has proudly given back more than £2 billion in cashback rewards to consumers world-wide.
Most recently, Reward’s rapid growth was recognised in The Independent’s E2ETech100 list of fastest growing tech scale-ups in the UK. Reward, in conjunction with partners NatWest Group, was also awarded the Industry Achievement Award 2023 at the prestigious Card and Payments Awards.
The Role
This is a newly created role. The Senior Legal Counsel is the senior commercial and technology lawyer in the Reward group legal function, reporting to the Group General Counsel. Following the acquisition of Reward by Rezolve AI Plc in February 2026, the group spans loyalty, commerce media, payments data analytics and AI-driven commerce technology across the UK, EMEA, the Middle East and the United States.
The role owns the contracting and advisory relationship with the business on the arrangements that matter most, being bank and issuer agreements, retailer and merchant agreements, platform, data and AI licensing, and the inbound technology supply chain. It takes primary responsibility for the legal issues that arise where technology, data and regulation meet.
Legal owns artificial intelligence, data protection and regulatory matters for the group, and this role is the principal legal owner of those areas beneath the Group General Counsel, Head of Legal, Risk and Compliance. The role has been created in response to the growth in contracting volume and complexity across the enlarged group, and the successful candidate will be expected to set the standard for how the function contracts rather than inherit one.
This is a hands-on role with genuine autonomy. The successful candidate will run their own matters to conclusion and make the risk-based judgment calls in real time, within the authority delegated to the role, rather than escalating them by default.
Reward seeks a commercially minded senior lawyer who is energised by high-volume, high-stakes contracting in a technology business, who wants the breadth that comes with a small and senior legal function within a listed group, and who is attracted by the prospect of shaping a role from the outset. Depth in technology and commercial contracting is the primary requirement; the successful candidate will be serviceable in data protection and willing to deepen that expertise in role.
Responsibilities
Commercial and technology contracting• Lead the drafting, review and negotiation of the group’s most significant and complex commercial agreements across the UK, EMEA, the Middle East and the US, including bank and card issuer agreements, card scheme and network arrangements, retailer, merchant and publisher agreements, SaaS and platform terms, master services agreements and statements of work, data licensing and data sharing agreements, API and integration agreements, reseller, agent, referral and joint marketing arrangements, and inbound technology, cloud, hosting and professional services contracts.
• Take the lead in negotiations with counterparty legal, procurement and sourcing teams, and drive matters to signature, extension or renewal without day-to-day supervision.
• Own the group’s templates, fallback positions and playbooks, and keep them current as the business and the regulatory position develop. Apply the non-negotiable positions set by the Group General Counsel and, where applicable, by commercial risk sign-off, and exercise judgment in real time on the points that are tradeable, escalating promptly where a departure from a non-negotiable position is sought.
• Support Product and Engineering from the design stage, so that products and services are offered on terms that are commercially competitive, technically deliverable and protective of the group’s intellectual property and data rights.
• Advise on intellectual property across the technology estate, including software and platform IP, licence scope, open source use and compliance, brand and trade mark matters, and the allocation of rights in models, derived data, insights and outputs.
• Ensure that executed contracts are communicated to the relevant stakeholders, with the interpretation and practical guidance required to support implementation, and that obligations, renewals and change controls are tracked and acted upon.
Data protection, AI and technology regulation
• Negotiate the data protection provisions in the group’s commercial arrangements, including data processing and data sharing terms with banks, retailers and processors, controller and processor allocation, international transfer mechanisms, and the security and audit schedules that accompany them.
• Own data protection for the group as a legal matter, under the UK and EU GDPR, PECR and equivalent marketing rules, and the regimes applicable to group operations in the DIFC, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other CEMEA and NALP markets. Set the group’s legal position on lawful basis, transparency, controller and processor allocation and international transfers, and direct the legal aspects of impact assessments, records of processing, data subject rights, incident response and regulatory engagement, co-ordinating with the Rezolve Head of Risk and Compliance, who is the group Data Protection Officer, and with Compliance, who support operational delivery.
• Own the group’s AI legal and governance framework, and lead on the legal issues arising from the group’s use and supply of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including the EU AI Act and comparable emerging regimes, training and input data rights, model and vendor terms, automated decision-making and profiling, and the group’s internal AI use policies.
