Senior Privacy Counsel

Abnormal; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Abnormal is seeking a Senior Privacy Counsel to own substantial portions of the global privacy program, advising product and engineering, and guiding AI governance from the legal and privacy side. You will help design privacy into an AI-native platform, partner with Privacy Manager, and support regulatory engagement and data transfer strategies.

The role demands 6–8+ years of experience, strong bar credentials, and the ability to execute across fast-moving, global environments.

Qualifications

• J.D. degree with active bar admission in at least one U.S. state.
• Deep experience in privacy and data protection law and program execution.
• Familiarity with GDPR/UK GDPR, EU AI Act, DORA and related regimes.

Responsibilities

• Design and drive Abnormal's global privacy program across multiple jurisdictions.
• Lead AI governance initiatives and ensure compliant product development.
• Provide product privacy counseling to R&D and product teams; draft and negotiate DPAs/SCCs.

Skills

Privacy law

AI governance

Contract drafting

Regulatory compliance

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

J.D. degree

US state bar admission

Tools

Privacy management tools

Job description

About the Role

Abnormal AI is an AI-native cybersecurity company. We use behavioral AI to stop the attacks that get past everything else, and our products depend on processing data responsibly, at scale, across a growing set of global jurisdictions. We are looking for a Senior Privacy Counsel to own significant portions of our global privacy program - the legal judgment, the day-to-day operational execution and oversight, and the AI-enabled tooling that ties the two together.

This is a senior privacy role, reporting to and operating under the direction of the AGC, PPIP. You will advise product and engineering on building privacy into an AI-native platform, support AI governance from the legal and privacy side, provide product-privacy legal counseling alongside the Director, Legal (Product), and partner with the Privacy Manager, who handles much of the operational execution, to run the day-to-day privacy program (DSARs, assessments, ROPA, notices, audits). You will help build and operate the AI automation, working with Legal Ops and other internal teams, that makes the program scale, and serve as a privacy voice with customers via commercial legal.

We want someone with the expertise, drive, and assertiveness to own initiatives and drive them to completion with limited oversight - as comfortable writing a lawful-basis analysis as they are shipping a workflow that automates it.

Why Join Us

• Help build and scale the privacy function at a category-defining, AI-native cybersecurity company.
• Build, not just advise, with real license to design AI automation that changes how privacy work gets done.
• Work at the intersection of privacy, AI governance, product counseling, and security, on problems that are genuinely new.
• Competitive salary, benefits, and equity, and a clear path to grow the role toward greater program ownership as the program scales.

What You Will Do

• Global privacy program execution. Support the design of, and drive implementation and continuous improvement of Abnormal's global privacy program, partnering with applicable stakeholders on strategy, policies, standards, and controls, across GDPR/UK GDPR, EU AI Act, NIS2, DORA, EU Data Act, US state privacy laws, and other applicable international frameworks. Advise and execute on the international data transfer strategy (SCCs, UK IDTA, EU-US Data Privacy Framework, transfer impact assessments) as data flows and product footprint expand across jurisdictions.
• AI governance execution. Drive the day-to-day execution of the AI governance program from the legal and privacy side, including EU AI Act classification and related obligations, seeing initiatives through to completion in partnership with R&D, Security, and AI governance stakeholders.
• Privacy by Design for AI products and product counseling. Partner with the Privacy Manager and R&D to embed privacy into the design of new AI-driven features, including model data governance, secondary data-use analysis, and the privacy implications of behavioral AI. Set privacy diligence standards for AI/LLM vendors and model providers. Partner with the Director Legal, Product to provide ongoing product and privacy legal counseling to R&D for product and feature development.
• Privacy operations. Partner with the Privacy Manager to help oversee the privacy operations program - DSARs and data-subject rights, Records of Processing Activities and data mapping, impact assessments (DPIA/PIA/TIA/LIA), retention, consent and cookie management, and audit support (SOC 2, ISO 27701/42001). Contribute to privacy governance forums, as appropriate.
• Build and operate AI automation. Use AI to make the privacy program scale. Design, deploy, and improve AI-enabled privacy workflows (e.g., DPIA triage and drafting, subprocessor determination) with Legal Operations and engineering. A build-it role, not just a use-it one - specify, prototype, and iterate, holding tooling to a high accuracy and human-review bar.
• Legal & Regulatory Horizon Scanning. Monitors emerging legal and regulatory developments, including privacy and AI regulation, in current and target expansion markets; flagging jurisdiction-specific requirements to the AGC, PPIP to inform market entry or launch decisions, and translates confirmed guidance into execution support for R&D (product and privacy considerations) and GTM (contracting posture, customer requirements).
• Vendor, subprocessor, and customer contracts (escalation point). Serve as the privacy subject matter escalation point for the Commercial and Procurement teams on vendor, subprocessor, and customer agreements (DPAs, SCCs, subprocessor terms). Partner with the AGC, PPIP to set the privacy positions and playbook the teams work from.
• Incident and breach response. Advise on and help lead the privacy and legal aspects of incident response, including AI incidents, breach assessment, notification decisions, and mitigation, working within the company's procedures and regulatory deadlines.
• Data Protection Officer support & regulatory engagement. Support the DPO function as a day-to-day advisor, conducting first-line assessments, and support delegate-level assessments in line with the company's DPO governance framework. Serve as a privacy contact for supervisory-authority inquiries, customer privacy audits, and security questionnaires. Track developments across the privacy and adjacent-regulatory landscape (e.g., NIS2, DORA, and EU Data Act), and translate regulatory change into concrete program action decisions.

Must Haves

• J.D. from an accredited law school and member in good standing of at least one U.S. state bar.
• CIPP/E, CIPP/US certifications
• 6-8+ years of relevant experience, with strong depth in privacy and data protection law and program execution.
• Deep, current expertise in European privacy and digital regulation — GDPR/UK GDPR and working familiarity with NIS2, DORA, the EU AI Act, and the EU Data Act — and how they interact for an AI company.
• Demonstrated experience operating in or advising technology companies, ideally in cybersecurity, SaaS, or cloud, including AI/ML products.
• Meaningful experience contributing to and helping run a privacy program (beyond pure advisory work) in a fast-moving, global environment.
• Experience providing product legal counseling alongside privacy.
• Pragmatic judgment. Starts from the business objective and finds the compliant path, offering options and conditions rather than a reflexive "no," and earning trust as an enabler, not a gate.
• Strong drafting and judgment on complex privacy agreements (DPAs, SCCs, subprocessor terms), and the ability to set positions, act as an escalation point for the teams who negotiate them, and flag novel issues for escalation.
• Sound judgment applied to significant, novel, and ambiguous issues, with accountability for outcomes and escalating direction calls as appropriate, while developing subject-matter credibility internally.
• The drive and assertiveness to own initiatives and drive them to completion with minimal oversight, and the ability to lead through influence, including to persuade diverse senior stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex privacy issues to business stakeholders.
• Fluency with AI tooling and the ability to build and iterate on automation workflows — you have used AI to do real work and can specify, prototype, and refine it, holding it to a high accuracy and human-review standard.

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting a DPO, including familiarity with independence and governance expectations.
• Familiarity with privacy and data protection regimes beyond the EU/US — e.g., LGPD (Brazil), PIPEDA (Canada), APPI (Japan).
• Experience supporting Works Councils and multi-jurisdiction employee/candidate privacy.
• Experience with privacy tooling and with AI/LLM-based workflow automation.
• Familiarity with security and privacy audit frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001/27701/42001).
• CIPM, CIPT, AIGP certifications

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