Associate General Counsel

ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL

Summary

Wikimedia envisions a world where the sum total of human knowledge is available to everyone.  The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit home of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and other free educational projects, serves as the hub of a global movement of hundreds of thousands of contributors collaborating to collect and share the sum of all human knowledge with the world. Protecting the privacy of Wikimedia readers, contributors, and donors is a key element of our work as an organization.

Our Legal team counsels Foundation engineers as they create tools and features for Wikipedia, secure the websites, and collaborate with volunteer developers to design and build the future of the projects. We are looking for an Associate General Counsel to support the Deputy General Counsel in leading key functions in the Legal team, with specific focus on further refinement of our privacy and product counseling workflows.

The Associate General Counsel will be a hands-on leader with significant management experience, who will help to oversee and develop a highly talented and collaborative team of lawyers and legal professionals. The Associate General Counsel will also work closely with the Legal department leadership team, the Foundation’s Senior Leadership and executive teams, and with external stakeholders. We are looking for expertise and experience leading teams that advise online platforms, with a particular focus on counseling technical teams, and providing guidance on matters relating to privacy and security. Candidates should have a track record of enabling successful cross-departmental collaboration, and developing both early career and more experienced lawyers. Additional relevant experience includes past direct work with online communities.

Essential Functions:

• 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.

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.

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• 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.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$171,987 to US$260,709 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. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. 

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay.  Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR). 

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements. 

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

More information

U.S. Benefits & Perks

Applicant Privacy Policy

Wikimedia Foundation

What does the Wikimedia Foundation do?

What makes Wikipedia different from social media platforms?

Our Projects

Our Tech Stack

News from across the Wikimedia movement

Wikimedia Blog

Wikimedia 2030