Senior Counsel, Product (AI)

About the role

Join us at Zendesk, a company dedicated to powering exceptional service globally. We're looking for a proactive and entrepreneurial Senior Counsel, Product (AI) to support our global AI products. This role involves enabling growth and mitigating risk for a technology platform at the forefront of the AI transformation.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic guidance to balance legal expertise with creative problem-solving to deliver risk-calibrated advice to business leaders.
• Navigate complex issues around building and selling AI software, including pricing, compliance with global AI safety laws, privacy laws, and customer trust initiatives.
• Empower sales and marketing by supporting AI trust and customer enablement initiatives, collaborating with Commercial Legal to leverage compliance as a tool to accelerate customer deals.
• Engage with regulators and industry groups when needed, and collaborate with industry groups to develop regulatory engagement goals and strategy.
• Foster internal innovation by championing AI adoption within the legal department, applying technology creatively to improve legal review processes, and enabling rapid innovation.
• Educate and communicate complex legal requirements for both AI development and internal usage into clear, actionable insights for company leadership and stakeholders.
• Mentor and lead junior colleagues, fostering overall team growth and development.

Requirements

• 7+ years of legal experience, with at least 3+ years in-house, preferably at a global technology company.
• Licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction.
• Strong understanding of the global regulatory environment, ideally with experience applying the EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
• Business-minded pragmatism, able to build trust with product and engineering teams by combining legal expertise, data-driven analysis, and practical problem-solving.
• Strategic vision, the ability to see the big picture and prioritize impactful, practical ways to support company goals.
• Agility and ownership, decisive and action-oriented, single-owner mentality, excelling in project execution and moving complex initiatives to completion even amidst uncertainty.
• Strong prioritization, ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment while effectively adjusting strategies in response to shifting priorities, legal developments, and evolving risk tolerance.
• Adaptability, open-minded and flexible, can easily adjust strategies as company goals, legal landscapes, and risk tolerances evolve.
• Technical muscle, understanding of AI technology, and attendant legal risks, understanding of basic product concepts, capable of quickly understanding new innovations.
• Collaborative spirit, strong communication and relationship-building skills, able to work cross-functionally when necessary, adept at collaborating and respecting subject-matter experts, without relying on other teams to make product legal decisions.
• Growth mindset, interest in continuously learning and growing, no task is too big or small.

Qualifications

• Basic qualifications: 7+ years of legal experience, licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction.
• PREFERRED qualifications: Experience advising AI and/or software product development teams, experience and interest in using AI technology to optimize processes and solve problems.

Benefits

At Zendesk, we offer a competitive US annualized base salary range of $216,000.00-$324,000.00, with the possibility of bonus, benefits, or related incentives. The Intelligent Heart Of Customer Experience

Pay

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $216,000.00-$324,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location.

Schedule

This role is fully remote.