Lead Counsel, Data Protection Product, Legal, WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the world's fastest growing communication service with over 1 billion active users globally. We help bring friends, families, communities, sport groups, clubs and millions of others together. We are just getting started. We are looking for the best individuals to grow and support this incredible community of users. WhatsApp has been ranked as one of the Top 25 Most Downloaded apps in over 100 countries on the App Store and has received over 1 billion installs on Google Play. WhatsApp is seeking a highly motivated and experienced team player to serve as Lead Counsel on WhatsApp Ireland’s Data Protection Product Counselling team, based in our European headquarters in Dublin. The role is a great opportunity for any candidate who is keen to tackle some of today’s toughest and important legal challenges in this cutting-edge area of law. You must have flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and organisational needs. In addition, you must have the ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, small but growing environment. The role will focus on providing strategic and tactical legal counselling to internal legal, product, operations, and business teams in order to identify and mitigate legal risk in all phases of product development. The ideal candidate will have experience advising on GDPR and privacy regulatory compliance in respect of cutting-edge products, good judgment, a strong work ethic, and a keen interest in learning about new technologies.

Responsibilities

• Analyse products, policies and initiatives to provide practical legal risk mitigation strategies for products across multiple jurisdictions
• Monitor and respond to developments in data protection and information security (i.e., new laws, regulations, important judgements, regulatory guidance, etc.)
• Provide full-service support to wider legal team on EU regulatory and litigation matters and liaising with regulators
• Provide policy, legal, product, engineering, and other business teams with legal advice on data protection laws and regulations including for external communication, policy development, and enforcement decisions

Minimum Qualification

• Solicitor or barrister (qualified to practice law in at least one European jurisdiction)
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant legal experience, including at a law firm or prior in-house experience (applicable litigation, regulatory or more general product counselling experience will be considered)
• In-depth knowledge of legal issues in the area of the operation of online social media platforms including an excellent understanding of data protection law and GDPR
• Excellent problem-solving, written and oral communication and interpersonal skills

Preferred Qualification

• Experience working directly with European Data Protection Authorities
• Experience working with mobile, application development, social networking, online advertising, machine learning, or other Internet technologies
• Demonstrated ability to work independently in fast-paced environment and provide pragmatic and considered advice under tight deadline
• Knowledge of, or fluency in, other European languages a plus