Chief Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Officer

About the role

The Chief Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Officer serves as the organization’s executive lead for legal affairs, government relations, regulatory strategy, public policy, and compliance across both New Hampshire Electric Cooperative and NH Broadband. Reporting to the President & CEO and serving as a member of the senior leadership team, this position provides practical legal guidance and strategic counsel to executive leadership while helping advance organizational goals, protect the organization’s interests, and ensure alignment with evolving legal, regulatory, legislative, and policy environments. This role manages legal matters and outside counsel, provides executive oversight of compliance and policy matters, and supports the organization’s day-to-day legal needs across both the electric cooperative and broadband business. A significant portion of the role is expected to focus on contract review and negotiation, easements, rights-of-way, land use and access issues, data privacy, cybersecurity, and related risk management, while also supporting government relations, regulatory strategy, and stakeholder engagement as needed. The successful candidate will be a trusted advisor, effective advocate, and strategic executive who combines legal expertise, policy insight, regulatory judgment, and a member- and subscriber-focused perspective to advance the organization’s mission and strengthen relationships with policymakers, regulators, industry organizations, community partners, and the communities served by NHEC and NH Broadband.

Responsibilities

Legal LeadershipServe as the senior internal legal executive for the organization and provide practical legal counsel to the President & CEO and executive leadership team for both NHEC and NH Broadband.Advise on federal, state, and local laws affecting electric utility and broadband operations, including energy, telecommunications, broadband deployment, environmental, employment, procurement, contract, compliance, cooperative utility, and subsidiary business matters.Engage, coordinate, and oversee external legal counsel and specialized subject matter experts as necessary to provide legal guidance and support organizational objectives.Draft, review, negotiate, and manage contracts, agreements, policies, and other legal documents, including vendor agreements, construction contracts, service agreements, procurement documents, confidentiality agreements, software and technology contracts, and other business-critical agreements.Provide legal review and practical guidance on easements, rights-of-way, property access, landowner agreements, pole attachments, permitting, encroachments, title matters, and other real estate or infrastructure access issues affecting electric and broadband operations.Provide legal support for NH Broadband matters, including grant and funding obligations, customer and subscriber terms, franchise or municipal agreements, and other broadband-specific business requirements.Manage litigation, claims, disputes, and outside legal counsel, while coordinating appropriately with Board-retained legal counsel when matters involve governance or Board responsibilities.Support executive leadership in governance, compliance, and policy matters.Ensure legal review and guidance supports compliance with applicable legal, regulatory, and ethical requirements.Identify legal and business risks and recommend practical mitigation strategies in coordination with the appropriate executive owner.Serve as a management liaison to the Cooperative's Board-retained General Counsel, providing timely information regarding significant organizational developments, legal matters, regulatory proceedings, compliance issues, and strategic initiatives requiring legal awareness or coordination. Government Relations & Regulatory AffairsSupport the Cooperative’s government relations and public policy work as part of a broader role that also includes legal, contract, easement, compliance, data privacy, and cybersecurity responsibilities.Develop and help execute legislative, regulatory, and advocacy strategies that advance member, subscriber, electric, broadband, and organizational interests.Build and maintain effective relationships with elected officials, regulators, state agencies, trade associations, and industry stakeholders.Monitor legislative and regulatory developments impacting the electric utility, broadband, telecommunications, grant funding, and public infrastructure sectors and assess organizational implications.Represent the Cooperative, as needed, in regulatory proceedings, legislative hearings, industry forums, and stakeholder meetings.Collaborate with senior leadership on policy positions, regulatory filings, legislative initiatives, external messaging, and stakeholder engagement.Support NH Broadband’s interactions with state and federal agencies, municipalities, community partners, and funding entities on matters involving broadband expansion, compliance, grant programs, and public policy. Compliance and Policy OversightProvide executive oversight of compliance programs and related policies across NHEC and NH Broadband.Monitor legal and regulatory compliance obligations for electric and broadband operations and work with business units to promote adherence to applicable requirements.Promote a culture of ethical conduct, accountability, transparency, and organizational integrity.Advise leadership on emerging compliance issues and recommend appropriate mitigation strategies.Support development, review, and implementation of organizational policies that reduce risk, improve consistency, and support effective operations.Collaborate with executive leadership to identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate enterprise risks affecting NHEC, NH Broadband, and shared organizational operations. Data Privacy, Records & Information GovernanceServe as executive sponsor for data privacy governance, records management, and information-handling practices across NHEC and NH Broadband.Identify applicable federal, state, and industry-specific privacy, records retention, data protection, broadband subscriber data, and critical infrastructure information requirements affecting organizational operations.Lead or oversee privacy impact assessments for new programs, systems, technologies, broadband services, and member- or subscriber-facing initiatives.Provide legal guidance on privacy and data protection requirements in contracts, vendor relationships, technology platforms, broadband services, employee