Senior Contracts Counsel – Web3

Zama is an open-source cryptography company building state-of-the-art FHE solutions for blockchain.

Zama’s Fully Homomorphic Encryption protocol is a cryptography milestone. By enabling efficient, developer-friendly FHE, Zama unlocks secure, compliant, and verifiable dApps for AI, crypto, and cloud. We believe people shouldn’t have to care about privacy—not because privacy doesn’t matter, but because it shouldn’t be an issue.

We are a remote-friendly company with headquarters in the center of Paris.

Zama is on the lookout for a Senior Contracts Counsel with hands‑on web3 expertise to join our legal team. Headquartered in Paris, Zama builds the Zama Protocol, which uses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to bring confidentiality to any blockchain, with DeFi and web3 at the heart of our business. As the protocol and its ecosystem grow, so do the volume and novelty of the agreements behind them, from custody and vault arrangements to protocol integrations and incentive programs.

Reporting directly to the General Counsel and working alongside our Senior Legal Counsel, you will be the go‑to expert for reviewing, redlining, and negotiating the contracts that power the Zama Protocol across our group: Zama SAS (France) and its subsidiaries Zama Switzerland and Vesting Labs UK. You will partner daily with business development, ecosystem, engineering, finance, and operations teams, often on several deals at once and with priorities that can shift overnight. This role is ideal for a sharp, business‑minded contract lawyer who loves negotiating, moves fast without losing rigor, and is excited to shape the market standards of a still‑emerging industry. You will:

About Zama

Zama is an open‑source cryptography company building state‑of‑the‑art FHE solutions for blockchain.

Zama’s Fully Homomorphic Encryption protocol is a cryptography milestone. By enabling efficient, developer-friendly FHE, Zama unlocks secure, compliant, and verifiable dApps for AI, crypto, and cloud. We believe people shouldn’t have to care about privacy—not because privacy doesn’t matter, but because it shouldn’t be an issue.

We are a remote‑friendly company with headquarters in the center of Paris.

Zama is on the lookout for a Senior Contracts Counsel with hands‑on web3 expertise to join our legal team. Headquartered in Paris, Zama builds the Zama Protocol, which uses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to bring confidentiality to any blockchain, with DeFi and web3 at the heart of our business. As the protocol and its ecosystem grow, so do the volume and novelty of the agreements behind them, from custody and vault arrangements to protocol integrations and incentive programs.

Reporting directly to the General Counsel and working alongside our Senior Legal Counsel, you will be the go‑to expert for reviewing, redlining, and negotiating the contracts that power the Zama Protocol across our group: Zama SAS (France) and its subsidiaries Zama Switzerland and Vesting Labs UK. You will partner daily with business development, ecosystem, engineering, finance, and operations teams, often on several deals at once and with priorities that can shift overnight. This role is ideal for a sharp, business‑minded contract lawyer who loves negotiating, moves fast without losing rigor, and is excited to shape the market standards of a still‑emerging industry. You will:

Key Responsibilities

• Review, redline, and negotiate a high volume of DeFi, web3, and commercial agreements for Zama SAS, Zama Switzerland, and Vesting Labs UK, including custody, vault and wallet agreements, market maker agreements, listing agreements, Infrastructure Services Agreements, Zama Protocol integration and services agreements (chains, DeFi protocols, wallets), master services agreements, loan agreements, partnership and collaboration agreements, incentive, grant and rewards programs, node operator agreements, MoUs, letters of intent, NDAs and side letters;

• Draft and maintain product‑facing legal documentation, including bug bounty terms, general terms and conditions for our different apps and products, and privacy notices;

• Take the pen and own deals end to end: lead negotiations directly with counterparties and their counsel, translate legal risk into clear, pragmatic options for the business team, and close within tight timelines;

• Design creative, innovative structures for commercial deals, and draft bespoke agreements under Swiss and English law, as well as New York law‑style agreements, where market standards are not yet established;

• Understand the compliance constraints arising from the decentralized nature of the Zama Protocol, and ensure that this narrative is accurately and consistently reflected in agreements with partners (Zama's role versus the protocol, control, liability, and representations);

• Embed compliance into contracts: