Senior Legal Counsel Carbon Markets

About Carbonfuture 

Carbonfuture provides the trust infrastructure that helps organizations meet their net-zero commitments and gets climate action financed at scale. Our digital infrastructure makes carbon removal credits traceable, enforceable, and trustworthy, so suppliers, buyers, and financial institutions can transact with confidence.

Today, we are the global market leader by facilitated carbon removal sales volume, working with some of the most ambitious companies in the market, including Microsoft, Swiss Re, and SAP.  We are backed by SIX, operator of the Swiss and Spanish stock exchanges, as a strategic investor and partner, and operate from our headquarters in Freiburg, Germany (Carbonfuture GmbH), where contracts are governed under German law. We also have subsidiaries in Switzerland and the US.

Your Role

Our goal is to turn carbon credits into a new financial asset class and provide the settlement infrastructure. This requires governance frameworks for our digital infrastructure, standardised contracts for an evolving asset class and enforceable rules that financial institutions, regulators and customers can rely on, and Carbonfuture is writing many of them. The liability and risk landscape is largely unmapped: this is genuinely novel work where the legal groundwork you establish will set standards in an emerging industry. 

Our contracting parties span between project developers who are removing CO2 out of the atmosphere with frontier technologies as well as the biggest corporates worldwide (including SAP, Microsoft, Swiss Re) purchasing carbon credits from us. 

We're looking for a Senior Legal Counsel to lead that work. You'll own our contracts from first draft to signature, act as our legal lead in fundraising, and shape the legal and governance framework behind our instruments. You'll have the opportunity to publish, represent Carbonfuture in trade associations, and help define standards for the asset class. 

This is a senior, hands-on role with real ownership. You'll report to our COO, lead our in-house legal function including a part-time legal counsel, and own the legal budget. 

Key Responsibilities 

Contracts & Negotiation 

• Own the full contract lifecycle, from drafting and negotiation to signing, across customer, supplier, offtake and vendor agreements 
• Negotiate key deals together with leadership, bringing in external counsel where it adds value 
• Help build the standardised contract structure that replaces today's bespoke bilateral terms between suppliers and buyers and makes the markets scaleable 

Carbon Credits as a new Financial Asset Class 

• Drive the legal workstream to establish carbon credits as an institutional asset class, from governance framework to documentation 
• Advise on capital markets and regulatory questions as we work with institutional market participants, banks and supervisory authorities 
• Represent Carbonfuture in selected associations and help shape market standards through them 

Fundraising & Corporate 

• Act as our internal legal lead in fundraising rounds and own the signing and closing process 
• Manage shareholder matters and corporate governance 
• Select, brief and steer external law firms 

Compliance & Legal Operations 

• Oversee internal compliance across data protection, employment law and corporate governance 
• Own the legal budget, internal and external 
• Lead and develop a part-time legal counsel 
• Build templates, processes and playbooks so the wider team can handle routine legal questions independently 

What We're Looking For 

Experience: 

• 8+ years of legal experience, in-house, at a law firm, or ideally both 
• Deep expertise in German contract and commercial law, with hands-on experience in B2B transactions and negotiation
• Deep expertise in German corporate law (Gesellschaftsrecht), knowledge of capital markets law (Kapitalmarktrecht) is considered a plus 
• Hands-on experience with financing rounds, M&A or comparable transactions, including signing and closing 
• Experience with European financial regulators such as BaFin, the ECB or FINMA is a strong advantage 
• A background in financial market infrastructure, banking, commodities or carbon markets is a plus; capital markets lawyers curious about climate are very welcome to apply 

Skills: 

• Fluent German and English, written and spoken, at a level that lets you negotiate and draft in both 
• You turn complex legal questions into clear options for the board, investors and colleagues who aren't lawyers 
• Sound commercial judgement: you calibrate risk to what's at stake and know when good enough is good enough 
• Confident negotiator who builds trust with counterparties, shareholders and external counsel 
• Self-directed: you spot problems early and solve them without waiting to be asked 

What We Offer 

• The chance to shape the legal foundations of a new asset class at a company already leading its market 
• A rapidly growing international team with a shared mission to address climate change 
• Flexible working hours and location.  
• Competitive salary 
• 30 days paid leave + bank holidays 
• Sports and Health benefits 
• Purpose-driven, ambitious colleagues and a friendly, open and inclusive environment 

Carbonfuture is an international hybrid and remote office environment with team members located in the EU, US and Latin America. Our main offices are located in Freiburg, Berlin, Zurich and San Francisco. Candidates should be prepared to either work from home or in one of our hubs. This position requires the ability to work core hours Monday through Friday with availability for European time zone meetings and events. This position will require occasional early morning or evening work and some in-person attendance for all-staff or department-level events which will require overnight travel.  

Candidates from cultures and backgrounds underrepresented in VC-backed startups and the climate space are strongly encouraged to apply. A diverse and inclusive workplace where we learn from each other is an integral part of our culture. We actively welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We are an equal-opportunity employer.