VP, Legal

About the Role DuckDuckGo seeks a VP, Legal to serve as the company's senior legal leader and strategic advisor to the executive team, overseeing all legal matters across our product portfolio, regulatory environment, and key commercial relationships. This role blends executive leadership with hands-on contribution, managing the legal team and owning high-stakes regulatory and competition proceedings and complex commercial agreements, while partnering closely with our policy team on regulatory strategy. 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, providing legal counsel 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 that directly shape DuckDuckGo's business.
• 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.
• And work on related projects. What We're Looking For
• 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. Nice to Have Compensation & Benefits
• Salary: $320,000 USD annually, with stock options.
• Compensation is transparent across the organization; all team members within the same professional level and global region receive the same compensation.
• Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States.
• This program does not extend to team members located in other countries, such as Canada or the UK.
• Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.