Director of Legal & Privacy

The Director of Legal & Privacy will lead Sovrn’s legal function, including commercial contracting, privacy and data protection, intellectual property, dispute management, corporate governance support, and legal operations infrastructure. The role operates in an environment where AI tooling is central to how legal work gets done and where AI governance is increasingly central to what the legal function delivers to the business. The Director reports to the Chief Financial Officer and partners with the CFO on legal strategy, resourcing, and risk. The role works cross-functionally with sales, product, engineering, and finance, oversees Sovrn’s outside privacy contractor, and manages relationships with external counsel.

What you’ll be doing:

• Draft, review, negotiate, and manage commercial agreements, including publisher, advertiser, vendor, partner, and platform contracts.
• Support sales and business development on a high-volume basis, balancing transaction speed with appropriate risk management.
• Oversee the company’s privacy program, including direct management of the outside privacy contractor’s scope, deliverables, and work product.
• Maintain compliance with applicable privacy laws and frameworks, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, other U.S. state privacy laws, and adtech industry frameworks (IAB TCF, GPP, and related standards).
• Collaborate with Product leaders on new Privacy requirements to ensure compliance.
• Advise internal stakeholders on contract terms, obligations, and business implications.
• Advise on data processing agreements, vendor diligence, sub-processor management, consent mechanisms, and transparency obligations.
• Implement and manage core legal infrastructure, including contract lifecycle management, document management, intake and triage, and reporting.
• Manage outside counsel engagements, scope, and spend.
• Own the procurement process for new and renewing spend.
• Manage the company’s IP portfolio, including trademarks, patents, and trade secrets, in coordination with outside counsel.
• Support disputes, demand letters, pre-litigation matters, and handle insurance and litigation processes.
• Assist with corporate transactions, board materials, and governance documentation.
• Advise executives and functional leaders on legal, regulatory, and risk matters.
• Train the broader organization on legal processes, contract procedures, and privacy obligations.

• Experience with Software including: Contracts Lifecycle Management platform (such as Concord, IronClad, Evisort), Jira, Salesforce, Procurement platform (such as Spendflo, Tropic, Vendr), Google Suite., * 10+ years of legal experience supporting technology companies.
• 5+ years of in-house experience. Ideally, in a small legal team where your exposure was broad across all areas of legal.
• 5+ years of commercial contract negotiation experience, including complex master agreements.
• Demonstrated knowledge of adtech privacy regulation, including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, U.S. state privacy laws, and IAB frameworks.
• Working knowledge of AI governance frameworks (NIST AI RMF or ISO/IEC 42001) and emerging AI regulation, including the Colorado AI Act and EU AI Act.
• Experience drafting and negotiating AI-related contract terms, including provisions on training data, model licensing, output ownership, and AI-specific representations and indemnities.
• Hands-on experience using AI-enabled legal tools (e.g., AI-assisted contract review and drafting, AI-augmented contract lifecycle management, AI-powered legal research) and a track record of integrating them into legal workflows.
• Experience managing outside counsel and external legal or privacy contractors.
• Experience designing and implementing legal operations processes and tooling.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to advise senior executives and translate legal risk into business terms.
• Sound judgment and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment with composure and consistency.
• J.D. from an accredited law school with active bar membership in good standing preferred.
• CIPP/E or CIPP/US certification preferred.
• AIGP (Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional) certification or equivalent preferred.

We understand that no candidate is perfectly qualified for any job. Experience comes in different forms, many skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. Even more important than your resume is a clear demonstration of accountability and the ability to thrive in a fluid and collaborative environment. We expect you to learn new things in this role and encourage you to apply if your experience is close to what we’re looking for.

Compensation and Benefits: The base salary for this position is $190,000 to $230,000 annually. Actual base salary will depend on the candidate’s education, experience, skills, and location. In addition to salary, the total compensation package includes bonus and equity. Sovrn offers a full slate of benefits from medical, dental, and vision coverage, short and long-term disability, life insurance, paid parental leave, 401(k) plan and match, 11 paid holidays, flexible vacation, and commuter benefits., As set forth in Sovrn’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. Gender Select… Are you Hispanic/Latino? Select… Race & Ethnicity Definitions

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About Sovrn

Every interesting company solves essential problems for other people. Sovrn is a Software and Data business that helps Open Web businesses remain independent. We help them understand their business better, operate more efficiently, and make and keep more money.

• We believe in the freedom and free flow of information.
• We believe the Open Web is the largest source of this information.
• We believe in helping Open Web businesses remain Independent.

Through Software products and Data solutions, we help our customers:

• Understand their business better, so they can make better decisions.
• Operate their business more efficiently, so they can invest in what matters most.
• Make (and Keep) more money, so they control their own destiny.