VP, Legal

Who We Are

Welcome to DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ passionate individuals dedicated to enhancing digital trust. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, our annual revenue now surpasses $100m USD, with millions relying on our browser, search engine, and subscription services.

About the role

As VP, Legal, you will serve as our senior legal leader and strategic advisor to the executive team, overseeing all legal matters across our expanding product portfolio, navigating the complex regulatory landscape, and managing key commercial relationships. This role combines executive leadership with hands-on contributions, ensuring that you take full ownership of critical legal matters including high-stakes regulatory proceedings, complex commercial agreements, and policy strategy.

• Serve as the primary legal advisor to the CEO, executive team, and board on strategy, risk, regulatory developments, and sensitive legal matters.
• Work closely with the policy team, providing legal counsel on EU and US regulatory matters, including the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), EU AI Act, and US privacy legislation.
• Direct global privacy compliance, ensuring our products and practices remain ahead of GDPR, US state privacy laws, and emerging data protection requirements.
• Manage and develop the legal team, setting priorities, building the legal operating model, and developing team members.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Security on legal implications of AI features, new product launches, advertising formats, and data practices.
• Evolve legal operations infrastructure, including intake workflows, outside counsel management, budget ownership, and playbooks across key practice areas.
• Advise on employment matters, intellectual property strategy, and corporate transactions as DuckDuckGo grows.
• Own corporate governance and support strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financing rounds.
• Work on related projects.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the primary legal advisor to the CEO, executive team, and board on strategy, risk, regulatory developments, and sensitive legal matters.
• Work closely with the policy team, providing legal counsel on EU and US regulatory matters, including the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), EU AI Act, and US privacy legislation.
• Direct global privacy compliance, ensuring DuckDuckGo products and practices stay ahead of GDPR, US state privacy laws, and emerging data protection requirements.
• Manage and develop the legal team, setting priorities, building the legal operating model, and developing team members.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Security on legal implications of AI features, new product launches, advertising formats, and data practices.
• Evolve legal operations infrastructure, including intake workflows, outside counsel management, budget ownership, and playbooks across key practice areas.
• Advise on employment matters, intellectual property strategy, and corporate transactions as DuckDuckGo grows.
• Own corporate governance and support strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financing rounds.
• Work on related projects.

About You

• 15+ years of legal experience, including 10+ years in-house at a consumer-facing technology company.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in legal leadership roles, including 2+ years in positions of comparable seniority (VP, Deputy General Counsel, etc.).
• JD and active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction.
• Familiarity with corporate governance and strategic transactions, including M&A, financing rounds, or board advisory work, sufficient to own these matters as the company grows.
• Deep expertise in at least two of DuckDuckGo's highest-stakes legal domains: privacy/data protection, technology platform regulation, or antitrust/competition law.
• Demonstrated ability to advise executives on complex legal risk and manage significant litigation and regulatory proceedings.
• Track record managing legal teams and outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions.
• Strong commercial instincts and a business enabler known for sound judgment, not reflexive caution.
• Likely located in the US.

Compensation

$320,000 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is transparent across the organization, and all team members within the same professional level and global region receive the same compensation. Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States.

Hiring Process

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo, envision your future role here, and find out more about how we hire.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.

Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process

We use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.

Data Privacy

All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

Human Oversight and Accountability

The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

Transparency

We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.