Sr. Counsel, Regulatory
About The Position
Databricks is seeking a Senior Counsel, Regulatory to join its Corporate Legal team and lead the company’s response to the evolving global regulatory landscape. The role will build and own a cross-functional regulatory practice and provide business-focused legal advice to stakeholders across the company. It serves as the primary internal subject matter expert on regulatory matters outside privacy and export controls, coordinating advice and contributions across Engineering, Product, Security, Legal, Corporate Operations, and Finance. The role leads strategic implementation of complex regulatory requirements, owns a centralized regulatory roadmap, triage process, and incident response playbooks, and partners across teams to embed compliance by design into Databricks products and workflows. It also supports customer negotiations and partnerships, international expansion, regulatory controls, and ongoing training and process improvements. The position is hybrid and based locally to Databricks offices in Washington, D.C., Bellevue, or Seattle.
Requirements
- At least 8 years of experience at a nationally recognized law firm and/or in-house legal department, with substantial focus on technology, data, or regulatory matters.
- J.D. from a top-tier law school.
- For U.S. candidates, membership in a state bar in good standing.
- Demonstrated experience advising on global data, digital, and/or technology regulation.
- Experience supporting SaaS, cloud, or data-platform products and partnering with Engineering, Product, and Security teams to operationalize regulatory requirements.
- Experience supporting commercial and go-to-market teams in customer-facing negotiations, including with enterprise customers in highly regulated sectors.
- Ability to assess challenging and novel issues and provide concise, actionable, business-focused legal advice.
- Ability to build strong working relationships with internal stakeholders across multiple geographical locations.
- Ability to coordinate, prioritize, and manage deadlines and workflows in a fast-paced, demanding environment.
- Ability to work independently and interact confidently with senior management when required.
- Strong work ethic, excellent organizational skills, and ability to manage multiple cross-functional projects simultaneously with minimal supervision.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with frameworks such as the EU AI Act, EU Data Act, DORA, NIS-2, DSA, or DMA, or analogous regimes.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the primary internal subject matter expert on emerging global regulatory frameworks outside privacy and export controls, as well as global antitrust, competition, and payments regulation.
- Lead implementation of legislative requirements and own the centralized regulatory roadmap, triage process, and incident response playbooks.
- Partner cross-functionally to embed regulatory compliance by design into the Data Intelligence Platform, Lakehouse, and agentic AI workflows, identifying regulatory blockers early.
- Partner with Product Legal, Commercial Legal, and GTM Legal to support enterprise deals and partnerships, draft negotiation fallbacks, and develop customer-facing collateral.
- Act as the regulatory point of contact on customer calls for highly regulated customers, make decisions, and implement playbook fallbacks to maintain deal velocity.
- Work with Corporate Operations to operationalize regulatory compliance controls and connect legal advice with business execution.
- Support international expansion, including local AI and data regulation and EU data sovereignty.
- Monitor legal developments and industry trends, provide proactive advice, training, and support, and lead OKRs to improve and scale regulatory compliance processes.
- Build relationships and facilitate communication and collaboration with stakeholders across multiple geographical locations.
Benefits
- Potential eligibility for an annual performance bonus and equity.
- Comprehensive benefits and perks; specific offerings depend on the employee’s region.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
