Senior Privacy Counsel

Sierra; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible PTO

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Life insurance

Retirement plan

Parental leave

Fertility and family-building benefits

Snacks and coffee

Job summary

Sierra is hiring a Senior Privacy Counsel to join its growing legal team in San Francisco. You will lead privacy counseling across product, engineering, operations, and GTM, ensuring compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and evolving AI privacy laws.

You’ll help scale Sierra’s privacy program globally and craft policies for AI governance, data processing, and regulatory engagement. You will draft and negotiate DPAs, BAAs, and MSAs, guide incident response, and train cross-functional groups on privacy

Qualifications

• 8+ years of legal experience, with large international law firm and in-house tech company background.
• Deep knowledge of GDPR, CCPA, and AI regulatory frameworks (EU AI Act, NIST).
• Experience drafting and negotiating DPAs, BAAs, and privacy-related terms.

Responsibilities

• Advise cross-functional teams on global privacy compliance including GDPR, CCPA and related regs.
• Build and own Sierra's privacy counseling and compliance program.
• Develop AI governance policies and frameworks for responsible AI deployment.
• Draft, review, and negotiate privacy-related transactional documents (DPAs, BAAs, MSAs).
• Manage privacy incident response and related notifications.
• Provide training materials and sessions for product and business teams.

Skills

Privacy counseling

AI privacy regulation

Commercial privacy support

DPAs/BAAs/MSA

Global privacy laws

AI governance

Job description

About us

At Sierra, we’re building a platform to enable every company in the world to build better, more human customer experiences with AI. We partner with industry leaders such SoftBank, Uber, Rivian, CLEAR, and Sutter Health. We are primarily an in-person company based in San Francisco, with growing offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

We are guided by a set of values that are at the core of our actions and define our culture: Trust, Customer Obsession, Craftsmanship, Intensity, and Family. These values are the foundation of our work, and we are committed to upholding them in everything we do.

Our co-founders are Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor. Bret currently serves as Board Chair of OpenAI. Previously, he was co-CEO of Salesforce (which had acquired the company he founded, Quip) and CTO of Facebook. Bret was also one of Google's earliest product managers and co-creator of Google Maps. Before founding Sierra, Clay spent 18 years at Google, where he most recently led Google Labs. Earlier, he started and led Google’s AR/VR effort, Project Starline, and Google Lens. Before that, Clay led the product and design teams for Google Workspace.

What you’ll do

We're hiring a Senior Privacy Counsel to be a core member of Sierra's growing legal team. This role will report to our Associate General Counsel, Product and Privacy, as part of our growing privacy legal function. We are looking for someone who has deep expertise in privacy counseling, AI privacy regulation, and commercial privacy support (e.g., DPAs, BAAs, and MSA privacy provisions). You will thrive in dynamic environments, enjoy tackling challenges beyond your comfort zone, and be excited to contribute across the business. In return, we'll provide the support and opportunities you need to grow and excel as a lawyer. You'll be part of a legal team that is highly respected within the company — committed to excellence, collaboration, and making a meaningful impact.

Privacy

• Advise product, engineering, operations, marketing and other cross-functional teams on compliance with global privacy laws and related regulation applicable to Sierra’s business, including GDPR, the EU AI Act, DORA, etc.

• Build and own Sierra’s privacy counseling and compliance program as we scale globally.

• Develop specific privacy regulation expertise in core regulated industries of Sierra customers, such as healthcare, insurance, banking, telecommunications, and financial services.

• Support the commercial legal team and GTM teams by drafting, reviewing, and negotiating the commercial privacy aspects of transactional work, including data processing agreements, business associate agreements, and other privacy-related transactional documents.

• Manage privacy incident response processes and related notification obligations.

• Develop training materials and conduct training sessions for product and business teams.

Regulatory (with focus on AI)

• Advise on all aspects of emerging AI-specific privacy regulations and their applicability to Sierra’s business.

• Develop and implement AI governance policies and frameworks to ensure responsible AI deployment, ethical data usage, and regulatory adherence.

• Monitor and interpret global AI and privacy regulations, advising leadership on risks, trends, and strategic compliance initiatives.

• Represent Sierra in discussions with regulators, industry groups, and external stakeholders on privacy and AI governance matters.

What you'll bring

• 8+ years of legal experience, with a combination of large international law firm and in-house experience at a tech company.

• Deep knowledge of global privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, and other US state privacy laws) and AI regulatory frameworks (e.g., EU AI Act, NIST AI Risk Management Framework).

• A passion for AI, with a deep understanding of AI products, LLMs and the related legal issues, and personal experience with integrating AI into your work.

• Experience mentoring and managing more junior team members.

• Extensive experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating DPAs, BAAs, and other privacy-related commercial terms.

• Ability to assess privacy risks and implement compliance solutions in the context of a hyperscaling business, with sound judgment and strategic decision making. You will not be afraid to make judgment calls, and you will be empowered to do so.

• Strong analytical skills and the ability to balance legal risks and business objectives in a fast-moving environment.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills and the ability to partner with both legal and non-legal stakeholders.

• A strong work ethic with an eye for detail. You will strive for perfection, and expect that of others.

• Be a team player first and foremost. Sierra is a unique place to work, with a strong sense of togetherness, and the legal team is no exception. You will look out for your colleagues, be accustomed to sharing and helping the team succeed.

Even better…

• Experience building a privacy program in a regulated industry (healthcare, financial services, insurance, banking, telecommunications), and/or at a high-growth technology company.

• Experience engaging with regulators and policymakers on AI and privacy issues.

• CIPP/US, CIPP/E, or similar certification.

• Previous experience developing trust and safety or responsible AI programs.

• Startup experience and comfort with rapid iteration and ambiguity.

Our values

• Trust: We build trust with our customers with our accountability, empathy, quality, and responsiveness. We build trust in AI by making it more accessible, safe, and useful. We build trust with each other by showing up for each other professionally and personally, creating an environment that enables all of us to do our best work.

• Customer Obsession: We deeply understand our customers’ business goals and relentlessly focus on driving outcomes, not just technical milestones. Everyone at the company knows and spends time with our customers. When our customer is having an issue, we drop everything and fix it.

• Craftsmanship: We get the details right, from the words on the page to the system architecture. We have good taste. When we notice something isn’t right, we take the time to fix it. We are proud of the products we produce. We continuously self-reflect to continuously self-improve.

• Intensity: We know we don’t have the luxury of patience. We play to win. We care about our product being the best, and when it isn’t, we fix it. When we fail, we talk about it openly and without blame so we succeed the next time.

• Family: We know that balance and intensity are compatible, and we model it in our actions and processes. We are the best technology company for parents. We support and respect each other and celebrate each other’s personal and professional achievements.

What we offer

We want our benefits to reflect our values and offer the following to full-time employees:

• Flexible (unlimited) paid time off

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your family

• Life insurance and disability benefits

• Retirement plan dependent on country of employment

• Parental leave

• Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot

• Lunch, as well as delicious snacks and coffee to keep you energized

• Discretionary benefit stipend giving people the ability to spend where it matters most

• Free alphorn lessons

These benefits are further detailed in Sierra's policies, may vary by region, and are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefits plans. Eligible full-time employees can participate in Sierra's equity plans subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies.

Be you, with us

We're working to bring the transformative power of AI to every organization in the world. To do so, it is important to us that the diversity of our employees represents the diversity of our customers. We believe that our work and culture are better when we encourage, support, and respect different skills and experiences represented within our team. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. We strive to evaluate all applicants consistently without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.