Sr. Privacy Counsel

HighLevel is an AI powered, all-in-one white-label sales & marketing platform that empowers agencies, entrepreneurs, and businesses to elevate their digital presence and drive growth. We are proud to support a global and growing community of over 2 million businesses, comprised of agencies, consultants, and businesses of all sizes and industries. HighLevel empowers users  with all the tools needed to capture, nurture, and close new leads into repeat customers. As of mid 2025, HighLevel processes over 4 billion API hits and handles more than 2.5 billion message events every day. Our platform manages over 470 terabytes of data distributed across five databases, operates with a network of over 250 microservices, and supports over 1 million hostnames.

 

With over 1,500 team members across 15+ countries, we operate in a global, remote-first environment. We are building more than software; we are building a global community rooted in creativity, collaboration, and impact. We take pride in cultivating a culture where innovation thrives, ideas are celebrated, and people come first, no matter where they call home.

 

As of mid 2025, our platform powers over 1.5 billion messages, helps generate over 200 million leads, and facilitates over 20 million conversations for the more than 1 million businesses we serve each month. Behind those numbers are real people growing their companies, connecting with customers, and making their mark - and we get to help make that happen.

About the role:

HighLevel builds products that serve over 60,000 businesses worldwide, and our product teams ship fast. We need a Sr. Privacy Counsel, Product who can keep pace: someone who lives in the product development process, spots privacy issues early, and delivers practical, risk-calibrated guidance that helps the business move forward.

This is a product-facing role. You'll be embedded with engineering and product teams, advising on privacy-by-design from the earliest stages of feature development through launch. You'll own privacy counseling for HighLevel's platform, working through questions that range from consent flows and data collection practices to international data transfers and AI-driven features.

The right candidate understands that good privacy advice isn't just about identifying risks. It's about helping the business understand those risks, weigh them against business objectives, and make informed decisions. You should be thorough in your analysis, clear in your communication, and business-minded in your approach.

You'll report to the Managing Counsel, Product & Compliance and work closely with the Privacy Program Manager and the broader legal team. This role demands significant autonomy. You need to operate independently, build trust with product and engineering stakeholders, and deliver advice that's both legally sound and practically useful.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Product Privacy Counseling

• Serve as HighLevel's primary privacy advisor for product development, embedded in the full lifecycle from concept through release
• Review new features, product changes, and data practices for privacy implications, providing actionable guidance that enables informed decision-making
• Advise on consent mechanisms, data collection disclosures, cookie and tracking implementations, and user-facing privacy controls
• Partner with product and engineering to design privacy-compliant solutions for AI-powered features, analytics, and data-driven functionality
• Conduct privacy reviews for new integrations, partnerships, and third-party data sharing arrangements

Privacy Law Guidance

• Provide day-to-day counseling on GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and other US state privacy laws as they apply to HighLevel's products and operations
• Monitor and advise on emerging privacy regulations globally, translating new requirements into practical product guidance
• Advise on TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and other marketing compliance issues as they intersect with product functionality
• Support HIPAA compliance efforts where HighLevel acts as a business associate

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Coordinate closely with other legal subject matter experts across the team to deliver cohesive, actionable guidance to product managers, developers, and engineers, ensuring product teams receive consistent counsel
• Build strong working relationships with product managers, engineers, and designers, earning trust as a partner who helps them ship better products
• Translate legal requirements into language product teams can act on, and translate product plans into legal risk assessments leadership can understand
• Work closely with the Privacy Program Manager on operationalizing privacy requirements and implementing privacy-by-design frameworks
• Partner with commercial counsel on customer-facing privacy commitments and DPA negotiations

Privacy Review Process Development

• Continuously improve the privacy review process, identifying opportunities for greater efficiency, better product team engagement, and earlier issue identification
• Build and maintain systems for tracking privacy review requests, moving beyond ad hoc Slack communications to ensure nothing falls through the cracks
• Work closely with the Privacy Program Manager and product leadership to improve cross-functional communication and coordination on privacy matters
• Develop scalable intake processes, templates, and guidance documents that enable product teams to self-serve on routine privacy questions
• Identify opportunities for automation in the privacy review workflow, reducing manual effort while maintaining quality

