The APAC Legal team partners closely with domestic and international stakeholders to support IMC's trading activities across the Asia-Pacific region from our Sydney office. The team plays a pivotal role in enabling the firm's success, providing strategic legal guidance and ensuring commercial, contractual and regulatory excellence in a fast-paced, high-performance environment.
As Senior Legal Counsel – Commercial, you will report to the Deputy General Counsel, Asia Pacific and play a key role in advising on commercial and technology legal matters for IMC in the region. You will take ownership of complex and high-value negotiations, help shape IMC's contracting frameworks and standards, and provide clear, pragmatic advice to senior stakeholders. You will work in close collaboration with our Technology and Trading teams, as well as Procurement, Finance, Corporate Development, Treasury, Risk and Compliance, to drive business growth and operational excellence.
You will also engage with our global legal counterparts in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Amsterdam, Chicago and London, ensuring alignment and best practice across jurisdictions, and will play an active role in mentoring and developing more junior members of the APAC Legal team.
This is an opportunity for an experienced commercial and technology lawyer to step into a senior, commercially critical role – combining deep legal expertise with sharp judgement and a practical, solutions-focused mindset. You will be trusted to run matters independently, influence decision-making and help shape best-in-class commercial legal practices within a business that values precision, speed and innovation.
Your Core Responsibilites
- Draft, negotiate and review commercial contracts across IT infrastructure, data centre, telecommunications, software and SaaS, market data, procurement, marketing, events and other technology and commercial arrangements.
- Identify contractual and commercial risks, propose practical mitigation strategies and resolve disputes with vendors and commercial counterparties.
- Provide commercial legal support on large or complex projects, including new market entry, trading infrastructure deployment, entity establishment and investments.
- Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across Technology, Trading and business operations, working effectively at pace.
- Mentor and contribute to the development of lawyers and paralegals in the APAC Legal team.
- Drive the evolution of the APAC Legal team’s AI tooling and legal technology, including contracting templates, negotiation playbooks and contract approval and execution processes.
- Instruct and manage external counsel across APAC, ensuring advice is commercial, timely and cost-effective.
- Coordinate with IMC's global legal teams on group-wide commercial arrangements, shared vendor relationships and legal team tooling and processes.
- Advise on emerging legal issues including technology, intellectual property, data and privacy, cyber security and the procurement and use of AI.
- Review and update policies and procedures relevant to commercial activity, identifying areas for continuous improvement.
Your Skills and Experience
- Tertiary qualifications in Law and top academic credentials.
- Admitted as a solicitor in Australia or another common law jurisdiction.
- 10+ years' PQE gained at a leading law firm or in-house legal department, ideally within the financial services or technology sectors.
- Deep expertise in commercial and technology contracting, including IT procurement and infrastructure, data centre and telecommunications agreements, software licensing, SaaS, market data and intellectual property.
- Proven track record of running complex, high-value negotiations end to end and closing commercially sound outcomes under time pressure.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to advise and influence senior business and technology leaders.
- Excellent commercial judgement, with the ability to weigh legal risk against business objectives and recommend practical solutions.
- Able to work independently under tight deadlines, with excellent organisational and interpersonal skills.
- Strong understanding of the legal, regulatory and operational issues arising in financial markets and trading businesses.
- Adept at using legal technology and AI tools, with experience building templates, playbooks and processes that enhance productivity, streamline workflows and help a business scale.
- Experience mentoring and developing legal professionals.
- Clear, concise communicator, able to explain complex legal issues to a non-legal audience.
- Exposure to multiple APAC jurisdictions and additional language skills relevant to the APAC region are highly desirable.
- Ability to work across jurisdictions and time zones, with occasional travel to other IMC offices and trading locations.
About Us
IMC is a research-driven trading firm where quantitative modeling, machine learning, and engineering shape how modern markets are traded. A stabilizing force in markets since 1989, we provide liquidity across trading venues, delivering the best outcome in value and risk management to investors. Using our own technology and capital, we build proprietary systems and algorithms that operate across global markets. Our researchers, traders, and engineers work as a collective, combining rapid experimentation, advanced infrastructure, and real-time feedback to turn insight into execution and execution into advantage.
