Senior Counsel, Product & Privacy

WEKA•Campbell, CA

7h•$190,000 - $230,000

About The Position

WEKA is hiring its third in-house lawyer and first dedicated to product and privacy. This is a build role: the Senior Counsel will create a scalable product review process and upgrade the company’s privacy program in partnership with the General Counsel. The position is the primary legal partner to Product, Engineering, Security, and Support, advising on how WEKA builds and ships its technology and handles data. The role reports directly to the General Counsel and works closely with the Senior Counsel responsible for commercial contracting and marketing review. Product and privacy are the primary focus, with backup support for commercial matters as needed. The role covers product counseling, privacy and data protection, and legal operations and policy. It includes advising on NeuralMesh and WEKApod from early design through launch and post-launch review; developing scalable privacy and compliance infrastructure; supporting customer privacy and security diligence; and creating policies, workflows, training, and self-service resources. The position also supports AI governance, incident response, audits, and cross-functional work with teams across the company. WEKA describes itself as a growth-stage, Series E company backed by venture capital investors and AI infrastructure industry leaders. Its NeuralMesh storage system supports AI and accelerated compute workflows. WEKA reports more than 140 patents and use by more than 30% of Fortune 50 enterprises. The company offers competitive compensation, including equity participation. For U.S. residents, the stated total compensation hiring wage range is $190,000–$230,000, with final compensation dependent on location and candidate and business factors. Benefits may include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), flexible time off, sick time, and leave under applicable laws.

Requirements

6–9 years of legal experience at a law firm, in-house, or both.
Meaningful experience counseling product and engineering teams at a technology company.
Experience partnering with Product and Engineering on product launches; experience building or running a product review process is preferred within this qualification.
Comfort translating legal requirements into terms engineers will use.
Working knowledge of GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.
Experience building or upgrading a privacy program, rather than only operating a mature program.
Experience negotiating DPAs and responding to customer security and privacy diligence.
J.D. from an accredited law school.
Active bar membership in good standing.
Experience managing external counsel and vendors efficiently across specialized matters.

Nice To Haves

Prior in-house experience at a startup or scale-up where the candidate built programs rather than only executing within established programs.
Comfort engaging in technical discussions about distributed systems, storage, data flows, and software releases; a computer science or engineering background, or ability to read architecture diagrams and understand how data is stored and moved.
Practical judgment, including knowing when to decide and when to escalate, and explaining risk in a way that helps the business move forward.
A builder mindset and enthusiasm for creating programs, playbooks, and processes from scratch.
Executive presence and crisp communication, including the ability to distill complex issues into clear recommendations and write for non-lawyers.
Project management experience driving multi-quarter initiatives to completion, such as a privacy program upgrade or product review process rollout.
Comfort with AI tools and understanding of their risks and limitations in legal practice, with interest in risk-appropriate ways to improve speed and quality.
CIPP/US, CIPP/E, or similar privacy or AI governance certification, or a desire to obtain one.
Experience in enterprise software, infrastructure, data storage, cloud, HPC, or AI.
Experience supporting SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audits and security incident response.
Familiarity with open-source licensing, export controls (including encryption classification), and the EU AI Act.
Commercial contracting experience.
Experience supporting international operations and cross-border data flows.

Responsibilities

Build and operate a risk-tiered legal review process for product features and releases, including intake forms, launch checklists, and criteria for when Engineering should involve Legal.
Serve as the primary legal partner to Product, Engineering, Security, and Support for NeuralMesh and WEKApod, advising from early design through launch and post-launch review.
Advise on product terms and EULAs, support and maintenance policies, end-of-life matters, and how products collect, process, and access data, including telemetry, diagnostics, and support access.
Partner with Product and Sales to develop customer-facing materials, anticipate customer questions, and help move deals forward.
Review inbound and outbound open-source use in the product and flag potential inventions to the General Counsel.
Counsel on AI governance in product development and business operations, working with IT and other teams to operationalize WEKA’s AI policy and track evolving regulatory requirements.
Partner with Product and Supply Chain teams on export classification and screening considerations for product releases.
Build and own WEKA’s privacy program and framework, including assessing and upgrading the program and establishing infrastructure for scalable compliance.
Update privacy notices and policies, standardize the DPA, maintain a subprocessor list, and build data mapping, records of processing, data subject request handling, vendor and subprocessor review, retention, and cross-border transfer mechanisms.
Advise on GDPR and UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, other U.S. state and international privacy laws, and emerging AI regulations and standards as they apply to products, marketing, HR, and operations.
Own the DPA playbook and act as escalation point for privacy and security terms in customer deals; develop privacy collateral from recurring customer questions.
Partner with Security on incident response, breach assessment and notification, and SOC 2 / ISO audit support.
Work with HR on employee and candidate data and with Marketing on website, events, and email practices.
Partner with Product, Sales, and Marketing to develop privacy-focused customer materials for go-to-market use.
Draft and maintain privacy, data retention, AI use, and other policies, and drive their adoption across the company.
Build templates, playbooks, workflows, intake forms, and self-service resources to enable Product and Engineering to handle routine questions efficiently; use CLM and AI tools where appropriate.
Deliver practical training for Engineering and Product on privacy-by-design and when to engage Legal.
Manage outside counsel and vendors efficiently, including support for the initial privacy program assessment.
Provide backup support on commercial matters, such as NDAs, procurement contracts, and partner agreements, when the Senior Counsel’s queue is at capacity.