Job Description

Join a Challenger
Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing, so we challenge ourselves to get creative in providing innovative banking solutions for Canadians.
How do we get there? With a talented team of inquisitive and agile challengers that break through the status quo. So, if you’re passionate about redefining the future of banking—while having fun—this could be your next big opportunity.
Our company continues to grow, and today we serve more than 800,000 customers across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than six million members. Together we have over $142 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our customers have named our EQ Bank digital platform ( eqbank.ca) one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021.

The Work

The Vice President, Legal – Personal Banking reporting into SVP, General Counsel is an enterprise legal leader responsible for setting and executing the legal strategy for EQB’s Personal Banking portfolio. This includes consumer lending, mortgages, reverse mortgages, deposits, wealth distribution, marketing, and strategic partnerships.

The role sits at the intersection of law, regulation, risk, and business strategy, acting as a trusted advisor to the Executive Leadership Team and senior business leaders. The VP ensures that commercial objectives are achieved within an effective legal risk framework, enabling innovation, speed to market, and sustainable growth while maintaining regulatory integrity, customer fairness, and reputational strength.

This role moves beyond issue‑by‑issue legal advice and is accountable for forward‑looking legal risk governance, enterprise decision support, and leadership of senior legal professionals aligned to the Personal Banking mandate.

Enterprise Legal Leadership – Personal Banking Portfolio (Primary Focus)

• Provide strategic legal leadership for the Bank’s Personal Banking businesses, including mortgages, reverse mortgages, lending products, payments, deposits, wealth channels, sales, marketing, and distribution partnerships.
• Serve as the primary legal advisor to senior executives and business leaders on matters involving consumer protection, banking regulation, product design, marketing, distribution, and customer outcomes.
• Partner with business leaders in setting strategy and enabling execution through pragmatic, solution oriented legal advice that balances legal risk, regulatory expectations, and commercial objectives.
• Interpret and advise on complex legislative and regulatory requirements (e.g., Bank Act, consumer protection, OSFI guidelines, payments, privacy, CASL, AML/ATF), including material regulatory change, enforcement trends, and supervisory expectations.
• Provide executive level oversight of consumer facing communications, marketing materials, disclosures, and customer documentation to ensure compliance, fairness, and alignment with the Bank’s values.

Legal Risk Governance & Regulatory Engagement

• Own legal risk oversight for the Personal Banking portfolio, ensuring risks are proactively identified, escalated, mitigated, and reported in alignment with enterprise risk frameworks.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for high risk, novel, or ambiguous legal matters, including issues with potential reputational, regulatory, or strategic impact.
• Maintain strong working relationships with regulators, industry bodies, and external stakeholders, supporting effective regulatory engagement and issue resolution.
• Act as representative of the Bank on committees or organizations such as Canadian Bankers Association, Fintechs Canada, FDATA, Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization, and other government relations engagement.
• Advise the Executive Team on emerging legal, regulatory, and litigation risks that may impact business strategy, operating models, or long-term growth.

Executive Decision Making & Governance

Exercise delegated authority from the General Counsel for “go / no-go” decisions on products, initiatives, and partnerships within Personal Banking.

· Provide formal legal signoff on initiatives with material legal, regulatory, or conduct implications.

· Contribute to enterprise governance forums, crisis response, issue management, and regulatory remediation efforts as required.

People Leadership & Legal Capability Building

• Lead, mentor, and develop senior legal professionals and teams supporting Personal Banking, fostering a high performing, commercially minded legal function.
• Set direction and expectations for legal support models, ensuring appropriate delegation, consistency of advice, and capability depth across the team.
• Build strong cross functional partnerships with Compliance, Risk, Audit, Operations, Product, and Technology leaders.

Corporate Initiatives & Strategic Transactions

• Provide executive legal oversight for corporate initiatives impacting Personal Banking, including new product launches, major transformations, strategic partnerships, and platform changes.
• Lead or oversee complex, high value contractual negotiations and strategic agreements with external partners, service providers, and intermediaries.
• Advise on enterprise wide initiatives requiring Personal Banking legal input, including M&A integration, new market entry, and significant operational change.

External Counsel Oversight & Cost Management

• Set strategy for the use of external counsel within the Personal Banking portfolio, including engagement decisions, budget oversight, and performance management.
• Ensure external legal spend is effectively managed and aligned with complexity, risk, and internal capability.
• Provide executive legal oversight for major commercial arrangements, strategic partnerships, outsourcing, and platform agreements supporting Personal Banking.

Let's Talk About You!

• University degree in law with 15+ years of practicing experience with a primary focus on corporate law, contracts, and agreements.
• University degree in business or commerce and/or 5 years of progressive management experience with substantial experience in financial services, banking, or another highly regulated consumer‑facing industry.
• Comprehensive understanding of, ethics, conflict, contract law, provincial/federal legislation, applicable foreign legislation, and complex business agreements.
• Familiarity with risk management, regulatory compliance and legal issues and business planning strategies.
• Advanced skills in interpreting, analyzing, and composing legal strategies.
• Thorough knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements applicable to the enterprise, including, among others, the Bank Act, the Trust and Loan Companies Act, the Competition Act, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, etc.
• Comprehensive knowledge of products, distribution channels and associated business processes.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to make decisions in times of uncertainty.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to precisely interpret complex compliance and legal concept and the ability to simplify the complicated messages.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite.Mediation and problem resolution.
• Project Management skills

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles] 💰 Competitive discretionary bonus ✨ Market leading RRSP match program🩺 Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits📝 Employee Share Purchase Plan👶🏽 Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one🏝 Generous vacation policy and personal days🖥 Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues🎓 Professional development and comprehensive Career Development program💛 A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience
Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.
We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position. We can’t wait to get to know you!