• Own the legal assessment of the regulatory perimeter as it affects the group’s propositions, including financial promotions, consumer protection and unfair commercial practices, marketing and consent, and the requirements imposed on the group in its capacity as a supplier to regulated financial institutions. Manage third-party risk assessments, partner audits, security and resilience schedules, and information requests from bank and scheme counterparties.
Risk and disputes
• Keep the business informed of legal and regulatory developments affecting the sector and ensure that proportionate risk management strategies are in place.
• Anticipate and mitigate legal exposure, develop strategies that avoid costly disputes, and manage any litigation, claims or regulatory investigations that do arise, working with external counsel, so as to secure the optimal outcome at proportionate cost.
Leadership and legal operations
• Provide legal input at senior internal forums as required by the Group General Counsel, and act as the day-to-day legal point of contact for bank, scheme and retailer counterparties.
• Continue to build the legal function: improve contract management and administration, self-service templates, approval workflows and matter intake, including the use of AI tooling where it demonstrably improves turnaround and quality; contribute to and influence group policy; and maintain contractual records and reporting to a standard that will withstand audit and regulatory scrutiny.
• Deliver training and practical guidance to the commercial, product, finance and operational teams on contracting practice, data protection and risk, so that the business is equipped to make sound decisions without legal becoming a bottleneck.
• Work with Finance to ensure adherence to broader finance and risk requirements, including contractual insurance, payment and audit requirements.
Requirements
Qualification and Experience• Qualified solicitor or barrister in England and Wales, or qualified in another common law jurisdiction.
• A minimum of six years’ post-qualification experience, with candidates of greater experience welcome.
• Demonstrable seniority in technology, data or fintech contracting, gained in-house or in a recognised commercial or technology practice, with a track record of running significant negotiations independently and to conclusion.
• An international orientation, with familiarity with the UK and EU legal regimes.
Technology Contracting (essential):
• Substantial technology contracting experience is essential: platform, SaaS and licensing terms, master services agreements and statements of work, data licensing and data sharing arrangements, API and integration agreements, and inbound cloud, hosting and professional services contracts.
• Command of the service level, security, liability and indemnity architecture that sits behind those agreements, and a clear grasp of the commercial consequences of each.
• Practical experience of advising on intellectual property in a technology environment, including licence scope, open source and rights in data and outputs.
Data Protection:
• A serviceable working knowledge of substantive data protection under the UK and EU GDPR as applied to high-volume personal data processing, together with a demonstrable appetite and the capacity to deepen that expertise in role.
• Command of the transactional elements of data protection, sufficient to negotiate data processing and data sharing terms, standard contractual clauses, international transfer provisions and security schedules without supervision.
Judgment and Communication:
• Exceptional academic credentials, with demonstrated analytical and drafting ability.
• The capacity to explain legal concepts in plain English and the confidence to give a clear recommendation rather than a list of options.
• Sound commercial judgment, a practical and problem-solving orientation, and scrupulous adherence to legal and ethical requirements. A strong business, rather than purely technical, bent.
• Credibility and presence with senior stakeholders, including the group executive and the legal and procurement functions of major financial institutions.
Leadership and Collaboration:
• A collaborative approach focused on leading rather than directing, with the approachability and adaptability required to work effectively with a wide variety of people and personalities at all levels of the group.
• Experience of supervising or mentoring more junior lawyers, and of instructing and managing external counsel and legal spend.
• Capacity to implement compliance standards, with practical experience of evaluating, managing and mitigating risk.
• Demonstrated flexibility, adaptability and capacity for growth and reorientation, with the drive and determination to deliver outstanding results as the group grows.
Desirable:
• In-house experience in a payments, loyalty, banking technology or data analytics business, or as a supplier to regulated financial institutions.
• A recognised data protection qualification, for example the CIPP/E.
• Familiarity with the data protection regimes of the DIFC and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and with other CEMEA and NALP regimes in which the group operates.
• Experience of AI governance frameworks and of preparing for the EU AI Act.
• Practical experience of using AI tools to streamline legal and commercial workflows, for example contract review and triage, template and clause automation, obligation extraction and knowledge management, and the judgment to know where such tools should not be relied upon.
• Experience of contract lifecycle management or other legal technology implementation.