Co-Founder & Chief Legal and Compliance Officer
Own legal, regulatory and governance matters across the company and the product, and get Cognitiva legally ready for each 2027 launch market.
Reference
REF-LEG-01Team
Founding team, working with the BoardLocation
Remote (US, UAE, India, Singapore)Type
Full-timePosted
24 October 2026Status
Open
What you would own.
We're looking for a Co-Founder & Chief Legal and Compliance Officer to own legal, regulatory and governance matters across the company and the product. Remote, full-time, joining the founding team as a shareholder.
At Cognitiva, compliance is the product. CognitivaOS has a separate legal framework for each country built into the software, with contracts in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Arabic, including dual-language versions. You'll decide how Cognitiva operates as a company and what the platform guarantees to brands and creators in every market we enter.
You'll work directly with the Board and the founding team, and you'll be the person who gets the company legally ready for each of its 2027 launch markets.
You will
- Market readiness: build and maintain the regulatory map for each launch market (UAE, India, USA, then Europe): advertising and influencer disclosure rules, consumer protection, data protection, payments and tax touchpoints. Sign off before each market goes live.
- Compliance in the product: work with product and engineering to turn regulation into platform rules, and own the country legal frameworks inside CognitivaOS as laws change.
- Contract library: own Cognitiva's creator, brand, agency and platform contracts across seven languages, including dual-language versions.
- Commercial deals: draft, review and negotiate agreements with clients, agencies, technology and white-label partners, and payment providers (MSAs, DPAs, NDAs, licences).
- Privacy and data protection: run the privacy programme across GDPR, the UAE PDPL, India's DPDP Act and US state laws, including creator identity verification.
- Payments and financial crime: own KYC and AML obligations around creator payouts and client funds, working with our payment partners.
- IP and brand: manage trademarks and licensing, and structure how creator IP rights are granted and tracked on the platform.
- Corporate and governance: support the Board on governance across our group entities in the US, Singapore and the UAE, and build internal policies and controls.
- Outside counsel and disputes: select and manage external counsel across jurisdictions, own the legal budget, and handle disputes and pre-litigation.
You bring
- Qualified lawyer with 10+ years of experience, admitted in at least one major jurisdiction (for example a US state, England and Wales, DIFC/ADGM, India or an EU member state).
- In-house experience at a technology, fintech, media or marketplace company, ideally as the most senior legal person.
- Cross-border practice across several jurisdictions, preferably including the GCC, India, the US or Europe.
- Strong commercial contracting, SaaS and technology agreements, and data protection.
- Working knowledge of advertising, influencer-marketing or consumer-protection rules.
- Able to translate legal requirements into clear product rules and work alongside engineers.
- A builder's attitude: you draft the contract yourself, set up processes from scratch and are comfortable without a large team.
- Fluent English.
Nice to have
- Payments, e-money, KYC or AML experience.
- IP licensing, media rights or talent agreements.
- Experience taking an early-stage company through a launch, a funding round or multi-entity setup.
- Arabic, Hindi, German, French, Spanish or Portuguese.
What we offer
- Co-founder role: co-founder title and a seat on the founding leadership team, with real ownership of how the company is built.
- Salary and equity: a full-time founder-level salary plus co-founder equity.
- Investment opportunity: like our other co-founders, you can invest in Cognitiva alongside your role. Details are shared only with shortlisted candidates under NDA.
- Remote and flexible: work from anywhere, with regular travel to our offices and launch markets, mainly Dubai, Houston and New York.
- A funded launch: more than USD 8 million already invested, no debt, and launches in the UAE, India, the USA and Europe starting January 2027.
About Cognitiva Systems
Cognitiva Systems builds CognitivaOS, the cognitive record of the creator industry. Our platform brings creator compliance, cross-border taxation, global IP rights and secure creator payments into one system, so creators are paid in days, not weeks.
Founded in 2026, we have invested more than USD 8 million in product development. CognitivaOS runs a separate legal framework for each country it serves, with contracts in seven languages. We launch in the UAE in January 2027, followed by India and the United States.
We work from Houston, New York, Washington DC, Dubai, Sarajevo and Singapore.
Apply. Talk. Meet. Decide.
Four steps. A clear answer within two weeks.
- 01
Apply
Send your CV and a few lines on what you would own.
- 02
Talk
A first conversation with the hiring lead.
- 03
Meet
A working session on a real problem from the role.
- 04
Decide
A clear answer within two weeks.
Send your CV and a few lines on the jurisdictions you are admitted in and the markets you know best, or apply on Indeed.
All applications are treated in confidence. We log your application and reply with a private link, so you can follow it from Apply to Decide.
Cognitiva Systems Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from veterans. We assess every candidate on skills, experience and potential.