Senior Legal Counsel, Product & Privacy (EMEA)

Canva; London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to lead its Product & Privacy legal team across EMEA. This role involves providing expert legal advice on compliance with a variety of digital regulations, managing risk mitigation projects, and coaching a talented team of lawyers. You'll work closely with key stakeholders to ensure legal strategies align with business goals while fostering a supportive environment for team success. Join a dynamic company that values innovation and offers a range of benefits, including equity packages and flexible leave options to enhance your work-life balance.

Benefits

Equity packages

Inclusive parental leave policy

Annual Vibe & Thrive allowance

Flexible leave options

Qualifications

• 10-12+ years PQE with in-house experience in tech or innovative companies.
• Strong knowledge of GDPR and other digital regulations.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice on compliance with EMEA digital regulations.
• Lead and coach a high-performing team of Product & Privacy lawyers.

Skills

Digital Regulations

Privacy Law

Consumer Protection

Data Protection

Team Leadership

Education

Legally qualified (UK, EU, AUS/NZ or US)

Certified Information Privacy Professional

Job description

Senior Legal Counsel, Product & Privacy (EMEA)

• Full-time
• Recruitment type: Permanent

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Where and how you can work

The buzzing Canva London campus features several buildings around beautiful leafy Hoxton Square in Shoreditch. While our global headquarters is in Sydney, Australia, London is our HQ for Europe, with all kinds of teams based here, plus event spaces to gather our team and communities. You'll experience a warm welcome from our Vibe team at front of house, amazing home cooked food from our Head Chef and a variety of workspaces to hang out with your team mates or get solo work done. That said, we trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals and so you have choice in where and how you work.

What you’d be doing in this role

As Canva scales, change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

At the moment, the focus of this role is to:

• Be a trusted legal advisor for Canva’s EMEA-based companies, supporting teams across Product, Marketing and Engineering.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders and provide expert advice on compliance with EMEA digital regulations (including data protection, ePrivacy, intellectual property, marketing, online safety, content moderation, platform regulation, AI regulation, accessibility, cybersecurity, competition, consumer protection and more).
• Project manage risk mitigation projects and contribute to business-wide projects and goals.
• Lead and coach a high-performing team of 2 Product & Privacy lawyers, driving strategy and structure for legal support across EMEA.
• Understand each company’s strategies and roadmaps, work closely with leadership to ensure Legal is a key business partner and early sense check, issue-spot, assess risks and offer “risk-aware, not risk-averse” guidance to help them deliver on their goals safely.
• Be a calm, friendly and trusted sounding board for senior business leaders on any EMEA regulatory, policy, PR or litigation matters. Leverage your deep product knowledge and strategic awareness to guide them toward the best approach.
• Connect the dots across multiple projects and see the bigger picture strategically to position our teams for success as we move towards greater integration and consistency across the Canva group.
• Uplift EMEA companies’ compliance initiatives including to develop and maintain compliance frameworks (e.g. privacy and product risk registers, impact assessments, transfer mechanisms, RoPAs and treatment plans for each company).
• Deliver product and privacy training and collaborate with product teams to embed privacy by design and compliance by design into roadmaps.
• Help build scalable processes for legal review and product launches, balancing user needs, policy and business strategy.
• Review and coordinate responses to potential privacy or data security incidents (including on call), including investigations, notifications, and other resolution efforts.
• Keep up to date on relevant laws, regulations and industry standards.
• Partner with the global legal team across contracts, policy, employment, intellectual property and legal operations.

You're probably a match if you’re

• Legally qualified (UK, EU, AUS/NZ or US practising certificate)
• 10-12+ years PQE, including in-house experience in, or working closely with clients in, tech or innovative companies
• Strong on key digital, privacy and consumer protection regulations (e.g. GDPR, UK Data Protection Act, ePrivacy Directive, Digital Services Act, UK Online Safety Act,EU AI Act, Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act, European Accessibility Act), with a willingness to learn regulations in other jurisdictions as we grow
• Certified Information Privacy Professional (or commitment to obtain certification within 12 months of joining)
• Someone who loves learning the product, staying across industry trends and spotting opportunities in a fast-evolving digital regulatory landscape
• Excited to lead the Product & Privacy legal team across EMEA, coaching and empowering them to do the best work of their lives in a supportive but high performing environment
• Experience leading a team of lawyers and/or fluency in any European languages a bonus

About the team

Canva is looking for a Senior Legal Counsel to help lead Product & Privacy Legal across EMEA. Canva has also acquired several European businesses based in UK, Austria, Germany and Czech Republic that continue to operate independently, but are becoming increasingly integrated into the Canva Group (think Flourish, Affinity, remove.bg & Pexels etc!)

Canva needs an experienced and trusted advisor to lead the London-based Product & Privacy Legal Team and partner with these businesses as they develop innovative products, tools and features, and ensure compliance with global laws, group standards and our community’s expectations.

You will have a high degree of autonomy and advise companies within European time zones, as well as working closely with teams in our Australian HQ. You will play a key role in further integrating these subsidiaries and any future EMEA acquisitions and helping the Canva group achieve its goal of being the world’s most trusted platform. You will report into a Lead Counsel in Australia, and have the support of the global legal team and its tools, templates and resources.

What's in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a range of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Here's a taste of what's on offer:

• Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above - we still want to hear from you!

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.