Customer Privacy Escalations

• Serve as the escalation point for privacy-related customer inquiries, working with customer-facing teams to resolve complex privacy questions
• Communicate directly with customers on sensitive privacy matters, balancing legal accuracy with clear, professional messaging
• Partner with customer success and support teams to develop guidance for handling routine privacy inquiries at the front line

What You’ll Bring:

• JD from an accredited law school and active bar admission in at least one US state
• CIPP/E or CIPP/US certification
• 8 years of experience practicing privacy law, with meaningful exposure to product counseling in a technology or SaaS environment
• Experience advising on AI/ML features, automated decision-making, or data analytics products
• Strong command of GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and other major US state privacy laws, with the ability to apply them to complex product questions without significant supervision
• Demonstrated ability to provide thorough, risk-calibrated advice that informs business decisions
• Track record of building productive relationships with non-legal stakeholders, particularly product and engineering teams
• Ability to communicate effectively with customers on privacy matters, with a professional, clear, and customer-oriented approach
• Proficiency in using AI-powered tools with demonstrated ability to leverage these tools to deliver faster, more efficient guidance without sacrificing quality or accuracy. 
• Ability to work independently, make judgment calls with incomplete information, and operate without constant oversight
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex privacy concepts to non-lawyers

Preferred Qualifications :

• In-house experience at a SaaS, marketing technology, or B2B platform company
• Experience supporting IPO readiness or operating in a public company environment.
• Familiarity with TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and marketing compliance
• Experience building or improving privacy review processes and workflows
• Exposure to HIPAA compliance in a technology context

What We’re Looking For (The Intangibles):

• Legal as business enablement. You see your role as helping the business succeed, not just identifying legal risks. You're thorough in your analysis, but your goal is to help product teams make informed decisions and find paths forward, not to create roadblocks.
• Product fluency. You're comfortable in product conversations. You understand how software gets built, you can read a PRD and spot the privacy issues, and you don't need engineers to translate technical concepts for you.
• Speed without sloppiness. HighLevel ships fast. You can turn around privacy guidance quickly without sacrificing thoroughness. You know when something needs deep analysis and when a quick answer will do.
• Process builder. You don't just do the work; you improve how the work gets done. You see inefficiencies in how privacy reviews flow and you fix them. You build systems that scale.
• Clear communicator. You can explain GDPR requirements to an engineer in terms they can act on, and explain product architecture to leadership in terms they can evaluate. No jargon, no hedging.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. Privacy law is evolving constantly. You don't freeze when there's no clear precedent. You research thoroughly, make a call, document your reasoning, and move on.
• Self-directed. You don't wait for assignments. You see what product is building, identify the privacy questions before they become problems, and insert yourself at the right moment.
• Collaborative by default. You work well with the Privacy Program Manager, product leadership, and engineering. You communicate proactively, flag issues early, and make sure nothing gets missed because of siloed information.
• AI-powered efficiency. You naturally reach for AI tools to amplify your legal work. You experiment with new tools, iterate on your processes, and see AI as a force multiplier that helps you deliver faster, higher-quality guidance. 

Success Metrics: 

• Product teams view Privacy Counsel as a partner who helps them ship better products, not a bottleneck
• Privacy reviews are completed quickly enough to stay ahead of product timelines, with clear, actionable guidance
• Privacy issues are identified and addressed during development, not discovered post-launch
• Privacy review process is structured and trackable, with clear intake, status visibility, and nothing falling through the cracks
• Stakeholders can articulate HighLevel's privacy position on new features because counsel's guidance was clear enough to internalize
• Managing Counsel for Product & Compliance is confident that product privacy counseling is handled without needing to be in the room
• No privacy incidents attributable to inadequate legal guidance during product development
• Strong cross-functional relationships evidenced by product teams proactively engaging Privacy Counsel early in the design process
• Privacy review processes become measurably more efficient over time

This role is ideal for a privacy lawyer who wants to be in the room where products get built, someone who thrives on fast-paced decision-making, builds processes that scale, and gets satisfaction from helping the business move forward with clear eyes on the risks.