Zendesk

Senior Counsel

Zendesk$259K — $389K *
Legal & Accounting
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of legal experience, with at least 3+ years in-house at a global tech company
  • Licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction
  • Strong understanding of global regulatory environment, especially EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA
  • Proven experience advising AI and/or software product development teams
  • Capacity for strategic vision with an ability to see the big picture
  • Demonstrated agility and ownership in project execution
  • Excellent communication and collaborative skills with cross-functional teams

Responsibilities

  • Provide strategic guidance by offering risk-calibrated legal advice to business leaders
  • Shape AI strategy and compliance by navigating complex compliance issues
  • Empower sales and marketing teams by supporting AI trust initiatives
  • Engage with regulators and industry groups to formulate regulatory strategies
  • Foster internal innovation by championing AI adoption within the legal department
  • Educate and communicate complex legal requirements into clear insights for stakeholders
  • Mentor and lead junior colleagues to enhance team development

Benefits

  • Fully remote work opportunity
  • Access to cutting-edge AI technology
  • Mentorship from top-tier leaders in a collaborative environment
  • Support for continuous learning and professional growth
  • Opportunity to shape compliance as a tool for business acceleration
  • Engagement in high-impact regulatory discussions and industry collaborations
Full Job Description
Job Description

Outstanding candidates will be considered outside of office locations for a fully remote role.

We're seeking a proactive and entrepreneurial Senior Product Counsel to support our global AI products. In this role, you will enable growth and mitigate risk for a technology platform that is leading in the AI transformation space. You'll dive deep into cutting-edge technology, navigate fast-moving global regulatory obligations, and spearhead customer trust initiatives. Reporting into our Director of Product, Privacy, and IP, you partner with our top-tier product managers, engineers, and security professionals, and become a trusted leader at the company. Our legal team is practical and business-minded, and it is crucial that our work not only mitigates risk but enables growth and drives customer adoption.

What you'll be doing
  • Provide Strategic Guidance: Balance legal expertise with creative problem-solving to deliver risk-calibrated advice to our business leaders. Make decisions quickly and efficiently to advance company goals, without getting sidetracked by low risk issues or bureaucracy.
  • Shape AI Strategy & Compliance: Navigate complex issues around building and selling AI software, such as: how to price and sell it; how to comply with an evolving global patchwork of AI safety laws (including building and executing actionable compliance plans); how to comply with longstanding global privacy laws (while collaborating with stellar privacy colleagues); and how to meet customer needs).
  • Empower Sales & Marketing: Support AI trust and customer enablement initiatives. Collaborate with Commercial Legal to leverage compliance as a tool to accelerate customer deals.
  • Engage with Regulators and Industry Groups: Act as a key liaison with relevant AI regulatory authorities when needed, and collaborate with industry groups to develop regulatory engagement goals and strategy.
  • Foster Internal Innovation: Champion AI adoption within the legal department. Apply technology creatively to improve legal review processes, efficiently identify risks, and enable rapid innovation.
  • Educate & Communicate: Translate complex legal requirements-for both AI development and internal usage-into clear, actionable insights for company leadership and stakeholders.
  • Mentor & Lead: Guide junior colleagues, fostering overall team growth and development.
What you bring to the role
  • Regulatory Knowledge: Strong understanding of the global regulatory environment, ideally with experience applying the EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
  • Business-Minded Pragmatism: A track record of building 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 & 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: Proven ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment, adjusting strategies as company goals, legal landscapes, and risk tolerances evolve.
  • Collaborative Spirit: Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability 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.
Basic Qualifications:
  • 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
Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience advising AI and/or software product development teams
  • Experience and interest in using AI technology to optimize processes and solve problems


The US annualized base salary range for this position is $259,000.00-$389,000.00. 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. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol ZEN and is a constituent of the Russell 2000 Index. The company provides a cloud-based customer support platform which allows quicker and easier interaction between businesses and customers. Zendesk has over 4,000 employees and serves 150,000 customers in 160 countries. The company was founded in 2007 by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour.
Learn more about Zendesk
Size
2,570 employees
Market Cap
$10.3 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$218.1 million
Founded
2007
5 Year Trend
+33.7%
Revenue
$1 billion
NASDAQ

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