Director, Assistant General Counsel - Network Product and Platform

Company: Discover Financial Services
Location: Richmond
Posted on: March 13, 2026

Job Description:

The Capital One Legal Department is an outstanding team at a Fortune 100 Company that is consistently voted one of the best places to work in the U.S. You will find that the Legal Department is not a “check the box” function but instead, an important voice and strategic partner in all aspects of the business. You will be a part of a collaborative environment that values your insight, encourages you to take on new responsibility, promotes continuous learning, and rewards innovation and intellectual curiosity. We’re looking for an experienced and collaborative legal leader to join our growing Payments Network Legal team. This is a unique opportunity to act as the legal lead for the core products and technology that drive our payments network. Our technology and the payments landscape evolve constantly; this role is at the forefront of change. You’ll partner closely with our Product, Operations, and Technology teams, providing clear, practical legal advice that helps us innovate and expand our business while navigating a complex regulatory landscape and managing risk. You’ll advise on product development, solve operational complexities, support transactional challenges, and become an expert on key payment network products and technology. The Capital One Legal Department is an outstanding team at a Fortune 100 Company that is consistently voted one of the best places to work in the U.S. You will find that the Legal Department is not a “check the box” function but instead, an important voice and strategic partner in all aspects of the business. You will be a part of a collaborative environment that values your insight, encourages you to take on new responsibility, promotes continuous learning, and rewards innovation and intellectual curiosity. What You’ll Do Be a strategic thought partner and advisor. You provide proactive, business-minded legal advice to our senior product leaders on existing and new products and technology. You’ll dive deep into the features and nuances of our products, developing expertise in how our products operate so that you can spot issues, manage risk, and advise the product team and the business. Your role won’t end with counseling our product team. As the legal team’s subject matter expert on various payment network products, you’ll also identify and advise on operational, business, regulatory, and other impacts of products through close collaboration with your legal colleagues. Be a quarterback and consensus builder. You are the legal point person for your area. You have a defined scope, but you aren’t stuck in a box and can’t operate independently. You’ll build strong relationships with product, technology, and operations teams. You’ll collaborate closely with others on the legal team - seeking advice, providing advice, and working collectively to drive growth and achieve success. While you own the legal issues and relationships with your product and business leaders, we problem solve together. Translate the law. Act as the subject matter expert on a wide range of regulatory issues. You’ll need to understand the law and work with our regulatory subject matter experts on novel issues, understand the business and its customers, understand our products and technology, and put them all together as a trusted advisor. You’ll translate between business intent, product functionality, regulatory requirements, legal guardrails, best practices, and more. You’ll need to communicate legal requirements to product and business teams, and you’ll need to communicate product functionality to legal subject matter experts. Build scalable solutions. Help build processes, playbooks, and training materials that enable our product teams and stakeholders to move quickly and confidently. Manage risk. Identifying and managing risks associated with products is at the forefront of what you do. Learn constantly. Our technology and the payments industry are evolving constantly. You’ll regularly be learning about, and providing legal and strategic advice to support the development and growth of, new products and technology. Some Examples of Tasks You Would be Responsible for: Identifying potential legal risks early in the product development process; working collaboratively with operations, regulatory compliance, privacy, and other teams to analyze those risks; and providing feedback to the product team so that product designs can manage those risks. Supporting product commercialization by working with legal, product, and business colleagues to help develop product terms, product guides, and other documentation to support product adoption and growth. Developing an in-depth understanding of existing products and identifying opportunities to improve the terms, guides, processes, and documentation that underlie existing products and the existing product development and commercialization processes. Who You Are You are an intellectually curious, proactive, business-oriented legal professional who enjoys a fast-paced, dynamic environment. You’re comfortable being the go-to-expert on complex legal topics and can distill complicated legal concepts into simple terms. You have a passion for technology and believe that individuals are stronger when they work closely with others. You are hard-working, smart, and humble. You are strong at spotting issues and have the ability and desire to learn new areas of law. Basic Qualifications Juris Doctor from an accredited law school Active member in good standing of at least one state bar At least 8 years of experience as an attorney in a law firm environment, at a government agency, as a military judge advocate, or as in-house counsel At least 3 years experience as product counsel providing legal advice to product development teams in a financial services environment Preferred Qualifications 10 years of experience as an attorney in a law firm environment, at a government agency, as a military judge advocate, or as in-house counsel 5 years experience as product counsel providing legal advice to product development teams in a financial services environment 3 years experience in the payments industry Experience with domestic and international data privacy laws and experience working with colleagues around the globe At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. This role is hybrid, meaning associates spend 3 days per week in-person at one of our offices listed on this job posting. The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked. McLean, VA: $230,400 - $263,000 for Director, Asst General Counsel New York, NY: $251,400 - $286,900 for Director, Asst General Counsel Riverwoods, IL: $209,500 - $239,100 for Director, Asst General Counsel Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter. This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan. Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website . Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries. If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations. For technical support or questions about Capital Ones recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site. Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).

Keywords: Discover Financial Services, Burke , Director, Assistant General Counsel - Network Product and Platform, Legal , Richmond, Virginia