Senior Director & Managing Counsel

ACT, Inc.; Iowa City (IA); Remote; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational organization is seeking a Senior Director & Managing Counsel to establish privacy policies and ensure compliance. The role involves working with management on privacy-related initiatives, overseeing risk assessments, and advising on legal matters. Candidates should have a Juris Doctor degree and significant experience in privacy law. This remote position requires strong analytical and communication skills, along with a collaborative approach.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits

Qualifications

• Minimum of ten years of experience in a law firm or corporate legal department.
• Strong understanding of IT systems and data privacy best practices.
• Active, good standing state license to practice law.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement privacy practices to ensure confidentiality.
• Work with executive management on the privacy program.
• Oversee privacy risk assessments and mitigation.

Skills

Privacy and intellectual property handling

Analytical skills

Negotiation skills

Strong oral and written communication

Interpersonal skills

Education

Juris Doctor degree from an ABA-accredited law school

Job description

Overview

At ACT, Your Work Makes a Difference

Education has power - a power that changes lives forever. It creates opportunities that lift up individuals, their families, and sparks societal change that echoes through generations to come. ACT is dedicated to equity in education and helping anyone who struggles to access that power. ACT values a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment where every team member has an opportunity to grow. ACT is committed to the well-being of its team members, offering comprehensive benefits to support health, wealth, and work-life balance.

We are seeking a Senior Director & Managing Counsel to help fulfill our mission.

Location: This is a remote position, based in the United States. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship. This position is eligible for incentive compensation.

What you will be working on

• Define, develop, maintain, and implement policies and processes that enable consistent, effective privacy practices which minimize risk and ensure the confidentiality of protected information across all media types. Ensure privacy forms, policies, standards, and procedures are up-to-date and best in class.
• Work with executive and senior management, security, and corporate compliance to establish governance for the privacy program.
• Perform or oversee initial and periodic information privacy risk assessment/analysis, mitigation, and remediation.
• Collaborate with the information security team to ensure alignment between security and privacy compliance programs, including policies, practices, investigations, and act as a liaison to the information systems department.
• In collaboration with information security, establish and maintain an ongoing process to track, investigate, and report inappropriate access and disclosure of protected information. Monitor patterns of improper access and/or disclosure of protected information.
• Work cooperatively with information management and other applicable organization units to oversee customer rights to inspect, amend, and restrict access to protected information when appropriate. Manage all required breach determination and notification processes under applicable state breach rules and requirements.
• Establish and administer a process for investigating and acting on privacy and security complaints.
• Work with organization administration and other relevant parties to represent the organization's information and interests with external parties (state or local government bodies) who undertake to adopt or amend privacy legislation, regulation, or standards.
• Serve as information privacy resource to the organization regarding the release of information and all departments for all privacy-related issues.
• Enhance the organization's ability to detect, prevent and mitigate all data privacy threats.
• Monitor the external environment for emerging issues and proactively consult with stakeholders on appropriate courses of action.
• Lead day-to-day privacy operations, including overseeing action plans, continuous improvement initiatives, and investigations of any control failures (and leading follow-up action plans).
• Advise the company on data privacy compliance, including under state privacy laws such as the Colorado Privacy Act and California Consumer Privacy Act, federal laws such as COPPA, FERPA, PPRA, TCPA and CAN SPAM, and international privacy laws including GDPR and China's PIPL.
• Monitor privacy-related legislation that may impact ACT or its customers and advise the Government Relations Team on any needed lobbying efforts.
• Draft and negotiate data privacy and intellectual property terms in both vendor and customer contracts.
• Oversee the maintenance of ACT's intellectual property portfolio, including registration of ACT's copyrights, maintenance of ACT's trademark portfolio, and enforcement actions (cease & desist, UDRP, litigation matters).
• Support proposals team in responding to state RFPs, including drafting responses to requirements and contract language related to privacy and security requirements.

Qualifications

This could be the job for you if you have (minimum requirements):

• A minimum of ten years of experience as an attorney in a law firm or corporate legal department that includes handling privacy and intellectual property matters.
• Strong understanding of IT systems and data privacy best practices, particularly as they relate to student data, educational platforms, compliance and other relevant regulations.
• Significant experience in partnering with business clients and cross-functional teams and leading strategic projects and initiatives required.
• Active, good standing state license to practice law required.
• Highly self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Possess strong analytical, drafting, and negotiation skills, as well as excellent oral and written communication skills and judgment.
• Able to think creatively to find practical solutions to complex issues.
• Organized and detail oriented.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple matters and projects, meeting deadlines and working effectively individually and as part of a team in a dynamic, fast-paced, challenging environment.
• Sophisticated interpersonal skills, including the ability to develop strong internal relationships, influence others, and work as part of cross-functional teams and in partnership with team members at all levels of the organization.
• Maintain a high level of confidentiality regarding corporate information.
• Juris Doctor degree from an ABA-accredited law school required.

It's a plus if you have:

• Experience working in a corporate legal department is preferred.

About ACT

When ACT was founded in 1959, it disrupted the assessment industry with a new approach to helping students better understand their readiness so they could take steps to improve it. By leveraging our expertise and authority in assessment and research, we will again disrupt the industry—helping more people learn, better measure their progress, and improve their navigation through life's transitions.

ACT is fulfilling its mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success. We push the boundaries of learning innovation through the work of our team members. We invest in experiences that strengthen connections, ideas, and celebrate success.

Learn more about working at ACT at act.org!

ACT is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. ACT participates in E-verify. ACT's online position announcements are intended only to provide general descriptions of employment opportunities; none of the information provided for any position should be interpreted as a commitment by ACT to specific terms and conditions for employment.

Completion of the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate is recommended. Find a testing site near you to register for the WorkKeys assessments. Finalists for this position will be subject to a criminal background check as a condition of employment.

If you have received an ACT employment-related communication from an email address that is not affiliated with @act.org and/or that requests personal or financial information, please do not reply. Instead, reach out to us at [e-mail] with the details. ACT's recruitment team appreciates your interest in working with us to transform college and career readiness pathways for all learners and wishes you the best of your career journey.