Senior Legal Counsel

Company Description

At Yoyo, it is our mission to delight people in every connection they have with our brand. Whether that is delighting our clients as we help them grow, delighting their customers with every reward we distribute, having delighted stakeholders through our exceptional performance, or having a delighted and thriving team of people who work together every day. Each of these is what we strive for and they are all equally important.

We’re a team driven by passion and energy. Spiraling one another up to create a positive, dynamic environment where we learn, grow, and support each other. Our hope is that egos are left at the door, and the focus is on collaboration,  learning, and the collective success of the team. We’re driven by curiosity and creativity, constantly challenging ourselves to push boundaries and be world class at what we do, in order to have a lasting and positive impact. 🚀

Job Description

About The Job

We are seeking a tech-savvy, solutions-driven, and commercially minded Senior Legal Counsel to join our Yoyo team in Cape Town, operating within a dynamic SaaS or fintech environment.

The role centres on drafting, reviewing, and negotiating technology contracts, while also supporting compliance and governance within our regulated payments ecosystem. You’ll work closely with a small, collaborative Legal & Compliance team that partners across the business - including sales, product, operations, finance, and our global shareholder group. 

With a solid understanding of fintech environments and a genuine interest in improving systems, you'll help shape and enhance legal workflows that support efficiency and growth company wide. 

Your role and responsibilities will include:

Contract Management

• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of commercial and technology/SaaS-related agreements, including MSAs, DPAs, SOWs, reseller/partner agreements, platform terms, SLAs, client contracts, licensing arrangements, partnerships, loans, and more.
• Apply strong understanding of IP ownership, licensing, confidentiality, limitation of liability, data security, indemnities, and other core technology-industry clauses to ensure company interests are protected.
• Support contracting needs related to the global group structure, including shareholder agreements, intra-group service arrangements, and governance documentation.
• Maintain and update the central contract repository, ensuring organisation, accuracy, and accessibility of all legal documents.
• Lead meetings with Commercial Leads to manage and optimise the contract life cycle and ensure alignment across teams.
• Maintain and improve legal templates, negotiation playbooks, structured approval workflows, and contract lifecycle processes.
• Oversee legal intake, prioritisation, and contract lifecycle management, including renewal tracking.
• Collaborate closely with Sales, Product, Operations, and Engineering to ensure commercial terms are aligned with operational, commercial, and technical realities.  

Legal Advice & Counsel

• Provide practical, business-oriented legal advice to management and internal teams across operational, compliance, regulatory, and contractual matters.
• Support decision-making by offering clear, actionable legal recommendations that align with business objectives.
• Assist the Legal & Compliance team in areas such as POPIA, data protection, vendor due diligence, KYC, and internal policy maintenance (with shared team responsibility).  

Regulatory Compliance

• Monitor relevant industry laws and regulations, ensuring Yoyo’s policies, operations, and products remain compliant.
• Implement and refine compliance frameworks, using digital tools where appropriate to streamline tracking and reporting.
• Support compliance initiatives relating to data protection, POPIA, vendor onboarding/due diligence, and internal governance.
• Risk Assessment & Mitigation
• Monitor relevant industry laws and regulations, ensuring Yoyo’s policies, operations, and products remain compliant.
• Implement and refine compliance frameworks, using digital tools where appropriate to streamline tracking and reporting.
• Support compliance initiatives relating to data protection, POPIA, vendor onboarding/due diligence, and internal governance.
• Risk Assessment & Mitigation
• Identify legal risks across operations, products, and services, and collaborate with teams to develop effective mitigation strategies.
• Use data and automation where possible to improve risk monitoring and reporting.
• Support ongoing risk management activities, particularly relating to contractual exposure, data protection, operational processes, and vendor engagements.

Training

• Deliver legal and regulatory training to employees, including onboarding programs, to embed strong compliance culture across the business.
• Equip teams with the knowledge and tools needed to follow policies and manage legal risks effectively.

Qualifications

Knowledge & Skill Requirements

• LLB degree with 3-5 years’ post-qualification experience (in-house or law firm).
• Proficient in CLM/contract automation platforms (e.g., Juro).
• Strong commercial contracting experience within SaaS, fintech, technology, or payments industries.
• Solid understanding of IP law, data protection requirements, software licensing concepts, and standard tech contracting risk positions.
• Experience negotiating with enterprise clients and aligning terms with product, engineering, and operations teams.
• Exposure to shareholder agreements, group-company contracting, or cross-border legal work is advantageous.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks affecting fintech and payments (TPPP, Systems Operator, PASA, SARB) is a plus.
• Highly organised, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing multiple contracting workstreams.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional environment.

Additional Information

Ideal Candidates Are:

• Tech-savvy and naturally inclined to improve processes through automation.
• Able to design and automate legal workflows or processes.
• Adaptable and comfortable working in a fast-moving, scaling tech environment.
• Commercially minded and able to align legal advice with business priorities.
• Collaborative, building strong relationships across cross-functional teams.
• Proactive, solution-oriented, and willing to take ownership of projects.
• Growth-driven, open to feedback, and committed to continuous improvement.

Our Yoyo values, we are looking for a team member that will always live out and demonstrate behaviours aligned to our values:

• Be extremely customer centric: in everything we do, serve and delight our customers, using data to continuously improve.
• Be a passionate team player: spiral up, be positive, bring momentum, and energy to those around you, leave ego at the door and be teachable.
• Be an owner: be accountable and take responsibility. Find solutions, learn from your mistakes and own tasks to completion.
• Be world-class at speed: delivering world leading solutions that delight our clients and customers.
• Be curious and creative: constantly innovating, exploring, learning, stretching ourselves, pushing the boundaries and thinking out of the box