Senior Legal Counsel
Description
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit home of Wikipedia and other free educational projects, seeks a Senior Legal Counsel to support the Fundraising, Product, and Engineering teams in a product counsel capacity, with a special focus on marketing and product development needs across departments.
This role reports to the Associate General Counsel and will focus on Wikimedia’s current and future legal work as it relates to marketing and fundraising engagement, and disintermediation.
- Provide holistic in-house legal guidance to the Fundraising, Product, and Engineering teams, ensuring the Foundation can innovate while protecting the privacy of its global community.
- Navigate evolving regulations in marketing and AI, advise on the development of the Wikimedia technical platform, and help build a global legal ecosystem where free knowledge can thrive with minimal disintermediation.
- Support the Product and Engineering teams in developing a data governance model that allows for novel features while maintaining high privacy standards, for example in the space of reader engagement.
Skills And Experience
- J.D. from accredited U.S. law school or equivalent foreign degree, preferably paired with significant U.S. legal experience.
- Admission to practice law and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar.
- Experience with product, privacy, marketing, and other internet law issues, advising a user-facing digital technology or internet company (e.g., as in-house counsel), preferably with global reach.
- 5-7 years experience with legal review of go-to-market, fundraising, technical products or online services.
- Significant experience working with engineering colleagues as a counselor and advisor to achieve organizational goals.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail, full fluency in written and spoken English.
Qualities That Are Important To Us
- A deep commitment to a free and open internet, open-source movement, and the Wikimedia mission.
- Comfortable working in a highly transparent, multicultural, and collaborative environment.
- A fast learner with the sound judgment needed to handle complex projects independently in a fast-paced setting.
- High personal integrity with a strong public service orientation.
About The Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based in 40+ countries.
We are committed to having a diverse workforce and continuously strive to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.