Lead Counsel Data Privacy

• Serve as lead data and privacy counsel for the US and Americas region providing risk-based business-oriented advice on US Canada and South American data protection AI and cybersecurity issues (including cross-border access and national-security-adjacent topics) grounded in global data protection regulation and frameworks.
• Spearhead AI governance development and implementation globally providing guidance on relevant global and US AI frameworks and executing a fit-for-purpose AI governance approach at Airwallex including developing and implementing AI policies procedures privacy-related AI mitigations and accountability frameworks.
• Develop and help execute privacy and data protection compliance programs for the Americas specifically focused on compliance with US federal and state consumer financial privacy frameworks (GLBA FCRA CalFIPA) compliance Executive Order 14117 and comprehensive state privacy compliance.
• Partner closely with Product Engineering Information Security Regulatory Legal Regulatory Compliance Commercial Legal and Risk to embed privacy- and security-by-design in product development technical architecture UX and go-to-market including by spearheading DPIAs/PIAs AI risk assessments and other privacy impact assessments.
• Draft review and negotiate complex data protection and data-sharing terms (including DPAs cross-border transfer terms and AI-related clauses) with customers vendors financial partners and other third parties acting as an escalation point for high-risk matters.
• Coordinate and oversee international data flows touching the Americas ensuring appropriate transfer tools and governance (e.g. SCCs or equivalent) and supporting initiatives on data localisation storage and access controls.
• Co-lead the privacy and data-protection workstream for security and data incidents related to the Americas with Information Security and other stakeholders including triage investigation regulatory and customer notifications remediation and lessons learned.
• Advise on high-risk or novel processing activities (e.g. new AI use cases advanced analytics innovative platform and embedded-finance data models) helping structure appropriate safeguards governance and documentation.
• Support interactions with US and Americas regulators and policymakers on privacy cybersecurity data-access and related topics in close coordination with Regulatory Legal and Regulatory Compliance.
• Help build and refine tools and processes for privacy workflows (e.g. intake assessment DPIA/PIA/DPIA for AI ROPA DSRs) including the use of specialist tooling metrics and dashboards to track and evidence compliance.
• Contribute to training and enablement for Product Engineering Sales Operations and other teams on privacy data AI and cybersecurity topics using playbooks guidance and office-hours to make it easy to "do the right thing by default."

• U.S. legal qualification (or foreign equivalent) and active license to practice in at least one US jurisdiction.
• 8 years of experience in an in-house legal department and/or in private practice advising on technology data and privacy issues related to technical platforms and products.
• Strong knowledge of US federal and state privacy and data-security laws (such as CCPA/CPRA and GLBA/Reg P) and how they intersect with payments and broader financial-services regulation plus working knowledge of GDPR and Canadian/South American privacy requirements (such as LGPD).
• Experience providing guidance on US related privacy adtech requirements and technologies including varying consent frameworks under US state privacy laws and operationalizing consent management requirements.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with technical teams (Product Engineering Information Security) to translate legal and regulatory requirements into practical technical designs controls and processes.
• Demonstrated experience advising on emerging US and global AI legal requirements and AI-governance best practices and experience advising on AI/ML tools vendors or products from a privacy and data-protection perspective.
• Experience providing data and privacy legal support during security or privacy incidents including incident assessment notification analysis and remediation planning.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex legal concepts to non-lawyers and senior executives and to drive clear decisions in ambiguous time-sensitive situations.
• High degree of ownership resilience and pragmatism; comfortable working in a fast-paced high-growth fintech environment and managing multiple complex matters in parallel.

• Experience advising on data privacy AI and cybersecurity issues in financial services payments or fintech including US financial-privacy rules and national-security-adjacent data-access considerations.
• Experience interacting with regulators (privacy regulators financial regulators or other authorities) on privacy cybersecurity AI or data-access issues whether in supervisory licensing or enforcement contexts.
• Experience contributing to or leading elements of a global privacy program (such as acting as or supporting a DPO-style function or building regional privacy frameworks and playbooks).
• Relevant privacy and/or AI certifications (e.g. CIPP/US CIPP/E CIPM AIGP) or demonstrably equivalent experience in global privacy program design and execution.
• Prior in-house experience at a rapidly scaling tech or fintech company and working with globally distributed teams across time zones.

What We Do

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software we empower over 200000 businesses worldwide – including Brex Rippling Navan Qantas SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts payments spend management and treasury to embedded finance at a global scale. Proudly founded in Melbourne we have a team of over 2000 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price Visa Mastercard Robinhood Ventures Sequoia Salesforce Ventures DST Global and Lone Pine Capital Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career join us.

Why Work With Us

Airwallex was founded by people told their idea was unreasonable and we've hired that way ever since. We move fast think globally and give you ownership from day one. If you want to pioneer global finance at scale alongside the ambitious let's talk.

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