Associate General Counsel

Summary

Join the Wikimedia Foundation as an Associate General Counsel to lead and develop a team focused on privacy and product counseling. You will advise senior leadership on legal and regulatory matters, particularly concerning privacy and security. Responsibilities include managing a team, refining privacy workflows, overseeing policy updates, and collaborating with engineers and other professionals. The ideal candidate has significant experience advising digital technology companies, managing senior lawyers, and working with engineering teams on privacy and security issues. A J.D. from an accredited law school and 10+ years of relevant experience are required. The Wikimedia Foundation offers a competitive salary and benefits package.

Requirements

• J.D. from accredited U.S. law school or equivalent foreign degree preferably paired with significant U.S. legal experience
• Current membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar
• Approximately 10+ years or significant experience practicing law and advising a user-facing digital technology or internet company (e.g., as in-house counsel), preferably with global reach
• Significant management experience including managing other high-performing, senior lawyers
• Significant experience working with engineering colleagues as a counselor and advisor to achieve organizational goals
• Experience with, and deep technical understanding of, tools and methods related to digital privacy and security
• Ability to work with a wide range of professionals including lawyers, engineers and data analysts, and communications specialists
• Experience with large, diverse, online user communities
• Comfortable in a highly collaborative, multicultural, transparent environment
• Ability to assess and manage complex risks
• Mission-driven with a public service orientation and high personal integrity
• An understanding of, and commitment to, a free and open internet, to the open source and free culture movements, and to Wikimedia’s mission
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; fluency in written and spoken English
• Able to prioritize and adhere to deadlines, complete projects independently and manage costs and budgets in a busy environment
• Ability to to work with a team primarily based in the US Pacific time zone (PST / UTC-8)
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed, including attendance and speaking at conferences

Responsibilities

• Advise the Deputy General Counsel, General Counsel, and Senior Leadership team on legal and regulatory matters, especially pertaining to privacy and security
• Work collaboratively with legal department staff members to define and shape a renewed vision and strategy for the Foundation’s privacy team. Help set priorities and evolve the infrastructure to deliver on that vision and strategy
• Manage a team providing strong transactional and product counseling support for engineers/technologists; this will include direct counseling, setting organizational policy, and risk assessment/mitigation
• Strengthen and improve internal workflows and collaboration relating to product counseling and engineering-related legal advice
• Each year, oversee an annual refresh of the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy to keep pace with applicable regulation, the protection of user data, and new and evolving features on the Wikimedia projects; support internal and external communication campaigns to educate staff, users, and other stakeholders on the evolution of the policy
• Develop and lead a strong, diverse, and collaborative team serving Foundation programmatic goals and the Wikimedia movement
• Oversee the work of various privacy workflows and manage assigned lawyers; mentor high-performing legal staff
• Provide advice and counsel on other areas of the law, which, depending upon our needs and your experience, may include regulatory compliance frameworks, open source licensing, and more

Preferred Qualifications

• Substantial knowledge of engineering and/or experience with technical security measures
• Active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer
• Fluency/proficiency in language(s) other than English
• Experience in international law, particularly related to: privacy, technical security, intermediary liability, freedom of expression
• Experience living or working outside of home country

Benefits

• The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$ 144,408 to US$ 223,130 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay
• For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire