[Hiring] VP, Legal @DuckDuckGo

Role Description

As VP, Legal, you'll serve as DuckDuckGo's senior legal leader and strategic advisor to the executive team, overseeing all legal matters across our growing product portfolio, complex regulatory environment, and key commercial relationships. This role combines executive legal leadership with hands-on individual contribution.

• Manage and develop our legal team while personally owning DuckDuckGo's most significant legal matters.
• Work closely with our policy team, providing legal counsel on regulatory and legislative strategy.
• Translate legal complexity into clear strategic guidance.
• Enable fast product development without compromising trust.
• Build a legal function that scales.

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 on EU and US regulatory matters including DMA, 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.
• Direct company legal strategy and outside counsel in complex regulatory and competition proceedings.
• Manage and develop the legal team, set priorities, build the legal operating model, and develop 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: intake workflows, outside counsel management, budget ownership, and playbooks across key practice areas.
• Advise on employment matters, IP strategy, and corporate transactions as DuckDuckGo grows.
• Own corporate governance and support strategic transactions, including M&A and financing rounds.
• Work on related projects.

Qualifications

• 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.
• 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.
• Located in the US.

Compensation

• $320,000 USD annually and stock options.
• Compensation is transparent across the organization.
• Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States.
• Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.

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.