Senior Counsel, Privacy & Data Protection

Under the direction of the Assistant General Counsel, Product & Regulatory, you will play an immediate and direct role in providing legal support for scaling Circle’s product suite, enterprise risk and compliance functions, and the global privacy and cybersecurity program, advising the company on a wide-range of regulatory, compliance, governance, enterprise risk, privacy and cybersecurity matters, contributing to and overseeing a variety of design, implementation and operation objectives, aligning and coordinating priorities and activities with cross-functional stakeholders. We are looking for someone who is highly proactive, accountable, team-oriented, capable of managing multiple competing priorities, and excited to join a lean team that executes on a variety of novel and complex legal issues.

What you'll work on:

• Providing support to Circle’s global legal operations, risk management efforts and strategic business objectives and priorities.
• Advising Circle stakeholders on, among other things, comprehensive approaches to a variety of product development initiatives, regulatory compliance and enterprise risk management matters and guidance, implementation and maintenance with respect to crisis management, privacy, data protection and cybersecurity frameworks globally.
• Collaborating closely with information security, compliance and enterprise risk team members to define scope, engage stakeholders, prioritize and drive execution of key crisis management, privacy compliance, data protection and cybersecurity initiatives.
• Owning and managing multiple project initiatives, legally compliant process improvements and workstreams critical to large scale, complex privacy projects.
• Conducting privacy impact and risk assessments, and leading adoption of internal privacy principles, ensuring privacy by design into business operations.
• Providing training, thought leadership and mentoring worldwide on privacy and cybersecurity consistent with Circle’s related policies, standards and procedures.
• Conducting, overseeing and providing support in connection with internal investigations.
• Proactively identifying a variety of compliance risk areas and strategies to mitigate them.

You will aspire to our four core values:

• Multistakeholder - you have dedication and commitment to our customers, shareholders, employees and families and local communities.
• Mindful - you seek to be respectful, an active listener and to pay attention to detail.
• Driven by Excellence - you are driven by our mission and our passion for customer success which means you relentlessly pursue excellence, that you do not tolerate mediocrity and you work intensely to achieve your goals.
• High Integrity - you seek open and honest communication, and you hold yourself to very high moral and ethical standards. You reject manipulation, dishonesty and intolerance.

What you’ll bring to Circle:

• 15+ of legal experience with a strong knowledge of:
• Development and management of an effective global privacy and cybersecurity program, including relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, ideally in a financial services environment.
• Privacy laws and issues in relation to evolving technology, preferably in the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.
• Broad product development and compliance experience ideally in crypto/fintech, including implementation of enterprise risk management standards and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tools and systems.
• Experience working with and presenting to diverse, cross-functional teams and senior leadership.
• You are passionate about Circle’s mission and values, financial technology and the disruptive potential of cryptocurrency and blockchains.
• You are comfortable working outside of your comfort zone in an evolving and growing environment that is prone to rapid changes, extreme velocity and managing multiple projects simultaneously.
• You apply sound, practical business judgment to your legal recommendations, and are creative at solving problems while balancing important legal risks for the business.
• You can exercise good judgment in time-sensitive, high-pressure situations, work autonomously and independently with minimal guidance and are also comfortable working collaboratively as part of a team.
• You are obsessively organized, energetic, passionate about supporting your team/ a team player.
• You have a JD (or foreign equivalent degree) and active membership in at least one US State Bar. Prior in-house experience for at least 5 years a must, including public traded companies.
• CIPP certification strongly preferred.
• Experience/familiarity with Slack, Apple MacOS and GSuite.