VP, Legal
Serve as DuckDuckGo's senior legal leader and strategic advisor to the executive team. Oversee all legal, regulatory, privacy, and compliance matters while managing the legal team and personally handling high-stakes proceedings and agreements.
About the job
What You'll Do
- Serve as the primary legal advisor to the CEO, executive team, and board on strategy, risk, regulatory developments, and sensitive legal matters.
- Work closely with the policy team, providing legal counsel on EU and US regulatory matters including DMA, DSA, EU AI Act, and US privacy legislation.
- Direct global privacy compliance, ensuring DuckDuckGo products and practices stay ahead of GDPR, US state privacy laws, and emerging data protection requirements.
- Direct company legal strategy and outside counsel in complex regulatory and competition proceedings that directly shape DuckDuckGo's business.
- Manage and develop the legal team, set priorities, build the legal operating model, and develop team members.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Security on legal implications of AI features, new product launches, advertising formats, and data practices.
- Evolve legal operations infrastructure: intake workflows, outside counsel management, budget ownership, and playbooks across key practice areas.
- Advise on employment matters, IP strategy, and corporate transactions as DuckDuckGo grows.
- Own corporate governance and support strategic transactions, including M&A and financing rounds.
About You
- 15+ years of legal experience, including 10+ years in-house at a consumer-facing technology company.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in legal leadership roles, including 2+ years in positions of comparable seniority (VP, Deputy General Counsel, etc.).
- JD and active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction.
- Familiarity with corporate governance and strategic transactions, including M&A, financing rounds, or board advisory work.
- Deep expertise in at least two of: privacy/data protection, technology platform regulation, or antitrust/competition law.
- Demonstrated ability to advise executives on complex legal risk and manage significant litigation and regulatory proceedings.
- Track record managing legal teams and outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions.
- Strong commercial instincts and a business enabler known for sound judgment.
Skills
Privacy Law, Data Protection, GDPR, Regulatory Compliance, Antitrust Law, Competition Law, Corporate Governance, M&A, Ip Strategy, Legal Leadership
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